India-US Strategic News and Discussion

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shiv
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by shiv »

Devyani Khobragade entitled to immunity under UN status, says lawyer
PTI New York, February 24, 2014 | UPDATED 20:16 IST

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/devy ... 45360.html
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's status as a "Special Advisor" to the UN entitled her to diplomatic immunity from prosecution at the time of her arrest last year on visa fraud charges, according to a letter from the United Nations.

The letter from UN Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs Stephen Mathias was submitted in a US court by Khobragade's lawyer Daniel Arshack to bolster the claim that she had immunity when she was arrested in December for allegedly making false declarations in a visa application for her maid.

Arshack said the 39-year-old diplomat was credentialed as a "Special Advisor" to the UN from August 26 to December 31 last year.

He said,Khobragade was appointed an advisor in August last year ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit for the UN General Assembly?session.

Given that Khobragade had a UN credential of Special Advisor, she was immune from arrest on December 12 and prosecution on visa fraud charges, he said.

Arshack submitted the letter from the UN Assistant Secretary General as an exhibit in court along with his motion to dismiss the indictment against Khobragade.

The letter states that according to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN adopted by the General Assembly,representatives of members to the principal and
subsidiary organs of the United Nations and to conferences convened by the United Nations shall, while exercising their functions and during their journey to and from the place of meeting, enjoy the...priviliges and immunities" set forth under sections of the Convention?unless the person is a "representative in a state of which s/he is a national or of which s/he has been a representative".

It said the expression representatives "shall be deemed to include all delegates, deputy delegates, advisers, technical experts and secretaries of?delegations".

The letter clarified that application of the rules of immunities in any specific situation "would depend on the facts and circumstances of the specific situation".

Khobragade was strip-searched and held with criminals after her arrest, triggering a diplomatic row between India and the US. After her indictment on visa fraud, she returned to India in January after she was asked to leave the US by the State Department



Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/devy ... 45360.html
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Ramana, aren't those questions taking her comments completely out of context? I am sure she meant "individual account-ability" as in Mr. Shaikh getting the $$M into his bank account and relaxing in his Lahore mansion being on Death Row. The "reconciliation" is that his wife/ whoever has been striking a less-than-bloodthirsty line, perhaps under pressure from the WHOTUS/SeeAyyEh/SD (I can't figure out why).
I am SHOCKED! :shock: :eek: :shock: :rotfl:
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

[quote]Devyani Khobragade entitled to immunity under UN status, says lawyer
PTI New York, February 24, 2014 | UPDATED 20:16 IST[\quote]
Are they out of stuff to write, and having to recycle old news?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Vayutuvan »

A small nugget re. Daniel Pearl's father Prof. Judea Pearl. He is a CS professor at UCLA and won the highest honor in CS - ACM Turing Award. Name is pronounced as "Udee Pearl"
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by anmol »

ramana wrote:If played right this will bring her down. Looks like power got to her head.

She should not be in the service.

anmol is this on twitter already?
Yes, tweets are still there:-

https://twitter.com/AmbassadorPower/sta ... 9196493825
https://twitter.com/AmbassadorPower/sta ... 7951236097
Reaction on twitter:-
http://twitchy.com/2014/02/24/what-the- ... or-stupid/
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Sorry to blow some beedi smoke here, but the failure to ban beedis all these years has struck me as being very strange. I thought it was because the FDA wanted to leave a nice loophole for those who HAD to enjoy nice rolled hashish, with a good vehicle to speed them to the grave.

Most Indian educational and other institutions ban beedi smoking for the past may saal, hain? Most beedi smoking IIRC was confined to sojourns in the pakistans.

If this keeps up, they will catch on to paan and hashish next.:shock:
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Vayutuvan »

from the last link I like this comment :twisted:
It's a typical liberal thing. Liberals are compelled to communicate...even if they do not have anything to say, or do not know what to say. This compulsion manifests itself in tweets like this. When a lib doesn't know what to say, but feels the need to speak anyway, they include things like "individual accountability" and "reconciliation" in their statement - that way it sounds good even if it is utter nonsense.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

Indo-US Army drill postponed
In an interesting development, the next round of Indo-US joint Army exercises — that were to take place in April this year — has been postponed by a few months. The exercises were to take place at Chaubatia in Uttarakhand in April this year but has now been postponed to July or August this year, defence sources have confirmed. Defence sources said that mutual convenience of the two sides is the major factor in the re-scheduling of the exercises and that nothing more should be read into it.
But the fact remains that ties between the two countries have nose-dived since the Winter of 2013 following the earlier arrest of Indian lady-diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the United States.
Significantly, the exercises will now be held at a time when the next government will be in place in India at the Centre. The US has already begun the exercise of reaching out to major Indian Opposition leaders whom it perceives could be important figures in the formation of the next government in May this year. It is unclear whether the current frost in ties between the two countries had any role to play in the postponement of the joint exercise.
The Indian Army had conducted joint exercises in 2013 with the United States Military at Fort Bragg in the US in May, 2013. Joint military exercises between the two countries are an annual feature. India has conducted a large number of bilateral exercises with the US in the past few years involving the armies, air forces and navies of the two countries. Despite the recent irritants in ties, the US has strengthened strategic ties between the two countries.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by A_Gupta »

That is the nature of unfettered capitalism and unfettered materialism. Everything is a business. Even inviting relatives or friends over for dinner is supposedly an opportunity to introduce them to some new products and make some sales/marketing commission by doing so.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by anmol »

Her response to criticism:-

Image

Yup, she totally does not have any animosity towards jews/israel.
In the video, Harry Kreisler, who now heads the Institute of International Studies at UC-Berkeley, asks Power how she would address the Palestinian-Israeli conflict if she were an adviser to the president.

