Indian Interests

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chetak
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Posts: 32283
Joined: 16 May 2008 12:00

Re: Indian Interests

Post by chetak »

You can click on any of the scandal below to go to the original story
of the scandal.published/listed ..in wikipedia..
2012

- President of India's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_India land
grab scandal - President of
India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_India
Pratibha Patil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratibha_Patil allegedly
grabbed 2,61,000 sq ft of defence land in Khadki Cantonment, Pune and built
a home on it
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-0
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-1
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-2
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-3
- Coal Mining Scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Mining_Scam -
Central government lost [image: INR]1,070,000
crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 213.47 billion) by
not Auctioning Coal Blocks says
CAG's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptrolle ... l_of_India
110
page draft report
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-4
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-5
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-6
- Karnataka Wakf Board Land
Scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnataka_ ... _Land_Scam
- [image: INR]200,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 39.9
billion)[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-7
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-8
- Andhra Pradesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh land scam
- [image: INR]100,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 19.95
billion)[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... ite_note-9
- Service Tax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_i ... ervice_tax
and Central Excise
Duty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Excise_%28India%29 fraud
- [image: INR]19,159 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 3.82
billion) crore)[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-10
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-11
- Gujarat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujarat
PSU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government ... orporation
financial
irregularities - [image: INR]17,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 3.39 billion)
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-12
[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-13
- Maharashtra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra stamp
duty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_duty scam
- [image: INR]640 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 127.68
million)[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-14
[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-15
- Highway scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_H ... troversies
- [image: INR]70 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 13.97
million) [17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-16
[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-17
[19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-18
- Ministry of External
Affairs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_o ... 28India%29
gift
scam[20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-19
[21] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-20
[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-21
- Himachal Pradesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himachal_Pradesh pulse
scam[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-22
[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-23
- Flying Club fraud - [image: INR]190
crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 37.91 million)
[25] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-24
- Andhra Pradesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh liquor
scam[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-25
[27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-26
- Jammu and Kashmir Cricket
Association http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_%26_ ... ssociation
scam
- Approximately [image: INR]50 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 9.98 million)
[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-27
[29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-28
- Jammu and Kashmir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir PHE
scam[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-29
- Jammu and Kashmir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir recruitment
scam[31] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-30
- Jammu and Kashmir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir
examgate[32] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-31
[33] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-32
- Jammu and Kashmir http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir dental
scam[34] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-33
- Punjab http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab,_India
paddy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_field scam
- [image: INR]18 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 3.59
million)[35] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-34
[36] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-35
- NHPC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHPC_Limited cement
scam[37] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-36
- Girivan (Pune) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girivan land scam
[38] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-37
*(not to be confused with Pune land scam which came to light during
2011)*

[edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... &section=3
]2011

- Uttar Pradesh NRHM
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh_NRHM_scam
- [image: INR]10,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 2
billion)[39] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-38
[40] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-39
[41] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-40
[42] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-41
[43] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-42
- ISRO's S-band
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Madhava ... Devas_Scam
(also
known as ISRO-Devas deal, the deal was later called off) - [image: INR]
200,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 39.9
billion) [44] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-43
[45] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-44
[46] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-45
[47] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-46
- KG Basin Oil
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Go ... Industries
[48] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-47
[49] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-48
[50] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-49
[51] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-50
[52] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-51
- Goa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa mining
scam[53] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-52
[54] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-53
- Bellary mining
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_mi ... ember_2008
- Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara
Palike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruhat_Ben ... ara_Palike
scam
- [image: INR]3,207 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 639.8
million)[55] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-54
[56] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-55
[57] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-56
[58] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-57
- Himachal Pradesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himachal_Pradesh HIMUDA
housing scam[59] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-58
[60] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-59
- Pune http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pune housing scam
[61] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-60
- Pune http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pune land scam
[62] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-61
[63] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-62
- Orissa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orissa pulse scam - [image: INR]
700 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 139.65
million)[64] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-63
[65] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-64
[66] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-65
[67] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-66
- Kerala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala investment scam - [image:
INR]1,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 199.5
million)[68] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-67
- Maharashtra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra education scam
- [image: INR]1,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 199.5
million)[69] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-68
[70] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-69
- Mumbai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai Sales
Tax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_Tax fraud
- [image: INR]1,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 199.5
million)[71] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-70
- Uttar Pradesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh TET
scam[72] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-71
[73] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-72
[74] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-73
- Uttar Pradesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh
MGNREGA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Ga ... rantee_Act
scam[75] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-74
- Orissa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orissa
MGNREGA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Ga ... rantee_Act
scam[76] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-75
[77] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-76
[78] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-77
- Indian Air Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Air_Force land
scam[79] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-78
[80] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-79
[81] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-80
- Tatra scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_%28c ... llegations
- [image: INR]750 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 149.63
million)[82] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-81
- Bihar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bihar Solar
lamp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_lamp scam
- [image: INR]40 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 7.98
million)[83] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-82
[84] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-83
- BL Kashyap - EPFO scam - [image: INR]169
crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 33.72 million)
[85] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-84
[86] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-85
- Stamp Paper scam (*not to be confused with Abdul Karim Telgi's Stamp
Paper scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Kari ... ing_career
*) - [image: INR]2.34 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar
466,830)[87] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-86

[edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... &section=4
]2010

- 2G spectrum scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G_spectrum_scam - In
the audit report,
CAG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptrolle ... l_of_India
puts
the loss at [image: INR]176,000 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 35.11 billion)
[88] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-87
whereas CBI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bu ... estigation
pegs
the loss at [image: INR]30,984 crore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crore
(US$ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar 6.18 billion)
[89] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sc ... te_note-88
- Adarsh Housing Society
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adarsh_Hou ... ety_Mumbai
- Commonwealth Games
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Games_scam
- Uttar Pradesh food grain
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Prad ... grain_scam
- LIC housing loan
scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_housi ... m_in_India
- Belekeri port scam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belekeri_port_scam
- Andhra Pradesh
Prem
BRF Oldie
Posts: 21233
Joined: 01 Jul 1999 11:31
Location: Weighing and Waiting 8T Yconomy

Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

Raghu Dixit: Indian music with a western twist
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17720101
Raghu Dixit is from a traditional family in southern India where western music was virtually unknown, and did not pick up a guitar till he was nearly 20. But his unique combination of traditional Indian sounds mixed with western influences has brought him firmly into the spotlight and he was a huge hit at last year's Glastonbury festival. He visited the Andrew Marr Show to perform Waiting for a Miracle.
(Watch the Colorful Lungi )
Aditya_V
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14332
Joined: 05 Apr 2006 16:25

Re: Indian Interests

Post by Aditya_V »

Do you think we should hand over the policy making of an entire state to US based corporates in this manner?

US corporates preparing 'agenda for progress' for UP
Altair
BRF Oldie
Posts: 2620
Joined: 30 Dec 2009 12:51
Location: Hovering over Pak Airspace in AWACS

Re: Indian Interests

Post by Altair »

Aditya_V wrote:Do you think we should hand over the policy making of an entire state to US based corporates in this manner?

US corporates preparing 'agenda for progress' for UP
American corporates in UP? :rotfl:
Nihat
BRFite
Posts: 1330
Joined: 10 Dec 2008 13:35

Re: Indian Interests

Post by Nihat »

All hot air , who is going to bother with UP without basic infra or does Akhilesh expect Americans to build that too. Nitish Kumar has been at pains in Bihar to build roads, power plants, establish law and order and still struggles for FDI but SP expects Western money to just flow into the cowshed without any effort on their part.
svinayak
BRF Oldie
Posts: 14223
Joined: 09 Feb 1999 12:31

Re: Indian Interests

Post by svinayak »

Sahara group is trying to buy a hotel property in New York.
Prem
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Posts: 21233
Joined: 01 Jul 1999 11:31
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

http://indrus.in/articles/2012/04/17/ru ... 15494.html
Russia as a “third force” in the strategic confrontation between India and China
The summit of the informal network of rising centers of global power known by the acronym BRICS held in New Delhi from March 28-29 gave politicians and experts greater confidence in the organization’s long-term geopolitical viability. BRICS was based on the affinity the economies of its member states have for one another, and that gave rise to doubts about its future, particularly its ability to represent the positions of its five countries on a consolidated basis. In addition, BRICS’s foreign policy component lags far behind its economic activities, something that all of its members recognize. The informality of BRICS also shows up in the way it is organized.The BRICS summit in India highlighted Russia in terms of the organization’s ability to consolidate international positions in order to create a meaningful counterweight to the West, which has the United States at its forefront.BRICS is facing numerous objective and subjective difficulties en route to becoming a completed geopolitical project. The continuing strategic distrust between China and India is among the foremost obstacles. Beijing and New Delhi have not overcome their mutual suspicions. On the contrary, they grow more suspicious of one another with each passing year. The autumn of 1962 can be considered the point at which their antagonism began growing. That was when a territorial war broke out between the two giants of South and East Asia and ended with the Chinese winning a positional victory. This situation has changed little in the 60 years since the war.
The opponency between the two countries has had both positive and negative aspects for other global actors that would like to have closer relations equally with both India and China. It is not difficult to see that Washington derives most of the benefit from the strategic Indo-Chinese confrontation. The United States is improving its relations with India and is putting China on the defensive, as a country under threat of a naval blockade of all of its vital lines of communication. The threat to China’s marine and land access to the Middle East through India is increasingly more vividly apparent in China’s recent vulnerability to the United States and its Asia-Pacific allies in the South China and East China seas..The situation between India and China is predominantly negative for Russia, but it appears that Moscow can also derive strategic benefits from the Indo-Chinese conflict. The Indians and the Chinese are almost equally in need of a so-called “third force” that would function, if not as an arbiter between them, at least as a global power which, by its very presence and smooth relations with both states, would contribute to regional balance and stability. A simple analysis shows that Russia is in fact the only actor that can claim to be that so-called “third force.”Statements by Russia’s president at the BRICS summit in India show that Moscow wants to pursue a consistent policy of improving relations between India and China. Medvedev said that “our strategic goal would be to gradually transform BRICS into a full-fledged mechanism for cooperation on the major issues of global economics and politics,” and “this modernization will be based on a concept that we arrive at together.” Those words effectively transferred the foreign policy baton to Russia’s new head of state.
Thus, all three of Eurasia’s major powers — which are members of BRICS and encompass 40% of the world’s population, 20% of the global economy and 15% of world trade — need a joint foreign policy concept, through which the association can become a geopolitically complete project. And Russia is the “third force” that can bring the Indo-Chinese strategic conflict into balance.
partha
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Posts: 4483
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by partha »

From Shri APJ Abdul Kalam's FB page:
Was going for night stroll in Allahabad circuit house at ten... Got two surprise guests...rural innovators from village choti bhamai district phoolpur. They were contract workers who have designed a prototype of a unique railway track joint... They explained to me how their model could be more tamper proof and give comfortable ride without the "khat khat"... Amazing to see village innovators are bringing answers to our problems... Will take this up with nif and railway board
Image
abhishek_sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by abhishek_sharma »

Views from the Right
End Modi-baiting

Both RSS journals, the Organiser and the Panchjanya, have focussed on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, projecting the SIT’s verdict on the communal riots that followed the Godhra incident as a big boost for him.