Here's how the interview begins:

Kreisler: Let me give you a thought experiment here without asking you to address the Palestine-Israel problem. Let's say you were an adviser to the president of the United States. How would, in response to current events, would you advise him to put a structure in place to monitor that situation, lest one party or another be looking like they might be moving toward genocide?

Power: Well, I don't think that in any of the cases a shortage of information is the problem, and I actually think in the Palestine-Israeli situation there's an abundance of information. What we don't need is some kind of early warning mechanism there. What we need is a willingness to actually put something on the line in service of helping the situation. And putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import{jews}. It may more crucially mean sacrificing or investing I think more than sacrificing literally billions of dollars not in servicing Israeli's military, but actually in investing in the new state of Palestine, in investing the billions of dollars it would probably take, also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force, not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence. Because it seems to me at this stage (and this is true of actual genocides as well, and not just major human rights abuses, which were seen there), you have to go in as if you’re serious, you have to put something on the line.

Unfortunately, imposition of a solution on unwilling parties is dreadful. It’s a terrible thing to do, it’s fundamentally undemocratic. But, sadly, we don’t just have a democracy here either, we have a liberal democracy. There are certain sets of principles that guide our policy, or that are meant to, anyway. It’s essential that some set of principles becomes the benchmark, rather than a deference to [leaders] who are fundamentally politically destined to destroy the lives of their own people. And by that I mean what Tom Freidman has called “Sharafat.” [Sharon-Arafat; this is actually an Amos Oz construction -- NP] I do think in that sense, both political leaders have been dreadfully irresponsible. And, unfortunately, it does require external intervention.
video:
Last edited by anmol on 25 Feb 2014 00:56, edited 4 times in total.
Vayutuvan
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Vayutuvan »

Wiki entry on Ambassador Power's husband Cass Sunstein
"Conspiracy Theories" and government infiltration[edit]
Sunstein co-authored a 2008 paper with Adrian Vermeule, titled "Conspiracy Theories," dealing with the risks and possible government responses to false conspiracy theories resulting from "cascades" of faulty information within groups that may ultimately lead to violence. In this article they wrote, "The existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the government’s antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be." They go on to propose that, "the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups",[30] where they suggest, among other tactics, "Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."[30] They refer, several times, to groups that promote the view that the US Government was responsible or complicit in the September 11 attacks as "extremist groups."

The authors declare that there are five responses a government can take toward conspiracy theories: "We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech. (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help." However, the authors advocate that each "instrument has a distinctive set of potential effects, or costs and benefits, and each will have a place under imaginable conditions. However, our main policy idea is that government should engage in cognitive infiltration of the groups that produce conspiracy theories, which involves a mix of (3), (4) and (5)."

Sunstein and Vermeule also analyze the practice of recruiting "nongovernmental officials"; they suggest that "government can supply these independent experts with information and perhaps prod them into action from behind the scenes," further warning that "too close a connection will be self-defeating if it is exposed."[30] Sunstein and Vermeule argue that the practice of enlisting non-government officials, "might ensure that credible independent experts offer the rebuttal, rather than government officials themselves. There is a tradeoff between credibility and control, however. The price of credibility is that government cannot be seen to control the independent experts." This position has been criticized by some commentators,[31][32] who argue that it would violate prohibitions on government propaganda aimed at domestic citizens.[33] Sunstein and Vermeule's proposed infiltrations have also been met by sharply critical scholarly critiques.[34][35][36]
I am not against being cautious regarding "Conspiracy Theories", some of the proposals these two authors make are a little distasteful.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem Kumar »

ramana wrote:If played right this will bring her down. Looks like power got to her head.

She should not be in the service.

anmol is this on twitter already?
Really - why are we so shocked? An Aam Aadmi, drinking chai in India, wouldnt even pause if he heard this from an Indian Ambassador. India's latest export to the West - Aman Ki Asha

I am actually happy that someone made a statement like this. The next time US pontificates to us about how "India & Pakistan are both victims of terror", we should point them to Ambassador Powers and ask "Just like how Daniel Pearl and Al Qaeda were both victims of terror?"
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

A_Gupta wrote:
That is the nature of unfettered capitalism and unfettered materialism. Everything is a business. Even inviting relatives or friends over for dinner is supposedly an opportunity to introduce them to some new products and make some sales/marketing commission by doing so.