The Panchjanya editorial says that the conclusion of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court and headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghavan, that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his administration could not be charged, is a slap on the face of those who had campaigned against him for the last 10 years. The 5000-page report has, therefore, recommended the closure of the investigations, says the Panchjanya. It claims that Modi-baiters like Teesta Setalwad even attempted to influence witnesses and prop up false witnesses. It is time to end this negative campaign against Modi, who has continued to selflessly serve Gujarat with his good governance, says the editorial. The Organiser also carries a full-page article praising this “clean chit” to Modi. It maintains that he played an “exemplary role” during the riots and “performed his rajdharma like no other leader of state in independent India.”

Water for all

an Organiser editorial has raised concerns over a tilt towards privatisation in the Draft Water Policy 2012 recently unveiled by the UPA. Charging the government with making a veiled reference to the idea in the draft water policy as well as at the India Water Week held last week, the RSS says that placing this resource in private hands would be disastrous. “Water, unlike minerals and spectrum, is not merely a national resource: it is an essential requirement for life. A divine gift. Giving control of it, even partly into private hands, would create havoc,” the Organiser said.

“The draft policy, as some social activists have pointed out, clearly favours privatisation. It advocates the withdrawal of the government from the role of ‘service provider’ and gradually shift [sic] to being a mere facilitator, leaving the field open for ‘citizens and/or private’ players. This is nothing different from the IMF-World Bank sponsored ideology of commercialising water. The draft policy wants water to be treated as an ‘economic good... priced to promote efficient use and maximising value’, which when translated means that water would be a commodity which can be bought by those who have the means,” the editorial says.

It points out that the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in 1998 gave away a 23-kilometre stretch of the Sheonath river to a company called Radius Water Ltd (RWL) to build a dam and reservoir to supply water to the Borai industrial estate. “The local population has ever since lost access to water in the river in that stretch. This happened when Digvijaya Singh was chief minister. What a sham it is. Privatisation of water has been introduced in various other pockets in India on an experimental basis. If they had their way, politicians are capable of selling away everything,” says the Organiser. It contends that if this policy is adopted, it will “shove millions of farmers in the country further into a vortex of poverty, where agriculture will no longer be a viable livelihood”.

No FDI from Pakistan

A “special focus” article in the Organiser has voiced concern over recent reports that the government intends to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan (so far prohibited under FEMA rules). It says that such a decision would be “seriously flawed and would pose formidable challenge to the internal and external security of the country” and that it would prove to be “an altogether myopic misadventure”.

The article contends that there will no reciprocation from Pakistan, which has neither has the requisite funds to invest, nor technology to bring to India. It claims that Pakistan will use the FDI route to fund ISI activities, organise separatist movements and terrorist training camps. “Moreover, Pakistan would attempt to spy, abet terrorism and carry home dual-use sensitive technology by establishing workstations to hire Indian scientists for all its ostensible and clandestine motives,” claims the article.
abhishek_sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by abhishek_sharma »

Strange Logic
Strange Logic

Arvind Kejriwal’s reply to the notice served by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh — for defaming parliamentarians — is along expected lines. The RTI activist has refused to apologise for his comments. What’s new is his invocation of Virbhadra Singh’s descent from the royal family of Bushahar to make the point that it is not fitting of a man with “royal blood” in his veins to try to “gag the voice of the people by serving legal notices”. Seems to be an interesting take from a self-appointed guardian of democracy.
shiv
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by shiv »

abhishek_sharma wrote:Strange Logic
Strange Logic

Arvind Kejriwal’s reply to the notice served by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh — for defaming parliamentarians — is along expected lines. The RTI activist has refused to apologise for his comments. What’s new is his invocation of Virbhadra Singh’s descent from the royal family of Bushahar to make the point that it is not fitting of a man with “royal blood” in his veins to try to “gag the voice of the people by serving legal notices”. Seems to be an interesting take from a self-appointed guardian of democracy.
It's an insult and a challenge thrown into one. You can expect influential "Royal Blood" to try and influence court verdicts - and Kejriwal is "making that point" even before anything happens.
nvishal
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by nvishal »

India and Neighbouring countries: China Card Doesn’t Pay

Good article. Though the author is thinking liking like a noob because he wants to bring bangladesh, pakistan and srilanka away from chinese influence. That's useless civvie talk.

The point is to let china "use" these three nations. This will at least stagnant their progress if not destabilize them. Pakistan does it to itself without indias help. BD has to switch regimes to khaleda zia for it to happen. And tamil nadu will make sure that SL invites china on its soil.

However, Nepal deserves to receive indian influence even though its leaders think they can play geopolitics(the one against the other game). Bhutan is too smart and hence remains neutral in this game.

Indians(several on brf itself) need to come out of their "seva' mentality and really play the game to win.
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by gunjur »

Apologies if posted already
'Give and take' necessary to solve Indo-China border dispute, says former Army Chief JJ Singh
Former Army Chief and the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, General JJ Singh, has said that India should do away with its non-negotiable stand on the border dispute with China.
The General said, "It is important to solve the India-China border dispute and for that some give and take is necessary.
When someone like a former army chief says this, it's really :( :( :( . Is india being really pushed that much to give away land, that stage is being set from govt itself (as he is also a governor).
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Jarita »

^^^ This government is really scummy - none of their actions are nationalist
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by arun »

X Posted from the India-EU News and Analysis thread.

Congress Party led UPA administration of Dr. Manmohan Singh has the Additional Solicitor General state in the Supreme Court that the Congress party led Kerala State Government has no jurisdiction to try the Enrica Lexie case as the killing of the Indian fisherman is said to have taken place in international waters.

The Congress party member Minister of External Affairs claims he knows nothing of the stand taken by his own Government.

Has the Italian “hand’ trumped over the death of a Catholic fisherman by borrowing the concept of blood money from our western neighbours, the Islamic republic of Pakistan:

Kerala can't act in Italian marines case, says Centre; Supreme Court slams stand
abhishek_sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by abhishek_sharma »

The Censor Bench: Arun Jaitley

Twitter trail
While the Prime Minister’s Twitter page has understandably attracted thousands of followers since its debut in January, the person handling the account is careful about who the PMO is seen to be following. There are just 11 Twitter accounts that the PMO currently follows. Not surprisingly, this list includes the White House, the UK Prime Minister and the Russian President. The PMO also follows global multinational forums like the World Bank, UN, WHO, UNICEF and the African Union. Only two Indian entities make it to this select list — one is the official handle of the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs and the other that of Sam Pitroda, an advisor to the PM on information infrastructure and innovations. Incidentally, Pitroda is not even very active on the site. His last post was on March 30!
abhishek_sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by abhishek_sharma »

Did Kishorilal Goswami write in Bengali? His views on Muslims/Islam (in Hindi literature) have caused some takleef to p-secs.
harbans
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by harbans »

Amazingly candid TOI blog from Minhaz Merchant:

Sham Secularism
harbans
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by harbans »

Congress Party led UPA administration of Dr. Manmohan Singh has the Additional Solicitor General state in the Supreme Court that the Congress party led Kerala State Government has no jurisdiction to try the Enrica Lexie case as the killing of the Indian fisherman is said to have taken place in international waters.

This is plain wrong! Please note India has complete legal jurisdiction till 24 Nautical miles from the coast not 12.

The next territorial boundary marks the State's potential contiguous zone, which extends 24 miles offshore. Within this zone, a coastal state can stop and inspect vessels and act to punish (or prevent) violations of its laws within its territory or territorial waters. The contiguous zone solves a vexing problem.
Even on the high seas, a foreign flag vessel isn't completely exempt from the jurisdiction of other States--vessels are subject to ''visit'' and arrest under certain circumstances. LOSC also provides a right of hot pursuit. According to Article 111,
The hot pursuit of a foreign ship may be undertaken when the competent authorities of the coastal State have good reason to believe that the ship has violated the laws and regulations of that State. Such pursuit must be commenced when the foreign ship or one of its boats is within the internal waters, the archipelagic waters, the territorial sea or the contiguous zone of the pursuing State, and may only be continued outside the territorial sea or the contiguous zone if the pursuit has not been interrupted.
Even if none of these exceptions apply, U.S. courts have held that arrest in violation of international law doesn't necessarily bar prosecution. For example, in United States v. Postal, the defendants were U.S. nationals arrested on board a vessel registered in the Grand Cayman Islands, 16 miles from shore (which at the time was the high seas). The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that though the arrest violated the Convention on the High Seas (1958), the treaty violation didn't impair the court's jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit followed suit in 2002. So on the high seas not only are you not beyond the reach of any nation, sometimes you're with the reach of two.
These below define India's contiguous zone as extending to 24 Nm..

5. (1) The contiguous zone of India (hereinafter referred to as the contiguous zone) is and area beyond and adjacent to the territorial waters and the limit of the contiguous zone is the line every point of which is at a distance of twenty-four nautical miles from the nearest point of the baseline referred to in sub-section (2) of section 3.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the Central Government may, whenever it considers necessary so to do having regard to International Law and State practice, alter, by notification in the Official Gazette, the limit of the contiguous zone.
http://mea.gov.in/mystart.php?id=500412023

1. So even if the ship is outside Indian territorial waters, it at 22 Nm is inside it's contiguous zone.

2. Even if the Ship is outside Indian contiguous zon (24 Nm), India reserves the right to hot pursuit, till the ship enters another countrie's territorial waters or contiguous zone.