Some even take tax deductions for these parties.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

matrimc, They should have been working for Goebells in an earlier life.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Ub, TOI reports:

Teesta Setalvad applies for anticipatory bail

How reliable are the Berkeley group when one of their own is seeking anticipatory bail in India?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Amber G. »

matrimc wrote:Wiki entry on Ambassador Power's husband Cass Sunstein
Oh, Prof Carl Sunstein, old friend of Brf, (or friend of a friend) .. (Ex)Professor of law at University of Chicago, and soulmate (or ex-soulmate - he is now married to SP) of Ethics professor, philosopher, classicist, and professor of law also of University of Cicago and mentioned in "Lashkar-e-Pinocchio" - click for details... none other than Martha Nussbaum! (Well known love triangle - of that era in U of C)

Her (Martha N & endorsed by CS) theory was that Godhara fire was spontaneous combustion or something made up to malign poor people who lit the fire.

Last mentioned by me in 2008 here:
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 08#p579608

Or by gerard

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... um#p579548
Consider first an op-ed article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times by Martha Nussbaum, a well-known professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago. The article was headlined “Terrorism in India has many faces.” But one face that Nussbaum fails to mention specifically is that of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamic terror group originating in Pakistan that seems to have been centrally involved in the attack on Mumbai.

This is because Nussbaum’s main concern is not explaining or curbing Islamic terror. Rather, she writes that “if, as now seems likely, last week’s terrible events in Mumbai were the work of Islamic terrorists, that’s more bad news for India’s minority Muslim population.” She deplores past acts of Hindu terror against India’s Muslims. She worries about Muslim youths being rounded up on suspicion of terrorism with little or no evidence. And she notes that this is “an analogue to the current ugly phenomenon of racial profiling in the United States.”
By the way, do not underestimate Prof Cass Sunstein, he is a potential supreme court judge candidate in Obama's short list.
Vayutuvan
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Vayutuvan »

Oh mah gawd :-o. I sure do remember Prof. Nussbaum.
Suraj
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Suraj »

Major 'progress' in the offing at the US SD - now ambassadors will arrive knowing fully well that the sun rises in the east:
US diplomats to Obama: Ambassador nominees should really know something about their destination
Obama’s ambassadorial picks have had a rough go of it recently in their Senate confirmation hearings. The nominee for the top U.S. post in Norway, hotel executive George Tsunis, called one of the political parties in the ruling coalition a “fringe element” and described the country as having a president (it’s a constitutional monarchy). Colleen Bell is a producer of the soap opera "The Bold and The Beautiful," but put in a performance of the Stammering and the Not-Up-to-Speed when she couldn’t say what America’s interests in Hungary were.

There have been other cringe-inducing moments. Democratic former Sen. Max Baucus, nominated for the top diplomatic job in Beijing, told former colleagues, “I’m no real expert on China” — a weird statement from the lawmaker who until recently was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that overseas trade issues. And Obama campaign donation “bundler” Noah Bryson Mamet, tapped to be ambassador to Argentina, had this to say when Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked whether he’d ever traveled there: “I haven't had the opportunity yet to be there. I've traveled pretty extensively around the world, but I haven't yet had a chance.”

Tsunis and Bell were both big-time “bundlers” of contributions for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. And biographies provided by the White House do not list any particular foreign policy interests or connections to Norway or Hungary.

In recent history, presidents have largely stuck to a 70-30 ratio of career diplomats to political appointees, according to data compiled by AFSA. In his first term, Obama nominated 63 percent career to 37 percent political. His second term so far shows nominees running at 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent.

Political appointees, including donors, often get prestige postings in friendly, prosperous countries like Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Those countries have important relationships with the United States — and large, seasoned diplomatic staffs that manage day-to-day affairs.

Some political appointees do thrive. Charles Rivkin made a name for himself at the head of the entertainment companies that gave the world “The Muppets” and “Yo Gabba Gabba.” But he got sterling reviews for his work as ambassador to France — it didn’t hurt that he speaks French. Rivkin recently won Senate confirmation to be assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.

Others flame out in spectacular fashion.

Democratic fundraiser Cynthia Stroum was so “bullying, hostile, and intimidating” that morale at the U.S. embassy in Luxembourg plummeted. She focused too much on a bathroom renovation and improperly circumvented State Department rules to get reimbursed for buying a queen-size mattress, according to a State Department inspector general’s report.

The Southern California finance co-chairwoman of Obama’s 2008 campaign, Nicole Avant, went missing from the embassy in the Bahamas for 276 days between September 2009 and November 2011, according to a January 2012 State Department inspector general’s report. Her absences included 102 “personal leave” days, and 77 business travel days to the United States, just 23 of those on official orders.

At an April 2011 Democratic National Committee fundraiser, Obama gave Avant a shout-out.

“And our ambassador to the Bahamas, Nicole Avant, is in the house,” he said, to laughter from the crowd. “It’s a nice gig, isn’t it?”