3. Indian courts have to right to jurisdicate as the killings have technically taken place on Indian soil.
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

Extracts From The Neem Tree May Stop HIV From Multiplying
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244439.php
Now an assistant professor at Kean University in New Jersey, Arora is delving into understanding the curative properties of the neem tree in fighting the virus that causes AIDS. She presented her data at a poster sessio at the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting in San Diego. Her preliminary results seem to indicate that there are compounds in neem extracts that target a protein essential for HIV to replicate. If further studies support her findings, Arora's work may give clinicians and drug developers a new HIV-AIDS therapy to pursue.
Extracts from neem leaves, bark and flowers are used throughout the Indian subcontinent to fight against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. "The farther you go into the villages of India, the more uses of neem you see," says Arora. Tree branches are used instead of toothpaste and toothbrushes to keep teeth and gums healthy, and neem extracts are used to control the spread of malaria. Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine, a form of traditional Indian alternative medicine, even prescribe neem extracts, in combination with other herbs, to treat cardiovascular diseases and control diabetes. The neem tree, whose species name is Azadirachta indica and which belongs to the mahogany family, also grows in east Africa,Arora dived into the scientific literature to see what was known about neem extracts. During the course of her reading, Arora stumbled across two reports that showed that when HIV-AIDS patients in Nigeria and India were given neem extracts, the amount of HIV particles in their blood dropped. Intrigued, Arora decided to see if she could figure out what was in the neem extract that seemed to fight off the virus.
She turned to bioinformatics and structural biology to see what insights could be gleaned from making computer models of HIV proteins with compounds known to be in neem extracts. From the literature, she and her students found 20 compounds present in various types of neem extracts. When they modeled these compounds against the proteins critical for the HIV life-cycle, Arora and her team discovered that most of the neem compounds attacked the HIV protease, a protein essential for making new copies of the virus. Arora dived into the scientific literature to see what was known about neem extracts. During the course of her reading, Arora stumbled across two reports that showed that when HIV-AIDS patients in Nigeria and India were given neem extracts, the amount of HIV particles in their blood dropped. Intrigued, Arora decided to see if she could figure out what was in the neem extract that seemed to fight off the virus.
She turned to bioinformatics and structural biology to see what insights could be gleaned from making computer models of HIV proteins with compounds known to be in neem extracts. From the literature, she and her students found 20 compounds present in various types of neem extracts. When they modeled these compounds against the proteins critical for the HIV life-cycle, Arora and her team discovered that most of the neem compounds attacked the HIV protease, a protein essential for making new copies of the virus.
abhishek_sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by abhishek_sharma »

Views from the Right
Muslim Appeasement

The RSS journal Organiser has come down on the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh in its lead editorial, charging it with promoting a communal agenda for narrow political gain.

Reacting to the UP chief minister’s recent remarks that “innocent” Muslim youth in jails would be released, the RSS has called it “a dangerous move”. It argues that the “announcement to release terror suspects assumes an alarming significance. It amounts to giving a veiled warning to the police to think several times before arresting Muslims. The investigating agencies would come under tremendous pressure because they would be working with the pressure of a goad on their ribs”.

The Organiser also charges Akhilesh with pandering to Muslim leaders in appointing Zafaryab Jilani, the face of the Babri Masjid Action Committee and vocal advocate of the Muslim personal law board, as additional advocate general. It asks about possible reactions if the lawyers representing the other side in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case were appointed to high judicial positions. “The UP government can fast-track cases, appoint extra courts to deal with long pending cases and complete the process. Those who falsely implicate innocents should be punished also. But the way one goes about it must be transparent and must instill the confidence of the people in the government and the courts. By making political announcements on releasing people in jail, only on the basis of religion, Akhilesh Yadav is giving a licence to the people of one community to do what they want,” it says.

Right To Equality?

An article in the Organiser by Ram Madhav, former RSS spokesperson and now a member of the organisation’s central executive, criticised the Supreme Court decision to exempt unaided minority educational institutions from providing 25 per cent seats to the children of SC, ST and other underprivileged sections of society under the Right to Education Act.

Contending that the court’s decision to invoke Article 29 and 30, which upholds the educational and cultural rights of minorities, must be challenged, Madhav maintains that the court should have instead said that unaided minority institutions should provide 25 per cent seats to the poor and underprivileged among the minorities.

“It is a sad commentary that the Supreme Court lets them off the hook when it comes to providing basic education to the poor and underprivileged children of their communities. It is well known that many of the most expensive schools in our country are minority-run schools. It is also well known that they provide education not only to the people of their community but those of the rich families of the majority whocan afford the astronomical fee,” charges Madhav.

The move, he says, also brings up the “insensitivity and irresponsibility” of the minority institutions to the fore.

Firing Agni

Hailing the successful launch of Agni V, the Panchajanya has said that India has provided a strategic cover to its national security by the move. It adds that, with its capability to hit 5000 km from anywhere in India, the country has replied to China’s strategic gameplan. “What is an even bigger achievement is the fact that 80 per cent of the Agni V technology is indigenous. The foundations for rocket propulsion technology (were) laid by missile man A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the Agni V launch is a milestone in that direction,” it said.

Underlining the threat to the country’s security and unity from Pakistan and China, Panchjanya maintains that India has to hasten and strengthen its defence preparedness. Contending that the recent controversy over the shortage of ammunition and weapon systems was unfortunate, it says that the country should prioritise self-sufficiency and develop indigenous systems.

Compiled by Swaraj Thapa
abhishek_sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by abhishek_sharma »

Facing heat, scholar drops Rushdie study
Following protests from Darul Uloom Deoband and other Islamic organisations, a research scholar at Meerut’s Chaudhary Charan Singh University has requested the UGC to change the topic of her post-doctoral research into ‘Use of magic realism in the major novels of Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth’.
From the Urdu Press
KAUN BANEGA RASHTRAPATI?

Stating that in the upcoming presidential election, there are positive indications of an important role to be played by regional political parties, Hyderabad-based daily Munsif, in its editorial on April 23, writes: “As the regional parties, and neither of the two national parties, have emerged stronger in the recent assembly elections, most political observers feel that it would not be surprising if, in the next parliamentary elections, a new alliance, excluding the Congress and the BJP, comes to power. All regional leaders... are searching their own options in this very alliance.”

Regarding the possibilities of success for a United Democratic Alliance ruling at the Centre, the paper writes: “In every hour of crisis, rather unexpectedly, the SP too, along with the BSP, has supported the Manmohan Singh government. But some bitterness was seen between the Congress and the SP during the campaign for the recent elections. Now the bitterness is not as it was, but political ambitions are there on both sides, and a clash... is natural.”

From among the names of possible candidates for the elections, the Delhi-based weekly Nai Duniya, edited by Shahid Siddiqui who is now with the SP, in its April 23 issue says that the most plausible Congress-sponsored candidate would be Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The paper writes: “Like... the Left parties’... played a very important role in the election of Pratibha Patil, this time the support of Mamata Banerjee can easily be obtained for Mukherjee — a Bengali — and this support would prove decisive. In fact, senior leaders of the BJP have been speaking words of praise for Mukherjee”.

The daily Rahnuma-e-Deccan, published from Hyderabad, in its editorial on April 16 spoke of international lobbies interested in the elections: “Even the US is not hesitating in openly demonstrating interference in our internal affairs. Its interference is not something hidden and it brings out the reality of our independence and autonomy. Its undersecretary of state, Wendy Sherman and acting ambassador, Peter Bourlag, have met senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and discussed this matter.”

THE SINGHVI CD

Talking about the CD circulating on social media, allegedly showing Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Rashtriya Sahara, in its editorial on April 25, writes: “It was because of the legal acumen of Singhvi that the Congress party had appointed him as its spokesman. And, undoubtedly, he had laudably pleaded the party’s case in many matters. But, it is ironic (sitam zareefi) that he could not plead his own case in a manner that could get him acquitted respectably.”

The paper adds: “Even if his plea that the content of the CD is a strictly private affair — though he has expectedly claimed that it is fabricated — is accepted, being a Brahmin [sic], he must be knowing that, according to the shastras, the demeanour and character of the king also affects the subjects... Singhvi has lost his honourable image. If he had not lost it, he would not have had to resign from his position”.

The paper has also described the BJP’s strong attitude to this matter, as “laughable.” It has cited an identical incident involving a senior BJP and RSS leader, Sanjay Joshi, who was given important positions in the party after a brief period of isolation.

LAW CONCLAVE

According to a prominently displayed report in Rashtriya Sahara (April 23), as well as in most other papers, the president of the All-India Muslim personal law board, Maulana Rabey-ul-Hasani Nadwi, said that the “government’s interference in Muslim personal law is intolerable”. He was speaking at the end of the three-day, 22nd session of the board in Mumbai.

According to the report, Nadwi said: “The very identity of this country is that it has people believing in different religions and unity in diversity is its real beauty. The government’s interference in the Muslims’ personal law is intolerable.” The report also said that the board adopted resolutions on some important issues.

Compiled by Seema Chishti
nawabs
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by nawabs »

What this politics portends
The failure to challenge Congress party’s ideology can convert this crisis in governance into a crisis of governability

http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/2012 ... -portends/
It may be two years too early to judge the legacy of the UPA government but the signs aren’t encouraging: a host of corruption scandals, misgovernance and an economy in decline is what this government will be remembered for. For a coalition that renewed its mandate in 2009 with much hope, the decline has been spectacular. Political explanations exist abound for the ineptitude of the Congress party-led government but they won’t alter the consequences of the current declivity.

The unravelling of the UPA government has been both swift and spectacular. The Prime Minister’s office seems to be in perpetual fire-fighting mode, dousing one crisis after another. The weakness of the government has emboldened other institutions to encroach upon the functions of the executive. The judiciary, the CAG and the armed forces, among others, have moved in to fill in the governance vacuum. The political space has also been ceded to non-state institutions, notably the media and the civil society. The parliament, from which the political executive draws its power, also stands diminished in the process. In fact, institutional relationships have been badly mangled in the last three years, upsetting the long-established system of checks and balances.

The change in the UPA government’s attitude can be linked to its mishandling of the Anna Hazare movement. Before the Anna Hazare movement last year, the UPA government seemed disdainful of the media and contrarian voices. A ham-handed response to Anna Hazare’s public fast, resulting in government’s public capitulation has seen the UPA lose its nous. Rather than shape and guide public opinion, government policies are now being formulated to satisfy the clamour in the media. As the recent incident of child custody in Norway shows, government policy is being dictated by media reports and opinion pieces — often emotional and obtuse — than by national interest or strategic vision.

With the union government’s vulnerability out in the open, the state governments have moved in to grab their pound of flesh. The buzz of the season is the assertion of power by regional satraps. The central government has been forced to back down on a number of important legislations, policies and diplomatic positions as a consequence of strident and debilitating pressure from regional parties. The opposition-ruled states may be opposing union government’s policies for political reasons but the regional allies of the Congress party have been the real culprits. Mamata Banerjee’s opposition has already led to reversal of decisions to increase FDI in multi-brand retail and to hike passenger train fares. The opposition of the allies is not limited to domestic policy. It has already encroached the domain of foreign policy. While DMK’s insistence led to India voting against Sri Lanka on a UNHRC resolution, Ms Banerjee’s opposition to the Teesta water treaty has created problems for India-Bangladesh relations.

Of course, a lot of UPA government’s weaknesses can be attributed to the problems of running a coalition government. Other coalition governments in the past have also had their share of embarrassments — frequent entreaties to Jayalalitha by senior BJP ministers and sacking of power minister, Suresh Prabhu at Shiv Sena’s insistence in the NDA government, easily come to mind. But those were sporadic incidents, few and far in between. Nothing comes close to the consistent display of weakness and political ineptitude by the Congress party in the UPA dispensation.

This is, however, not the first weak coalition government that India has had. India has perhaps had weaker coalition governments earlier, especially those of the Third Front. But those governments, which ruled India for a few months at different times, were not headed by a national party; the Third Front was always a motley group of regional parties propped up by others from the outside. This is the first time in independent India’s history that the union government led by a national party has capitulated in front of the smaller parties. With India destined to be governed by coalitions in the foreseeable future, the consequences of this capitulation by the Congress party will be long-lasting: the crisis of governance could end up as the crisis of governability. The decline, delay and corrosion in governance has led to a lack of trust among institutions, individuals and parties. This lack of trust means that political blackmail, even at a cost of national interest, is now an acceptable norm in the system. It would need a bold and visionary political leader to regenerate that trust and put governance back on track.

If the Congress party evidently lacks such political leadership, the main opposition party, the BJP is no better. Since its loss in 2004 parliamentary elections, BJP has failed to present itself as a viable alternative to the Congress at the centre. It will be no surprise if the next general election produces a scenario where the three major political groupings — the Congress, the BJP and the Left — do not together add up to 272 seats in the Lok Sabha. The next government will then be a coalition of regional aspirations with national parties left to playing second fiddle. A union government solely at the mercy of the regional satraps is bound to leave the India story in a state of interminable decline.

Election results are hard to predict and it is possible that some of this damage may be reversed by a bold leader surprisingly thrown up after the next elections. But what no leader will be able to reverse is the narrative created since 2004 by the Congress party, aided in no small measure by the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi. The victory in 2004 elections on the Aam Aadmi slogan and the re-election in 2009 on the basis of successful social expenditure schemes like the MGNREGA has shifted the mainstream political narrative to the Left. Inclusive Growth has been accepted as a gospel and no party in India opposes redistribution schemes like the MGNREGA or the proposed Right to Food. Across the political spectrum, there is vocal opposition to increase foreign direct investment, do away with subsidies, to privatise the public sector or to reform the power sector. All parties are united in their opposition to police reforms and labour reforms. Economic reforms is a dirty phrase with most of India’s politicians, bureaucrats and opinion makers.

This is the most damaging legacy of the Congress-led UPA government — of moving the complete political ideology in India towards the Left. If an ideological reversal has to happen after the next elections, political parties or leaders have to now start taking positions which go against the current government’s policies. Unfortunately, no such leader or party is visible on the horizon today. When the disagreements are only about the methods and not the ways and goals of the UPA government’s policies, there is little hope for a substantive change from the next government in Delhi. Ironically, UPA’s biggest success is that its ideological beliefs have been embraced by all its political opponents. It is another matter that in that success lie the seeds of India’s failure.
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Kashi »

Posting in full..

Why I Gave Up On 'Social Activism'

By Yoginder Sikand

19 April, 2012
Just the other day, Raja, a dear friend of mine from Kashmir, forwarded me a wonderful anecdote. It isn't often, I have to confess, that he does such things. Most often, his postings are drab and mournful and monotonously predictable: reports about hordes of Kashmiris taking to the streets in yet another demonstration demanding 'freedom from Indian oppression'; an interview with a Muslim cleric pontificating on some esoteric or controversial subject or the other; news about rival sets of Muslims squabbling among themselves, as they always have, and will always do, over the 'true' meaning of their faith; a story about the latest demented outpourings of a noted Hindutva ideologue--subjects that no longer interest me in the least, I have to say, although they once did.

But the anecdote that he sent me this time was truly a precious gem. It neatly summarised, in a manner I never could have done myself, much of what I've been thinking about these last couple of months, ever since I won for myself the luxury of no longer having to slog for a living against my will. It was the story of a wise man who, in his youth, spent hours every day tearfully entreating God to radically transform the whole world and turn it upside down into a veritable paradise so that all the problems that people face would finally and firmly end. But the man's youthful enthusiasm for this global 'Revolution' doesn't last long, and once he gets married and sires children his prayers become less ambitious in their scope. He now prays simply for the transformation of his wife and children so that they begin to think and act as he thinks they should. He spends years beseeching God for this to happen--in vain, of course--till he arrives at old age and knows that he is about to die. Thereupon, he turns to God in repentance and says, 'I've spent my whole life asking You to change others for the better, but I've never thought of asking You to help me change--into a good and loving person. Please, Lord, now let at least that happen!'

This delightful anecdote neatly sums up the story of my life till now, and that is why I found it so endearing. Ever since I left home, at the age of eighteen, I've been desperately trying to change the world, as a self-appointed missionary of the 'Revolution'. I began identifying with communities in India that saw themselves as 'oppressed', and took it upon myself to champion their 'cause'. How desperately I craved to be recognised as one among them! That is how I became what is called a 'social activist', and began writing mainly about Muslims, but also about Adivasis and Dalits and other such 'marginalised groups', attending their conferences and participating in their protest demonstrations, and even churning out ponderous tomes about them, all of which further reinforced my belief that I was indeed a seriously committed do-gooder.

For two whole decades, writing on such 'marginalised groups' and their 'problems'--many of them real, others imaginary and yet many others self-created--and participating in the 'struggle' against 'caste/class oppression', 'gender injustice' and 'imperialism' was almost my sole occupation. In these many years, I must have written well over a thousand articles that, in my eyes, championed the cause of the 'oppressed' and of the 'Revolution'. Hardly a week passed without my churning out a piece or two on the subject. 'It's my way of contributing to the Revolution,' I would tell myself, seriously believing that my writings were making a major difference to 'The Cause'. Only I know what smug satisfaction this gave me! I know you'll find it absurd but I even began to imagine that if I ceased writing on the issues that I so sincerely obsessed about, it would make a major dent in prospects for the 'Revolution' to ever arrive!

All that energy and enthusiasm that went into my contribution as a 'social activist' and in the cause of the 'Revolution' paid me well in material terms, however, though I have to say that this wasn't the only or even major reason why I was in the business of championing the 'Revolution' in the first place. I won generous scholarships to go abroad to do a Ph.D. and then two post-doctoral projects to study various aspects of 'marginalised groups' in India. I was invited to attend conferences in over two dozen countries to pontificate on the same subjects. I was appointed as a full professor in an Indian university and was paid handsomely for the articles and books that I continued to churn out, machine-like, all about the 'oppressed'. In addition, I was assigned projects by several NGOs to study the 'oppressed', for which I was well rewarded financially. Although I have to say that I did not quite intend this to begin with, writing and conferencing about the 'oppressed' soon turned into a lucrative source of livelihood for me. I was actually, and quite literally, living off the misery of the 'oppressed', although I did not fully realise it then.

But all that came with a heavy personal price. The more I identified with the 'Revolution' of the 'oppressed', the more unbearably negative I became as a person. For one thing, the sense of being indispensable to the 'Revolution' and to the 'struggle' for 'justice' for 'oppressed communities', of playing a crucial part in championing 'The Cause' through my writings and public speaking, gave a tremendous boost to my battered ego. Being a 'social activist' made me feel nice, for once, about myself. It made me think of myself as selfless and all so very goody-goody and pious, while leading me to look down on others as allegedly miserably self-centred and uncaring. I was, after all, a 'social activist, 'devoting' and 'sacrificing' my life for the sake of the 'oppressed', or so I fondly imagined, while just about everyone else , I told myself, was mean and selfish, concerned only about their own material advancement.

Being a 'social activist' and a supposed 'expert' on the problems of 'oppressed communities' also helped me to stand out among the crowd, in this way satisfying my inner urge to be somehow different from others so that, finally, I would gain their attention, even if in a negative way. As a child, there was nothing more than I craved for, and was denied, than recognition and acceptance and the feeling of being wanted, and the notice I began to receive as a supposed 'expert' on various 'marginalised communities' served to fulfil that desperate urge and fill that deep psychological vacuum.

Being a 'social activist', I imagined that the sources of all oppression and negativity were external--'out there', in the 'world beyond'--in classes, castes, structures and ideologies that I identified as 'oppressive'--Brahmins and Banias, Jews and Americans and their Saudi-Wahhabi stooges, Feudalism, Communalism, Capitalism, Casteism, Zionism, Brahminism, Religious Fundamentalism, Imperialism and so on. If these were successfully combatted, I was led to believe, all the problems of the world would be set straight. Directing my energies and anger onto these external forces, I saw no need at all to introspect and recognise, leave alone solve, my own inner negativities, which I left completely ignored and unaddressed all these many years. It was truly a very convenient way of running away from my own inner dilemmas, insecurities and incompleteness. In hankering after the 'Revolution' and for the sake of 'The Cause', I saw no need whatsoever to make myself a better human being. That would have been an 'unnecessary diversion' from the 'real' task of 'reforming' others and 'combatting social injustice'.