A nice gig? If you can get it.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by krithivas »

From an accuracy stand point of view - This thread should be re-titled to "India-US Relationship News and Discussion" from "India-US Strategic News and Discussion".
Prem
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapotheca ... -patients/
Some Indian Generic Drug Companies Are Selling Shoddy, Ineffective, FDA-Approved Medicines To U.S. Patients
Avik Roy Avik Roy, DINESH THAKUR, ROGER BATE and AMIR ATTARAN
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg just wrapped up a trip to India to rebuild trust with her Indian counterparts in the wake of serial drug quality violations among Indian generic manufacturers. The quality lapses in India—which supplies more drugs to the United States than any other country—have become so unnerving that U.S. physicians are for the first time publicly voicing concern. At a recent event at the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Harry Lever, a senior cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said he has found inconsistent quality among Indian generics and routinely switches patients off of them to secure therapeutic effect.Independent data support these concerns. Study after study has shown that at least five per cent of Indian medicines sold in India fail basic quality control tests.Unfortunately, India seems intransigent. In a recent interview with Business Standard, an Indian newspaper, the country’s Drug Controller General, G.N. Singh, was quoted as saying, “We don’t recognize and are not bound by what the U.S. is doing and is inspecting. The FDA may regulate its country, but it can’t regulate India on how India has to behave or how to deliver.”It is therefore no surprise that instead of making serious commitments during Commissioner Hamburg’s visit, Indian officials instead asked FDA to provide advanced notice of manufacturing facility inspections and let them “shadow” FDA inspectors—presumably to learn from FDA how they can hold their own inspectors to the highest standards.
This would be a mistake. By opening its playbook to India’s FDA—the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)—the U.S. FDA may inadvertently make it easier for Indian companies to cheat, and to pass inspections as and when they happen, while conducting business as usual when they don’t. After all for Indian drug companies, even the most generous bribe would be far less expensive than failing an FDA inspection.CDSCO has been repeatedly cited by the country’s own Parliamentary Committee on Health for corruption and colluding with local companies. Endorsement letters from doctors have been faked to secure marketing authorizations, products approved without conducting proper clinical trials, and bribes paid by companies to speed approval of products. Just last month, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation caught a CDSCO Deputy Controller red-handed accepting bribes to renew the operating license of a blood bank.Training to secure the safety of American patients is an investment that FDA can and should make. But it must first ensure that it has a trusted and honest partner that wants to be trained. Before any such policy is put in place, FDA must secure a commitment from the Indian government to take drug quality seriously.For starters, CDSCO should be run by a qualified public-health trained individual—not a political appointee, as is currently the case. If India doesn’t have such people, it should hire from overseas like it did for the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Furthermore, the position should rest at the Ministerial level, so cabinet meetings on drug policy are not dominated by the Commerce Department, which narrowly promotes Indian businesses and its drug companies regardless of quality concerns.Before FDA opens up its inspections dossiers, CDSCO should spend at least one year showing the FDA how it inspects Indian facilities today and enforces its own standards to ensure quality medicines for Indian patients. If India wants its drug companies to continue to tap its largest export market, then the Indian government should be prepared to demonstrate that it is financing and equipping its own inspectors properly—and enforcing penalties when companies fail.If and when the FDA starts sharing its inspection plans, the outcome should be monitored closely for undue influence and to see if warnings were provided to Indian manufacturers. This data ought to be provided publicly in the FDA’s annual report.

A good example of an effective approach to international enforcement is what the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority did last month when it found safety lapses among India-based air-carriers. It downgraded Indian aviation to category two, limiting their ability to serve the US market. The onus to take corrective action is now solely on Indian authorities. This approach provides strong incentive to the Indian government and its airline industry to get its act together.Congress should take a page from this book and strengthen the FDA Safety and Innovation Act by imposing severe penalties in the form of trade barriers on any country that repeatedly exports poor quality medicine to America. It should also sunset funding for most foreign operations of the FDA at a future date. That will both save money and give the Indian government an incentive to strengthen CDSCO to a point where it ensures ongoing market access to America. Ultimately, it will improve safety for U.S. patients.
Dinesh Thakur is the Executive Chairman of Medassure Global Compliance Corporation. Roger Bate is the author of Phake: The Deadly World of Falsified and Substandard Medicine. Amir Attaran is a Professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at the University of Ottawa.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

These are called non-tariff barriers.
If US doesn't want they are welcome not to buy Indian pharma products.