Imagining myself as crusading on behalf of the 'oppressed' and as being a key player in the 'struggle' for 'social justice' for a host of 'marginalised communities' turned me completely blind to every good thing in those whom I began to see as their 'oppressors' (in the Indian context, mainly 'upper' caste/class Hindus) and in what was termed, in the jargon of the 'progressives' whose ranks I so desperately wanted to join, the 'present oppressive system'. There was nothing at all good in Hindu traditions or in America or in Capitalist Modernity, for instance, I convinced myself, for I was hooked onto the 'progressive' and 'radical' rhetoric that 'upper' caste Hindus in general (including most of my own family!) and almost every single American was complicit in perpetuating 'oppression'. If you had to be counted as a 'social activist', you simply couldn't see or find anything worthy at all in 'upper' caste Hindus or in Americans, and, if you did, your sincerity and commitment were gravely suspect. So deep-rooted was this negative mentality among 'social activists' supposedly committed to the 'oppressed' that for a 'progressive' to discern anything positive about 'the present system' or Indic spirituality, for instance, was about the most serious anathema conceivable.

The hatred that often passed for 'progressivism' in 'activist' circles was truly astounding, and I fell lock-stock-and-barrel for it. One was trained only to look for the negative in every nook and corner, and, if it didn't exist where one looked, to imagine and fervently believe that it did. One's whole life became one great protest. Protesting against real or imaginary injustice was almost the only respectable thing to do. It was as if there was nothing at all good in the world to celebrate, and even as if celebration and joy were themselves an 'unnecessary diversion' or a 'unaffordable luxury' that truly committed 'activists' had to carefully shun. That explained why many 'progressives' and 'radicals' were horrifically negative as human beings, many of them being irritatingly obnoxious, judgemental, cantankerous, dour and sullen. Their penchant for protest made them only more so. Believing themselves to be somehow morally superior to others because they had, so they thought, devoted themselves to the 'oppressed' made many of them painfully sanctimonious and proud. Of course, I need not clarify that this was not always the case, and I did have the good fortune of meeting a number of other activists, truly sincere in their commitment, who were among the most loving and compassionate souls I've ever come across. But these were rare exceptions, I have to admit.

For many of us (including myself, too), the negativity that was blessed as 'progressivism' in 'activist' circles was a convenient and respectable ruse to give vent to our own personal turmoils, inner insecurities and complexes, which were often rooted in troubled childhoods or broken marriages. I took to this negativity like a duck takes to water--in part to compensate for my own psychological traumas. It provided me just the excuse that I needed to express all the hidden hatred for my family that I harboured deep inside me since a child, for what more potent way was there for me to rebel against my decidedly 'upper' class and largely Hindu family than to denounce them as part of the 'oppressive ruling class/caste system'? What better way to get back at them for all that I had suffered at their hands than by taking up the 'cause' of Muslims and Dalits and ultra-leftists, folks who saw rich Hindus like my family as their real 'oppressors'? I had had an extremely troubled childhood, and so all I ever wanted was to get as far away as possible from my folks as I possibly could. They were rich and, for the most part, Hindu, and it was thus that I desperately craved to identify myself with all that they were not and would dread to be. I have to admit that it was this, more than any genuine concern for the 'oppressed', that drove me on for over twenty years for the sake of 'The Cause' that I so obsessively championed.

Negativism, then, was a defining feature of being 'progressive', and that's what I began to revel in. But such negativism was almost entirely one-sided in 'activist' circles, for to be counted as a 'real' 'social activist' it was simply unthinkable that the 'oppressed' could be faulted for almost anything at all. For a 'social activist' to even mention, leave alone condemn, the foibles of the 'oppressed communities'--gender injustice or caste rivalries among Dalits or the obscurantism and misogyny preached in many Muslim madrasas or the terror attacks and killings of innocents by Naxalites and radical Islamists--was tantamount to nothing less than treason. Reports about such matters were generally dismissed as 'malicious ruling-class propaganda' or 'malicious Brahminical brainwashing' or even as an 'understandable reaction of vulnerable minority communities to ruling caste/class/imperialist oppression'. Sometimes, if these were grudgingly admitted to be true, they were sought to be passed over in silence in order to 'respect the sensibilities of the oppressed' or as 'minor contradictions' that ought not to be addressed on the grounds that it would allegedly 'divide' the oppressed, 'sabotage' the struggle against 'oppression' and thereby 'play into the hands of the real opressors'. If you only just pointed out that there were serious faults in the madrasas that needed to be urgently addressed (even for the sake of the Muslim children who studied therein) or that Muslim Personal Law was seriously biased against Muslim women or that many Dalits who had taken advantage of the system of protective discrimination behaved with fellow Dalits almost as shabbily as did their 'upper' caste Hindu 'oppressors', you were sure to be shouted down as a 'government agent' or a 'paid stooge of Hindutva forces', not only by fellow 'progressives' but also by a whole host of voices among the communities whom you had spent years trying to defend and promote. If you even so much as mildly hinted that the conditions of Muslims in India weren't half as bad as sections of the Urdu media wanted people to believe or that the Muslims in this country had much more freedom than in any Muslim-majority state or that untouchability was no longer as rampant as it once was in some parts, you were bound to be accused of betrayal and your motives were rumoured to be entirely suspect. If you acknowledged that probably less Muslims were killed by Hindus in riots in India every year than the number of fellow Muslims slaughtered by their co-religionists in the 'Islamic' Republic of Pakistan or in God-forsaken Afghanistan or that the plight of religious minorities in many Muslim countries, particularly those ruled by theocratic regimes, was much worse than in India or that some Dalit officials were neck-deep in corruption, you were bound to be hollered at for allegedly being a 'traitor' to 'The Cause' of the 'oppressed'. The very same folks who egged you on to write about their problems and to take the Hindutva beast by its horns (for they were either too scared to do it themselves or didn't have the same writing skills or the same access to the English media) would shrilly denounce you as an 'agent' of this or the other 'power' if, in your quest to be honest and balanced, you pointed out even some of the mildest of their faults. It was as if by definition the 'oppressed' were spotless angels who could do no wrong and their 'oppressors' wholly and incorrigibly demonic.

It was amazing how, barring some really genuine folks (who??), whose sincerity and commitment simply cannot be doubted, many of us 'activists' actually thrived on this one-sided negativity that we lived on and churned out day-in and day-out. It was as if without it we would have no reason at all to justify our own existence, for it served as a very convenient peg to hang our own inner traumas on. For some folks, spewing negativity in the name of 'social activism' and 'protesting against social injustice' was all that they were capable of doing and, in fact, the only reason for them to carry on living. Decrying 'social injustice' was the only thing they could talk of, and attending one protest demonstration after another their only form of entertainment. Never for a moment did many such folks ever feel the need to introspect, for every ill that they could think of was traced to and laid at the door of the 'oppressors'. I could imagine at least some of them seriously believing they were God's little innocent lambs, all very pious and unblemished.

Protesting against 'social oppression' had truly become a profession for many, who turned into what are called 'professional social activists'. Negative news and developments were quickly seized upon by them to write about and demonstrate against, to pontificate about in seminars and to appear on TV to debate over and thereby worm their way into the public limelight, and even to wangle well-funded research projects, academic assignments and jaunts abroad in exotic locations, where they would share their 'expertise' about the 'oppressed communities' and exhibit their 'radical commitment' to them, often being handsomely paid for this service. I was guilty of the same misdemeanour, too, in some very fundamental ways, I have to admit here.

Some folks I know made pretty neat fortunes this way, setting up NGOs and 'think-tanks' ostensibly to study and 'work with' 'oppressed communities', and raked in vast amounts of money from gullible foreign donors. In fact, barring a few really committed souls, a whole host of 'progressives' in the NGO, academic and media world, made their living out of the misery of the 'oppressed', earning in this way not just their daily bread but also the really serious money that they needed to buy their cars and houses and to send their children to the 'best' English-medium schools and then for higher studies to the USA (which they never tired of reviling in public, of course), where they, too, would often sojourn when their 'social activism' became just a bit too tiring, boring or bothersome. Not many of them, who never ceased showing-off their 'commitment' to the 'oppressed' communities and their visceral hatred for 'oppressor' castes, would, I suspect, want to be treated in an Adivasi-run nursing home or to send their children to a Muslim-run school.

But, to set the record straight, it wasn't just us 'professional social activists' from rich or middle-class Hindu families who had taken upon themselves the onerous task of crusading on behalf of the 'oppressed communities' who behaved in this way. A great many folk from these very same 'oppressed' communities-- Muslims, Dalits and such others--were also heavily into the business of 'social activism', supposedly on behalf of their own people. They, too, set up their NGOs, often with hefty financial aid from generous foreign patrons. They, too, enjoyed their all-paid-for trips and conferencing stints abroad, and many of them made sure that their own children had built comfortable nests for themselves in Europe or West Asia or even in America, which, like us, they never ceased to revile as the fundamental cause of global oppression.

So, that, in brief, was the world I had chosen to inhabit, for over twenty years, till, finally and thankfully, sometime last year the idiocy of it all suddenly dawned on me. I lost complete faith and interest in the 'social activism' that had kept me going and had supplied my life with purpose and meaning all along. Although I recognised that social injustice was indeed a universal reality, and a harsh one at that, especially for certain minority groups, I had to admit that 'minorities' were often as guilty of it, in their own ways (such as victimising women and other minorities within their own communities) as were 'majorities', and that no community had a monopoly over virtue or vice. A tyrannical Muslim or Dalit husband or father was as oppressive as a Brahmin one, as far as I was concerned. And I realised, too (and it is really a wonder why it never struck me before) that there were good and bad things about every person on the face of this earth. No one, it dawned on me, is perfect, not even the most 'oppressed' man or woman alive, and, likewise, no person is wholly evil, not even the most tyrannical 'oppressor' around. The world and the people who inhabit it, I now knew, were infinitely far more complex that the 'progressives' I hung around with made it out to be. And to assume, as they did, that merely changing a 'system' or pitting communities against each other would end all oppression seemed downright stupid to me, and even entirely counter-productive from the point of view of the quest for social justice. As long as human beings didn't change as individuals, it made, I now knew, no difference whatsoever what sort of 'system' they lived under or what religion they followed or what ideology they championed or what radical rhetoric they spewed. It was how each of us were as individuals that really mattered, and no matter how loudly one protested and demonstrated against 'oppression', as long as people, including the 'oppressed', remained just as they were as people, with all the negativities that we all are burdened with, oppression would still remain intact, even though its forms might change and today's 'oppressed' might become tomorrow's 'oppressors'. The only Revolution worth striving for, I now realised, was the 'inner' one.