Jhujar, this golbal compliance is the new big thing. A lot of former software folks are into this gravy train.
Prem
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

ramana wrote:These are called non-tariff barriers.
If US doesn't want they are welcome not to buy Indian pharma products.
Jhujar, this global compliance is the new big thing. A lot of former software folks are into this gravy train.
These Canada Visa holder Ganga Dins are so blind to their own conflict of interest in writing this article. The are presuming Indians in this business are all corrupt and ignorant and FDA is stupid, thus the free advise. Their smugness shows in the use of threatning language.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by sunilUpa »

Some of the Indian generic companies are really digging a hole for themselves! USV is the latest to get a warning letter for data manipulation! Others such as Dr.Reddys, Sun, Cadila, Glenmark etc are doing very well.
Prem
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Prem »

sunilUpa wrote:Some of the Indian generic companies are really digging a hole for themselves! USV is the latest to get a warning letter for data manipulation! Others such as Dr.Reddys, Sun, Cadila, Glenmark etc are doing very well.
Lat week Sun Pharma just got FDA approval for their osteoporosis drug.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by sunilUpa »

Jhujar wrote:
sunilUpa wrote:Some of the Indian generic companies are really digging a hole for themselves! USV is the latest to get a warning letter for data manipulation! Others such as Dr.Reddys, Sun, Cadila, Glenmark etc are doing very well.
Lat week Sun Pharma just got FDA approval for their osteoporosis drug.
OT but Sun is really doing very well in terms of business strategy and growth. I rate Dr.Reddys to be the best interns of quality.
Philip
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Philip »

Suraj,what an earth shattering discovery by the US SD! So all this time,US envoys have served in nations knowing nothing about them.So how were they chosen for their designated countries? No wonder we've had ambassadors who've treated us as if we were Pakis! Like the Vatican,who have now agreed with Gallileo a few centuries late,better late for the State Dept. too.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

If this keeps up there may be a museum of yindoos in Ulan Bator as well. :eek: I don't dare go look in detail, because that may waste the next 6 months ranting about the stuff there. But the pictures are interesting. Wonder if they have pictures of the heyday of PIGS (1970s-90s) and DOOs (1998- 2003) as well. These days it's more RSBIUS and ABCDs.

And, UNPHAIR!!! Why eej this not called SOUTH ASIAN Museum, what about PAKIS?? :(( :((
p.s. pssssst! wonder eeph mohterma madhuri dixit eej featured there?
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

The recent spate of issues(pharma, FDA, whatnot) being raised by US shows that DK episode was not a one off incident but a systemic issue with US political groups. I think until 2017 India can write off the relations.

The reasons are US has too many pressures to change itself and finds India a conveinent whipping boy to divert attention from its own issues.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Vayutuvan »

But as the smithsonian exhibit suggests, some culture, natural ally, Indian American contributions will be thrown our way in place of any substantial tangible improvement of win-win business relations.
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by merlin »

ramana wrote:The recent spate of issues(pharma, FDA, whatnot) being raised by US shows that DK episode was not a one off incident but a systemic issue with US political groups. I think until 2017 India can write off the relations.

The reasons are US has too many pressures to change itself and finds India a conveinent whipping boy to divert attention from its own issues.
Can write off for the foreseeable future also. Or, when was the Hyde act passed?
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Hello ppl: any gyan on Wasp's Nest? Time is running out while we sit around with the betel-paan. Remember 2002-2003? :eek: The yaks in Northern Himachal are getting just too old and weak to be whipped into any great energy level, and there are so few of us any more.
anmol
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by anmol »

No Campaign Blunders in Sight
by Teresita C. Schaffer, brookings.edu
February 18th 2014

The brickbats cast at the Obama administration for its appointment of unqualified candidates to important ambassadorial jobs notably did not include any directed at envoys to the South Asian countries. Unlike the representatives Obama has nominated this year to the fleshpots of Western Europe and other comfortable parts of the world, all six American ambassadors assigned to South Asia are career Foreign Service officers, five with previous experience in their host countries or elsewhere in the region. Campaign bundlers and other would-be politically-appointed ambassadors haven’t been breaking down the doors to reach this challenging and often dangerous part of the world. With some noteworthy exceptions, mostly but not exclusively in India, those among them who have been chosen have not brought assets to their embassies that Foreign Service officers could not have provided. The South Asia experience makes a good case for the assignment of FSOs as ambassadors.

India:

This career appointee monopoly is unusual in South Asia. For years assignments to the demanding job of ambassador to India and to other chief of mission positions in the region have been given to both political appointees and career diplomats. Most of the non-professional ambassadors sent to India had had impressive careers before reaching New Delhi. Though there were some weak reeds among them – as there were among the career appointees who served there -- for the most part they carried out their jobs well.

Recent politically appointed ambassadors have generally had successful prior careers in American public life. Richard Celeste, a Clinton appointee, was governor of Ohio and head of the Peace Corps. Much earlier, in the 1960s, he had played an important role at Embassy New Delhi as special assistant to Ambassador Chester Bowles. David Mulford, sent to India by George W. Bush, had been undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs before taking on the New Delhi assignment at a crucial time in bilateral relations. His successor Timothy Roemer, an Obama appointee, had been a senior member of the House of Representatives. Only the most rabid advocates of the “leave diplomacy to the diplomats” school can seriously fault these assignments.

The career officers recent administrations have sent to Embassy New Delhi have also been highly regarded. They include two Foreign Service officers who are legendary diplomatic figures in their own time, Thomas Pickering and Frank Wisner. The highly talented incumbent, Nancy Powell, the first American woman assigned as ambassador to India, is now on her third assignment there. She has also served as ambassador to Pakistan and to Nepal and has held other senior positions in the region. She was also ambassador to two African countries.