My only task, I found, was now to focus on my own 'inner' revolution, and not any other. In the mindless quest for 'reforming' others, championing the 'cause' of the 'oppresed' and 'struggling' to usher in the 'Revolution', never for a moment had I turned my attention to this in all these twenty years. I now knew that all I had to do was to deal with reforming myself, and no one else at all. After all, I hadn't come into this world laden with a heavier cross than that or burdened by a bigger mandate--to change society or to save the world, for instance, as I once pompously imagined. You may say I was being selfish, and maybe I was. But, then, maybe I really was not, for it was only if I truly reformed and psychologically healed myself and made myself whole and kind and loving, I now came to realise, that I could truly and sincerely help others. But as long as I didn't do that, and kept postponing it, the 'help' that I rendered others in the name of 'social activism' would remain, as it had over the last two decades, a miserable exercise in self-serving hypocrisy.

And this meant that I no longer needed or wanted to use the extreme negativity, blessed in the name of 'protesting against oppression' or 'struggling for social justice', that I had once so fervently championed as a means to vent my own inner insecurities. That's why I decided that I just had to refuse to allow myself to continue to wallow in the negativity and hatred that my supposed 'concern' for the 'oppressed' had driven me into. And so it happened that I stopped writing on the subjects I had for so long obsessed about and was paid handsomely for. I resigned from my job at a research centre, where I was supposed to spew out wisdom on 'oppressed communities'. I realised that I would no longer be invited to spout my 'wisdom' and 'expertise' on the 'oppressed' at conferences, in India and abroad, and that the well-funded projects to study and highlight the problems of the 'oppressed' that I had once so desperately hankered after were now a thing of the past. Knowing all this, I felt a heavy burden lift itself from off my tired shoulders. I decided that there was nothing more that I wanted or needed now than to lead the rest of my life watching the clouds gently pass by and smiling at the birds chirping high up in the trees. That was how my 'inner' revolution was going to happen. I no longer nursed ambitions more grand than this.

I knew now that I didn't want to change the world any longer, painfully aware that no matter how much I tried, the world's problems would always remain and might even get worse.Why waste whatever remained of my life chasing the mirage of a problem-free world? If one problem were solved through human efforts, a hundred new ones would take its place, sooner or later, I thought to myself as I reflected on the dismal fate of all the many Revolutions the world has witnessed till date, most of them enormously bloody, all being hungrily devoured by their own progeny. I no longer had any illusions about myself as a 'social activist' and crusader for a 'Revolution' that would put an end to the need for all revolutions. If there was indeed a God, I told myself, it was She/It/He who should take care of the world and its ills, and for me to arrogate to myself this responsibility was downright ridiculous. It was too much of an effort, and, at 45, I no longer had the energy for it all. In any case, I knew, if my motives in becoming a 'social activist' twenty-odd years ago were far from altruistic, it was improbable that I could ever sincerely be one. Let those better equipped and more genuinely motivated than me shoulder that task, I said to myself.

I now saw clearly through the hollowness of the revolutionary rhetoric that I was hooked on to for years. Leave alone the whole world or the 'system', I couldn't even change my family and close friends, to bring them to think and behave as I wanted them to. It was quite enough, I realised, like the wise man whose story my friend Raja sent me the other day, if I dreamt of changing just myself in order to become a better, happier, more gentle, compassionate and loving person and to cleanse myself of all the enormous negativity that I've bottled up deep inside. That was really the only, and the best, that I could do. And if everyone else thought that way too, I knew, there would be no need at all to dream of 'Revolution' or of changing others in order to bring about a better world.
Prem
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

http://news.yahoo.com/indian-politician ... 03080.html
Top Indian politician jailed for four years in bribe case
former top leader of India's main opposition Hindu nationalist party was jailed for four years on Saturday for accepting a bribe in a fake arms deal that was a media sting operation.
Bangaru Laxman, former president of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was secretly videotaped accepting the bribe from journalists pretending to be arms dealers 11 years ago.The sting footage was aired on television channels nationwide, creating a political storm for the then BJP government, headed by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.In a New Delhi court, Judge Kanwaljeet Arora sentenced the 72-year-old to four years in prison and imposed a 100,000 rupee ($2,000) fine under India's anti-corruption act."Balancing the twin interest of society and that of the convict, I am of the opinion the interests of justice would be met if the convict is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a term of four years," the judge said.India's courts have taken an increasingly activist role in cracking down on corruption which has become a major political issue in the country.The Congress government is reeling from a slew of graft allegations, including a multi-billion-dollar telecom scandal, that have sapped its popularity.The judge, rejecting Laxman's plea for leniency on health grounds, said it was necessary to send a signal that "rampant corruption" will not be tolerated,
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by D Roy »

and here's some back pedalling by Sikand.
Apology And Clarification Regarding My Article
'Why Gave up on "Social Activism''

By Yoginder Sikand

21 April, 2012
Countercurrents.org

Dear Friends,

This is with regard to an article that I recently wrote titled 'Why I Gave up on "Social Activisim"'.

A number of friends and others were upset about the article, and hence I decided that I needed to write this note.

To begin with, I have to say that I am open to my mistakes being pointed out, for which I am grateful, for otherwise how will I know where I'm wrong? I do need to know this so that I am able to correct and improve myself.

I have to clarify that I did not seek to generalise about all activists, and a careful reading of the article will indicate this. I was talking essentially of folks who, wittingly or unwittingly, were making a living out of 'activism' and actually doing little for the people in whose names they spoke--and I have said I was doing quite the same in my own way (Surely, not everyone was doing that, of course, and I didn't claim this either). In making this point, I was trying to suggest that this was doing nothing much good for the poor people in whose names these folks were making money and careers for themselves. Obviously, all of this made the task of genuine activists even more difficult and had made it easy for their critics (Hindutvawalas etc.) to brand all forms of activism as tainted and to question the credentials of all activists as such. However, if what I wrote can possibly be construed as de-legitimising activism altogether, I have to apologise because this is not what I really intended.

Secondly, I didn't mean to downplay or ignore or minimize the reality of social oppression, in the form of imperialism, Hindutva fascism and caste/class/religious oppression and so on, and especially the sort of discrimination that caste/religious minorities face. I didn't intend to blame the victims for their own oppression, though I now realise and agree with some friends that the article could possibly be misinterpreted by others to suggest this. Let me clarify that I do recognise such forms of oppression as very real. And I certainly didnt mean to suggest that there was no need to meaningfully work against such forms of oppression. If what I have written seems to suggest anything to the contrary, I am honestly and truly sorry. I would be very sad if this article were seen as a means to legitimise oppression in any form.

I also have to say that I didn't intend to equate minority and majority communalism, or caste assertion by Dalits with caste oppression by 'upper' caste Hindus, but if that is what some people can interpret the article as suggesting , I really and sincerely apologise for the mistake.

I have to thank folks who faulted my article for indicating to me where I had gone wrong, and once again say I am sorry for any mistakes I might have made, such as I've outlined above.

With love,
yoginder sikand

http://www.countercurrents.org/sikand210412.htm
svenkat
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by svenkat »

Yogesh deserves 'credit' for atleast recogonising the truth about himself.His back pedalling is understandable,given that he has donenothing 'useful/meaningful/productive' so far and he has a long way to go and has to 'begin the journey' with all its arduousness and ups and downs.Some slack has to be given for a man who has pulled himself up from the sewage pit.The stench will not dissapear overnight.
nawabs
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by nawabs »

Villagers demand resumption of power projects in Uttarakhand

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a ... 367885.ece
A group of villagers, affected by the stalling of the Him Urja Vidyut Pariyojna at Nandprayag and Vishnugad Vidyut Pariyojna at Pipalkoti, staged a symbolic chakka jam on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway at Pipalkoti on Sunday, threatening self-immolation if the government didn't order the resumption of construction work there.

Unhappy with the government for first promising power and revenue generation opportunities to the affected villagers while taking away their lands, and later scrapping the projects at the instance of some environmentalists, the villagers — mostly women — threatened self-immolation if work wasn't resumed by May 10.

The villagers accused vested interests of trying to blackmail the power companies at the cost of the local people and wanted a CBI enquiry into the opposition to power projects in the State.

Pushpa Devi Adhyaksh of Mangal Dal said that they had lost their homes, land and livelihoods to the project, waiting for electricity and employment, but were feeling cheated after the UPA government stalled these projects at the behest of ‘anti-India' forces.

“Is it that the Prime Minister and people in power can't understand our plight and hear only the dictates of people like G. D. Aggarwal or Maneka Gandhi,” she asked, adding that the Uttarakhandis were being ‘murdered' by outsiders sitting in New Delhi and elsewhere.
The villagers burnt the effigies of Professor Aggarwal and Maneka Gandhi.

It may be mentioned that the women and men of the Pipalkoti, Jaisal, Haart, Sen, Vaimro, Matha, and Bula, along with the local businessmen, have been staging a dharna, seeking resumption of work at the projects for more than a fortnight.

Avdhash Kaushal, chairperson Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra, and activists of the Uttarakhand Jan Manch, while lending support to the villagers, advised them to crusade peacefully, without threatening to resort to violent acts like self immolation.
Prem
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

http://www.internetdemocracy.in/2012/03 ... d-the-law/
Bloggers and the Law: Five Points to Keep in Mind
Thanks to the Internet Democracy Project, I had the chance to spend a wonderful Saturday with an intelligent and challenging group of bloggers. The meet was to discuss internet censorship and the track for my Q&A session were the legal concerns of Bloggers.The more we interacted with each other, the more it became clear that though the group was not naturally risk averse, they wanted to know the the legal penalties which may result from blogging. Though most of the discussion was individualized, I think there are some common queries which are suitable for a wider audience. I have summarized some of them below.