The practice of mixing political and career appointees in assignments to New Delhi dates back to the 1980s. For the quarter century before then, successive administrations were persuaded that only nominees with claims to importance in public life and to personal access to the president and other top U.S. leaders would be acceptable to the Indian government. Conventional wisdom had it that the Indians would regard the appointment of a “mere” Foreign Service officer as a signal that the United States had downgraded the importance it gave their country.

Many of the political appointees who were assigned to Embassy New Delhi in those years had in fact had distinguished roles in public life and could plausibly claim that they knew their way around the White House and other Washington foreign policymaking circles. But not all of them proved effective either in helping shape the policies Washington pursued toward India or in winning the personal and professional regard of the Indian government. Some, such as Ellsworth Bunker and Chester Bowles on his first Delhi assignment, were superb chiefs of mission; others, like Bowles on his second ambassadorial posting and his successor Kenneth Keating had little influence either at home or in India.

This long-standing practice of “no career diplomat need apply” ended with the appointment of FSO Harry Barnes as ambassador in 1981. Barnes, who served in New Delhi at a difficult but promising period in U.S.-Indian relations, came to be regarded by Indians and Americans alike as one of the best ambassadors Washington had assigned there. Unlike many of the political appointees, he was superbly aware of the Washington power structure and process, and knew where to plug in to maximize his influence on policymaking. If the Indians had any complaints about being “downgraded” in America’s regard, they never voiced them. (See our posting, “In Memoriam: Ambassador Harry Barnes in India.”)

Pakistan:

Before its breakup following the 1971 Bangladesh War, a number of non-career ambassadors were assigned to Pakistan. But since that time, all the ambassadors sent to Islamabad have been career officers. This probably reflects Pakistan’s diminished attractiveness to would-be political candidates for the job. It has become a tough assignment and in recent years a dangerous one. Political appointees posted to Pakistan earlier worked in more pleasant circumstances -- though riding the roller-coaster of U.S. - Pakistan relations often posed substantive challenges. These earlier appointees would not have enjoyed life as much at the present-day mission, where the embassy staff, separated from their families, huddle behind compound walls, travel in heavily guarded convoys, and must deal with an unending procession of high-level official visitors from Washington.

Most of the career appointees assigned to Pakistan in recent years had not previously served there or elsewhere in South Asia. Notable exceptions included Nancy Powell, now ambassador to India; William Milam, who had been ambassador to Bangladesh; and Arnold Raphel, who had served as a deputy chief of Embassy Islamabad’s political section. Raphel, an outstanding officer who was ambassador in the late 1980s, was killed while traveling with Pakistan President Zia Al-Haq when the president’s plane mysteriously exploded. Almost all of the career ambassadors were highly regarded as skilled professional diplomats both in Washington and by the Pakistanis with whom they worked. As a group they were considered far more competent than some of the political appointees -- such as West Virginia coal mine operator Joseph Farland, President Nixon’s poor choice for the job -- who served as ambassadors during the earlier period.

Afghanistan:

The United States first established a diplomatic mission in Kabul during World War II. Earlier, the chief of the U.S. mission in Tehran had been dually accredited to Afghanistan. Of the resident ambassadors who served between then and the decision to limit relations with the Communist government that held power during the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, all but one were career officers. The exception was Robert Neumann, a prominent academic who was appointed by President Johnson and carried on under Nixon. (Neumann’s son Ronald, a career Foreign Service officer, served in the same position during the George W. Bush administration.) The last of this early series of ambassadors to Afghanistan was Adolph Dubs. Dubs, a Soviet expert, was kidnapped by an extremist group in Kabul and tragically killed during a botched rescue operation.

Full U.S.-Afghan diplomatic relations were only restored after the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001. Most of the ambassadors subsequently assigned were career officers. There were two notable exceptions. One was Zalmay Khalilzad, who served in Kabul for a year and a half during the first George W. Bush administration. An Afghan by birth and an academic by background, Khalilzad had earlier been a senior Afghanistan specialist on the staffs of the National Security Council and the State Department. He typifies the academic who parlays his skills into an influential Washington policy-making position and then an ambassadorial assignment. He went on to serve with distinction as ambassador to Iraq and the United Nations. The other non-career officer to lead Embassy Kabul was Lt. General (retired) Karl Eikenberry. Eikenberry’s appointment was remarkable in that he had earlier served twice in the NATO-led military operation in Afghanistan, the second time as chairman of the Combined Forces Command not long before he took over as ambassador.

Sri Lanka and Nepal:

For many years, Washington sent a mix of career and non-career ambassadors to head the embassies in Colombo and Kathmandu. More recently only career officers have been assigned there. It seems likely that as with Pakistan the deterioration of the quality of life for diplomats in both countries reduced the enthusiasm of would-be political appointees to seek these posts. Both embassies, along with the embassy in Bangladesh, are often awarded to senior regional specialists who have served many tours of duty in South Asia and in Washington positions dealing with the region.
Before Sri Lanka became less attractive to would-be political appointees, the Eisenhower administration named Kentucky retail store magnate Maxwell Gluck as ambassador. At his Senate confirmation hearing Gluck was famously unable to name the head of the Sri Lankan government. This classic diplomatic gaffe is still remembered more than a half century later. (The New York Times cited it in a front-page story it ran last week on the inability of Obama’s ambassadorial nominees to answer senators’ questions.)

A far better appointment to Embassy Colombo was the Carter administration’s choice of W. Howard Wriggins, a highly regarded academic expert and writer on Sri Lankan matters. Wriggins was sent there following Washington assignments dealing with South Asian affairs at the National Security Council and the State Department. He sought, rather unwisely in our view, to maintain both his diplomatic and academic personae while serving as ambassador. When we questioned the appropriateness of his making no secret of his writing, as ambassador, a biography of incumbent Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayawardene and interviewing the president in the process, he was quite unperturbed. He told us that when he went to the president’s residence for an interview, he used his own small car, not the ambassadorial limousine!

Bangladesh:

Bangladesh stands out as a model for proponents of assigning professional diplomats to ambassadorial jobs. In the forty-two years since the United States (rather belatedly) recognized independent Bangladesh in 1972, all fourteen ambassadors have been career officers. (One of these was from the U.S. Agency of International Development – USAID. The rest have been regular Foreign Service officers.)

As noted, many of the ambassadors came to Dhaka with considerable regional experience. To cite only the more recent ones, James Moriarty had already been ambassador to Nepal and acting assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs before reaching Bangladesh. His successor, Dan Mozena, who now heads the embassy, was political counselor there in an earlier incarnation and had also served at Embassy New Delhi.

What about those brickbats hurled at recent Obama appointees? Some were clearly deserved, such as the one cast at the nominee for Norway for incorrectly characterizing an anti-immigrant political party that turned out to be a member of the government. The inability of the nominee to Hungary to recall U.S. strategic interests there merited another “ouch.” But some of the criticisms were hardly “hanging offenses.” Ambassadors have served well without being lifelong scholars on their country of assignment, or indeed without having traveled there before. As the South Asian experience suggests, the important qualifications include knowing the dynamics of the region and its relations with Washington, and putting in the hard work of building relationships, both personal and official. Perhaps most importantly, a good ambassador needs to know, and to represent, the interests of the United States. In South Asia, career officers have done well by this standard; so have most of the non-career appointees.
anmol
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by anmol »

Hindu nationalists are gaining power in India - and silencing enemies along the way
by Sunny Hundal, independent.co.uk
February 26th 2014

When Penguin abruptly accepted defeat in an Indian court and withdrew a controversial book a fortnight ago, the backlash was so ferocious it took almost everyone by surprise.

A small, hardline Hindu group said it had found the book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, by the academic Wendy Doniger offensive towards their religion, forcing the mighty conglomerate to retreat in the face of a lawsuit. Two authors subsequently asked the publisher to cancel contracts and pulp their books, too, a move called "unprecedented" by one Indian newspaper.

Other famous writers in its stable protested at Penguin, including the activist Arundhati Roy, who accused it of succumbing to "fascists". On Twitter, images of the Penguin logo circulated with its name replaced by "Chicken".

In the same week, the United States ended its decade-long boycott of the controversial politician Narendra Modi after its envoy met him to discuss bilateral relations. Modi is the Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition party, the BJP, and favourite to win the elections in April. The State Department had cancelled his visa in 2005 on grounds of "severe violations of religious freedom" and had repeatedly refused to review its policy until pragmatism forced it hand.

The withdrawal of Doniger's book and the US rapprochement with Modi are not unrelated. Liberals in India say they feel under attack and more despondent than ever before about the right to expression as religious groups increasingly flex their muscles. Many fear that Hindu nationalists will be further emboldened if Modi, their most demagogic leader, is elected prime minister.

The fact that it is 25 years to the month since Salman Rushdie received a fatwa for The Satanic Verses has not been lost on some. "We are in the middle of a cultural emergency and the levels of oppression in the cultural area should worry us as much as the political oppression [in India] of the 1970s," Rushdie said at a debate last week. A columnist at the Indian Express newspaper said Penguin's capitulation represented "the pulping of liberal India".

Just a week earlier, a mob calling itself the Hindu Sena (Hindu Army) burnt copies of Caravan, the Delhi-based magazine, over an interview with a Hindu extremist who alleged that a prominent religious leader had sanctioned attacks across India that killed more than 100 people between 2006 and 2008. "Groups of all stripes have been emboldened by the fact that, in India, freedom to take offence routinely trumps freedom of expression or freedom of academic research," Sandip Roy, a senior editor at FirstPost.com, says.

"Whether it's Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin being hounded out of West Bengal, Salman Rushdie not being allowed to make a tele-appearance at Jaipur, or Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey being taken out of the Mumbai university syllabus, India's political parties have routinely allowed fringe groups to grab the limelight. If they feel the party in power is more ideologically sympathetic to it, of course it will feel as Dinanath Batra [the man behind the lawsuit against Doniger] did, that 'the good times are coming'."