1. Bloggers are not intermediaries, they are authorsInternet Intermediaries are service providers which facilitate communication and information exchange. Quite similarly placed as telephone companies or parcel delivery companies, they are not usually held liable for the content of the message if they observe due diligence and when being notified about the contents illegality, take down the content. This is a limited exemption from liability which exists in law and extends both to civil and criminal actions. This exception from liability is contained under Sec. 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The conditions for availing this exception is further detailed in the Intermediaries Rules, 2011.Quite clearly this exemption from liability is granted on the premise that the Intermediary is merely providing an information link and is not monitoring or editing the content. Hence, the exemption from liability vanishes the minute anyone creates the content. This is what usually bloggers do. They author posts.Going by the law as explained above, this exemption from liability would not in any case apply to bloggers for the posts authored by them. This also applies to micro blogging websites, twitter as well facebook status messages/notes which though may not be public but are shared with a wide body of people.
This being said, the position for extracting posts made by others, or republishing them in entirety or even the comments section is more complex and requires analysis. Though liability may not automatically and ultimately attach to a blog owner for comments the probability of being arraigned in a legal action remains on grounds of abetment of the injury complained against the primary author.For instance, we the case of Ajith D. In 2009, Ajith D started a Orkut community critical of the Shiv Sena, in which some anonymous posts were made alleging that Mr. Bal Thackrey was communally divisive. Due to this content a Criminal Complain was lodged against him, though he obtained bail from the Kerala High Court he approached to the Hon’ble Supreme Court to quash the criminal proceedings against him. The Supreme Court in its order refused to quash the FIR and asked him to face trial where evidence would be lead and he could plead his innocence on the grounds that he was an intermediary and the purportedly illegal posts were not made by him.Takeaway: You are liable for what you say online
2. Look at the Legal Process as much as the Legal ProvisionIndia has a wide body of laws which prescribe for criminal and civil sanctions on the basis of speech. These content laws are usually not limited by medium and with refinements and nuances apply to the internet as much as they apply to the ink on paper. Though the legal process has a marked contrast with respect to criminal trial and civil actions.

Criminal Actions
In criminal cases, a lot depends on the sections on which the offence is alleged in the FIR. This is material since the offence is matched against a section of law, usually in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which contains the ingredients of the offence as well as the punishment. Secondly, the specific section relating to the offence can either be “bailable” or “non-bailable”. In cases of bailable offense i.e. after the police arrests the accused, the accused can immediately apply for bail to the police station officer itself. Here bail is normally granted and the accused does not have to spend time in custody. However, most offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 which apply to content offences are non-bailable. Even if they are bailable, the police usually tries to keep the FIR as wide as possible, containing as many sections under which offences may not even be made out as limiting the scope of the FIR may result in acquittal. Hence, non-bailable offences are the norm.
In a non-bailabale offense, the accused will usually end up spending some time in jail if the police manages to arrest the accused. The accused will remain in police custody till the court grants bail. This process is time consuming and hence the accused may end up being in a police lock up for sometime. If the police does not manage to arrest the accused then the accused can apply for anticipatory bail to court, however if the court refuses the grant of anticipatory bail, then the accused may be arrested by the Police and will then have to again apply for regular bail.The conditions for bail are extremely restrictive on the liberty and movement of a person. Usually an accused is required to deposit their passport and make an application in court in case they want to travel. Further limitations include personal presence of the accused, which may be dispensed with with an application to court, however this is also up to a court, which may decide that the accused should be present on each date the case is heard. Moreover, given the incredible pendency of cases, a criminal trial can sometimes exceed the average life expectancy of a person. Hence a person accused may be tied up in a criminal action for an incredibly long time.To see how this plays out, take the case of Avnish Bajaj who was at one time the CEO of Bazee.Com which subsequently got acquired by Ebay. He was arrested on charges that his website carried a listing which offered for sale a video clip, shot on a mobile phone, of two children of a school in Delhi indulging in an explicitly sexual act. This was when he went to the Delhi Police voluntarily for questioning.After spending more than a week in a police lockup he finally obtained bail in 2004 by an Order of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court. However, the criminal trial still proceeded against him. To make this stop, he filed a quashing petition which was decided in 2008 by the Hon’ble Delhi High Court. Since, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court did not quash all the offences which were contained in the chargesheet (a chargesheet is a document filed by the police in court, which contains a list of the offences contained in the FIR matched against the evidence gathered by it), Avnish Bajaj appealled to the Supreme Court of India. In this matter the Supreme Court of India heard final arguments only last month and a judgement is expected anytime this year.This is close to 8 years only at the stage of a chargesheet. To the best of my knowledge the trial is not even over yet and depending on how the Supreme Court rules, will proceed on the offences which are not quashed by the courts.

Civil ActionsA civil action is relatively less arduous on a defendant. Depending on the nature of the action a Plaintiff may pray for a mandatory injunction as well as for compensation. A mandatory injunction is a relief requested from a court, to give a permanent direction to the defendant to stop the act through which the legal injury has resulted to the plaintiff. In terms of compensation, the Plaintiff has to usually demonstrate actual loss and asks for restitution for it. The amount of compensation can vary widely depending on the type of action, though historically the courts have been conservative in awarding compensation.The greater risk in civil actions is that of an interim injunction. Legally a interim injunction is relief which is requested by the Plaintiff to prevent the Defendant to continue with the illegal act. Practically it can mean a Plaintiff requesting a court to block a website since its contents are prima-facia defamatory. This legal remedy is incredibly powerful since it grants part of the relief even before the case is over and evidence has been lead. Due to its nature, if it is abused or misapplied it can cause takedowns and domain blocks. One case where, an interim injunction which was granted has resulted in a domain block on Zone-h has been analysed here.

Takeaway: justice delayed is justice denied but justice hurried is justice buried.
3. Limited recourse against private intermediariesVery often blogs are hosted on blogging platforms such as blogspot and wordpress. These blogging platforms are operated by private intermediaries who provide the technical back end for the blogger to create the blog and author the posts. Conditional on this facility is an agreement by the blogger to the terms of service agreement of the blogging platform provider. This is in a sense a contract between the blogger and the the platform under which the the blogger is allowed to blog.
These terms of conditions are often broadly worded in favour of the blogging platform since its a standard form contract with a take it or leave it approach. There is no negotiation and often even Bloggers do not even read the terms.Due to the wide language used in such agreements, the blogging platforms are well within their legal rights to take down content. Now usually this should not happen as blogging platforms thrive on content creation and inhibiting it may not serve their best interests.However, at the same time they have to avoid any potential for legal liability. Taking down content, under any legal process or even under the threat of it, is a good way to avoid such liability. This liability is seen from the point of defending a case even though they may not be liable as the content may not be “illegal” as per them. Here they will err on the side of caution since to avail of the intermediary immunity, they have to under the Intermediaries Guildines, 2011 take down the content within 36 hours.Going beyond a take-down, a blogging platform may also be compelled under a court order to reveal the contact information as well as the IP logs of the blogger. There is one such case where the Hon’ble Bombay High Court passed an Order compelling Blogspot.com to reveal the login details of a blogger using a pseudonym.The broader lesson is that we cannot expect fights for civil liberties to be primarily contested by corporations. Though these internet companies may be in favor of an internet which is more tolerant and open, their primary duty is to their shareholders and promoters. It is the duty to make a profit and the obligation to avoid liability.This was most recently demonstrated in Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi‘s case where his domain was registered as well as hosted with Bigrock which suspended it after receiving a complaint endorsed by the Bombay Police. I have written at length on it here.Takeaway: intermediaries may like freedom but they avoid liability
4. Ubiquity comes at a priceOne of the best things about about writing on a blog is the wide audience to which it is available. However, in some ways this also ends up creating problems as the a wider audience also means the likelihood of some person filing a case or the police in some distant portion of the country filing a FIR against you.
Prem
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

http://news.yahoo.com/ferry-250-aboard- ... 57478.html
200 dead, missing as India ferry sinks
An overcrowded river ferry broke in two and sank in northeast India during a severe storm on Monday, leaving at least 105 people dead and almost as many missing, police said.As rescuers struggled in heavy rain to find survivors weeping relatives lined the shores of the fast-flowing Brahmaputra river in Assam state, desperate for news of family members on board the vessel.It was carrying around 350 men, women and children and police said some 150 people were rescued or swam to safety after the accident, which occurred as torrential pre-monsoon rains lashed the region.The death toll could make the ferry sinking one of the worst in recent memory in South Asia, where such disasters are common due to lax safety standards and overloading.
"A storm split the steamer into two," Assam state police chief J.N. Choudhury told AFP."Rescue workers along with villagers have recovered about 105 bodies from the shores of the river," said P.C. Haloi, police chief of Dhubri district, from where the boat set out. "The fate of around 100 others is not known."The overcrowded double-decker ferry had no lifebelts and Rahul Karmakar, who witnessed the sinking, told AFP: "I could see people being swept away as the river current was very strong."He added that "chances of survival seem to be remote" in the river, swollen by the heavy storm.Rescuers struggled to find survivors but their efforts were hampered by high winds, torrential rains and darkness.Local fishermen, who live with their families in tiny hamlets stretching along the Brahmaputra -- which has a reputation as a treacherous, turbulent waterway -- combed the shores for survivors as night fell."The weather is very bad there. It is making the rescue efforts very difficult," state Transport Minister Chandan Brahma told AFP in Assam's main commercial city Guwahati.Strong winds had uprooted trees, blocking roads leading to the disaster site and preventing some rescue teams from reaching the area, said officials. More rain was forecast for the area on Tuesday.
ramana
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by ramana »

X-post...
Nandu wrote:
Nandu wrote:‘Suffering’ rises for Indians in new poll

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/suf ... aphic.html
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/0 ... k-outlook/
Overall, the new data paints a picture of a nation that is failing to deliver on the hopes whipped up by its high growth of recent years. Amid growing frustrations with government and societal corruption, people’s expectations for their lives are clearly outpacing what improvements are being made, creating an imbalance that ... could be destabilizing, as it was in so many other parts of the world last year. “You need a matchstick event like that vendor in Tunisia,” [Gallup chairman] Clifton said at the Gallup India Behavioral Economics Forum today in New Delhi. “The question is, Are the conditions right for a fire?”

Massa is planning an Indian monsoon?

Why all this surveys if that is not the case?
svinayak
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by svinayak »

News reports and bad news about India is a great social marker in the west. Also such news inside India is also another opinion maker resulting in changing peoples attitude during election.
There is a network and coalition which builds news about India and mostly this is bad news. This coalition has people from China, Pakistan and several countries.
brihaspati
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by brihaspati »

ramana wrote:X-post...


Overall, the new data paints a picture of a nation that is failing to deliver on the hopes whipped up by its high growth of recent years. Amid growing frustrations with government and societal corruption, people’s expectations for their lives are clearly outpacing what improvements are being made, creating an imbalance that ... could be destabilizing, as it was in so many other parts of the world last year. “You need a matchstick event like that vendor in Tunisia,” [Gallup chairman] Clifton said at the Gallup India Behavioral Economics Forum today in New Delhi. “The question is, Are the conditions right for a fire?”

Massa is planning an Indian monsoon?

Why all this surveys if that is not the case?
We can offer to study how Massaland is dealing with the growing anti-establishment stocking of fuels represented at its overt tip by the occupy movement. How do they model their own matchstick?
Prem
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

Technology-Enabled Microfinance: Mifos Fuels Growth and Impact at Grameen Koota
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQpP2GhK8k
ramana
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by ramana »

Worl situation in 1857 before the Indian War for Independence:

1857 – A Year in Hindsight
...
So, when India exploded into war against the British, it was pretty much alone. International alliances, trade, supplies, treaties were all on the British side.

Fighting against such overwhelming odds, Indian armies fought for nearly two years. Lakhs of soldiers died. Millions of civilians were killed by the British to cut-off Indian armies from their support base – and to force Indians to cease fighting.

....
Prem
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

Idol immersion causing pollution
http://dawn.com/2012/05/02/idol-immersi ... pollution/
DO the gods pollute? Scientists in India, worried about the public health consequences of immersing idols in lakes and rivers, have been looking anew at water pollution. They hope to harmonise their medical concerns with some people’s religious priorities.Most of their research has focused on idols of the elephant-headed god Ganesh, created for the annual Ganesh Chaturthi celebration. Once a fairly quiet, mostly private practice, Ganesh Chaturthi now involves large, public festivals in many parts of India. Researchers have also looked, a little, at the effects of immersing other idols, especially those of the many-armed goddess Durga.One of the latest studies is called Assessment of the Effects of Municipal Sewage, Immersed Idols and Boating on the Heavy Metal and Other Elemental Pollution of Surface Water of the Eutrophic Hussainsagar Lake (Hyderabad, India).A team sampled water repeatedly from different parts of the lake, including one spot “immersed with hundreds of multicoloured idols of Lord Ganesh and Goddess Durga”, and another near “the outfall of black-coloured, untreated raw sewage containing a collection of industrial effluents”. Sewage, they conclude, accounts for most but not all of the pollution. High levels of zinc, calcium and strontium “were probably due to the immersed idols painted with multicolours”.Some studies concentrate on isolating the effects of idols from those of other sources. Impact of Ganesh Idol Immersion Activities on the Water Quality of Tapi River, Surat (Gujarat, India) tells of sampling the water “at morning hours during pre-immersion, during immersion and post-immersion periods of Ganesh idols”. The conclusion: the “main reason of the deterioration of water quality . . . is various religious activities”, with special blame given to “the plaster of paris, clothes, iron rods, chemical colours, varnish and paints used for making the idols”.Heavy Metal Contamination Cause of Idol Immersion Activities in Urban Lake Bhopal, India, published in 2007, finds that idol immersion has become “a major source of contamination and sedimentation to the lake water”.It warns that idol-derived heavy metals are likely to find their way into “fishes and birds inhabiting the lake, which finally reach the humans through food”. The authors want to “educate idol makers” to make their idols small, of non-baked, quick-dissolving clay, and with “natural colours used in food products”.
— The Guardian, London
ramana
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by ramana »

A travelogue by GD of his recent visit to New Delhi region:
Singha wrote:I came back from a short trip to delhi - focussed on covering as much of history as feasible in the time given and walkability from metro lines.
CENTRAL covered CP (every block inner and outer,full perimeter sweep), jantar mantar, emporiums on baba kharak singh marg, central cottage industry emporium
NORTH red fort, chandni chowk
EAST - purana quilla in great depth, humayun tomb, nizamuddin enclave
SOUTH qutub minar, lodhi gardens, dilli haat, safdarjung tomb, india gate
took around 1000+ photos. mostly there were few tourists around and couples seeking some privacy in the ruins.

some comments:
- over last few yrs the ghazibad, noida, east delhi has merged. my sis stays in vaishali which is current end of ghaziabad line..from there to CP is only 30 mins , vast new colonies and townhips have come up. mayawati paid a lot of focus to this region it seems. now akhilesh admin is focussed on projecting a pro-urbu and pro-farmer stance so already the greater noida line is go-slow. noida has currently 9 stations in a one line. in delhi-lucknow highway they have built over bridges for passengers to cross safely...in a couple of places middle of nowhere these even have powered escalator. huge malls near every metro stop usually.
- MASSIVE sized grid of roads and flyovers east of the yamuna, delhi proper always had them
- metro stations are FLAWLESSly contructed with high quality signs, escalators, fittings...every bit as "german" or "japanese" as the originals and better than Bangkok and singapore imho.
- ZERO paan, urine smells or splotches
- ORDERLY crowd even at smaller stations with no platform security people to enforce queues
- HIGH FREQ - no sooner a trains tail end clears the platform than after 2 mins a new train comes. 4 or 6 coaches, but platforms are sized for 8 coach trains
- HIGH QUALITY interiors of rakes. most trains seem to be from bombardier
- EFFICIENT smart card system and refills
- NOBODY was seen violating the ruke about photos, eating and drinking on train
- CISF runs the security at every stn incl in UP. tight and efficient as usual. Ak56 armed people are available if anything escalates beyond a sidearm issue.
- anil ambani runs a special line from T3 to CP railway station, thats even more chi chi...sliding glass doors on platforms for safety, front facing bucket seats, LCD panels, tourism gujarat stickers, faster speed and platforms built to airport standard. its costlier but understandable given the lower passenger load. airport staff use it extensively. it will grow in volume for sure.
a bus runs from T3 to T1 every 20 mins....the shivaji stadium stn on baba kharak singh marg is next to a very high end parking building run by DLF.
- T1 used by goair/spicejet and indigo is at par with bangkok std and better than the economy terminal of singapore(which was being worked on in 2010)..it is ofcourse smaller but std is better.
- KF has vanished from blr and delhi probably...no KF jet seen in blr both inbound and outbound legs

Lodhi gardens was the most soothing and restful place I have been to in quite some time. I also came across the most soothing pyt I have ever seen in many a moon there, with her pacific islander looking bf/hubby unfortunately.

overall a city that clearly deploys massive strike power and resources to make things work. the paving of roads, sidewalks, tolerances in construction, signages far better than blr in comparison.

also I didnt spot any of the "swift vdi" yahoos that plague blr. people drive fast but seem not to have a ego issue about speed. perhaps good roads have soothed their competitive urges.

the lassi was ofcourse the best - had my fill of matka lassi, malai lassi thick enough to support a spoon's weight, rabri falooda in chandni chowk area. skipped the jalebis.

overall in 4 days of hard riding, must have walked around 30km on foot...my feet have some blisters on the soles to show for it.

and
Singha wrote:masha allah birader. shall contact you before my next trip. I was quite impressed by the mahagun mall. the cycle rickshaws look quite smallish though :oops:

one of the things about delhi is that every trace of pre-islamic relics have been eradicated over the years, so that all you see is what got built from the qutub-ud-din aibak/khilji era(AD 1200) to the woebegone late mughals (upto 1857). think about it - the qutub minar area, lodhi garden, humayun tomb, purana quilla, red fort are on the visit of every foreign tourist and most domestics and this is all they see. even if they look further the jahanpanah area, tughlaqabad fort, safardarjung tomb, nizamuddin dargah, sher shah suri gate, jama masjid, siri fort, hauz khas and further afield agra and fatehpur sikri are all of this era.

the qutub minar contains a bald statement that parts of hindu and jain temples were "used" to construct the surrounding madrasa, never mind the real meaning of "used" is that these temples were razed and the pillars stolen. even the ashoka pillar was looted from somewhere and planted there.

there is no trace I could discern of all the older cities of delhi incl the chauhan and tomar era. if any such exists, it is very well hidden and kept under wraps by the Govt and leftist historians.

the oldest non-islamic places I could see were the hindu and jain temples at the start of chandni chowk opp the red fort. both around 150 yrs old in present form and based over older shrines. the Sisganj gurudwara near by is the place where aurangzeb had Guru Teg bahadur killed(1675). the rotary in front of it has a painting of this, with two executioners using a long wood saw to cut the poor guru in half...a warning no doubt to the Khalsa to be prepared to fight again if needed. maybe there are some shiv lingas and jain temples on a small scale hidden deep within the bowels of chandni chowk bylanes but they cannot be more than 200-300 yrs old. Nadir shah looted the jewelry market here and killed everyone in sight.

in contrast throw a stone in south india and its likely to fall near a temple or fort that is atleast 1000 yrs old if not more.
D Roy
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by D Roy »

There are pracheen ( ancient) hanuman temples in many places. and there are many new temples.


South delhi is littered with sultanate mausoleums, chatris and other sundry monuments. Most of the big parks such as the ones in vasant vihar or hauz khas have sultanate era tombs.

See, a lot of Nai dilli including JNU and DU are on the Delhi ridge which was once a superb forest on the northernmost extension of the aravalli range just as it met the Yamuna river. It still houses a lot of fauna and is basically a neem forest. Now one among many of Mohammad Bin Tuglaq's " farsighted" ideas was to turn parts of the delhi ridge, especially what is now JNU, Sanjay Van and Asola Bhatti wildlife sanctuary into "protected" forests. of course these continued to be the hunting grounds of subsequent sultanate rulers.

As far as Delhi's overall rise is concerned - It is the best thing to have happened to India. Delhi has ensured that hindi speaking people now have a place to go to without facing the usual Naarth Indian/Bhaiya crap. Of course some of the Jats and Bhappe Punjabis do make the usual Bihari ke G*ude kind of jibes, but ultimately it is a hindi speaking place with over 40 per cent of its population from the poorbiya belt. And this sheer number of Biharis ensures the peace as it were. In fact in all the 'gaons' of Delhi like Munirka, Katwaria Sarai, Mohammdpur etc and indeed in DU North Campus, the Jats and Biharis now seem to have reached a sort of equilibrium which even extends to Bhaichaara in some places. Nitish Kumar's work has also helped silence the usual criticism.

Delhi's rise and the huge congregation of young people there from the hindi belt, bengal, northeast and indeed elsewhere is creating a superb cosmopolitan culture besides setting a "developmental" example that in my opinion is precisely what has led to a sea change in the socio-economic aspirations of the people of Bihar, UP and Rajasthan.

Delhi is also the primary refuge for Bengalis from the so called "general line". And naturally it is full of bihari IAS wallahs.
Last edited by D Roy on 03 May 2012 11:01, edited 1 time in total.
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