Hindus don't have a reputation for religious extremism, but over the past 25 years an increasingly aggressive movement has grown and started flexing its muscles. The list of authors who have faced ruinous lawsuits, had books banned or lives threatened in India is growing alarmingly long. (Not all of the bans relate to Hindu groups; Muslims and Christians have demanded censorship, too.)

It is also less understood that the rise of this movement in India has been partly fuelled by activists in the UK and US, who in turn have pushed similar agendas. If Modi is voted in as prime minister, there are fears that his election would have repercussions not only in India but abroad, too.

Hindu fundamentalism, also called Hindutva, is driven by a trio of organisations in India called the Sangh Parivar – the family. The RSS is an ultra-conservative group that demands unflinching patriotism and preservation of Hindu culture; the VHP is their religious arm; the BJP is the political arm and India's main opposition party. There are smaller offshoots too including a violent paramilitary wing called the Bajrang Dal and the hardline Shiv Sena party in Mumbai whose founder adored Hitler.

"Hindu nationalism is built on the idea that India is a Hindu majoritarian nation, with Muslims and Christians cast as the minority, 'other'," Rahul Verma, a journalist and researcher on the subject, says. He says Hindu nationalism in recent years has fed off the Islamophobic, post-9/11 "Muslim terrorist" narrative.

Chetan Bhatt, the director at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics, has also spent years studying this movement. "Narendra Modi has been an activist for the Hindu far-right paramilitary RSS and its affiliates for the entirety of his political life. He remains committed to the supremacist ideology of Hindutva which says that India should be an exclusive Hindu nation state in which minorities are treated as second-class citizens or worse."

The movement mushroomed in 1984 when the VHP launched a campaign to reclaim a mosque it said was built on the birthplace of Lord Ram. In 1992, it incited activists to demolish the mosque, sparking riots between Hindus and Muslims across India and propelling the BJP, which took advantage of the controversy, into national consciousness and into government in 1998.


But Narendra Modi became a controversial figure in 2002, when a train with Hindu pilgrims coming from the site of the mosque was set on fire by Muslims, killing 58. That incident immediately sparked riots across the state of Gujarat, where he was still Chief Minister, and more than 2,000 Muslims were killed and thousands made homeless. Reports by various groups including Human Rights Watch found extensive evidence of state participation and complicity in the violence. One of Modi's cabinet ministers, Maya Kodnani, was convicted of orchestrating a massacre and seen handing out swords to Hindus exhorting them to kill Muslims.

A large part of Modi's popularity abroad comes from his message that Gujarat can be a beacon for India's economic development. This Gujarati pride resonates strongly in the UK and United States, where large proportions of Indians are of Gujarati origin. In December 2002, an investigation by Channel 4 News found that some funds from a UK-based aid organisation were going to Hindu groups blamed for the 2002 riots in India. Channel 4's Jonathan Miller reported: "Several inquiries, including one by the British High Commission, saw the hand of the RSS and its associated organisations behind the violence."

Earlier that year, a US campaign called Stop Funding Hate published a report alleging that an American non-profit group was linked to Hindu nationalists in India and had funnelled money to them. Two years later, a report by a British group called Awaaz also illustrated how some British Hindu charities had sent money to extremist organisations in India that preached hatred against Muslims and Christians. The reports were partly the basis for ban on Modi entering Britain or the US.

British and American Hindus are an important source of support, canvassing and even postal votes for the BJP in India. More recently, they have helped to normalise Modi's reputation after the fallout from 2002. On Sunday afternoon, about 20 Gujaratis gathered at the back of a small restaurant in north-west London to discuss how they could help Modi spread his message. I had been told about it by a friend and decided simply to turn up and observe.

At their regular "Modi Tea Club" events, they raise funds and recruit volunteers. One group member, who is planning to run as a local councillor, applauded the US decision to meet Modi and said British Gujaratis had played an instrumental part. "The pressure we put [on the government] in the UK makes a difference around the world," he says, to applause. Next month, their idol will speak to them and hundreds of other groups around the world via satellite to energise them before the elections.


The British Government ended its boycott in October, though a visa is yet to be granted. Among Modi's ardent supporters are the Tory MP Bob Blackman and Labour MP Barry Gardiner, both of whom have large numbers of Hindu-Gujarati constituents. Kamaljeet Jandu, chair of Labour's Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic society, says he was dismayed when Gardiner invited Modi and accuses him of attempting to "whitewash" his past. "Inviting Modi here sends out a dangerous signal that the UK does not care about human rights or religious minorities in India when it doesn't suit us," he says.

The US government faced sustained lobbying in favour of Modi, particularly from the Hindu American Foundation. But he has another ally: the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, which has 10,000 members representing 22,000 hotels across America, 98 per cent of whom have roots in Gujarat.

Zahir Janmohamed, a former US Congressional aide and Amnesty director who was part of coalition to keep Modi out, says: "The Obama administration wanted to meet at the 11th hour so Modi couldn't campaign on the issue." The ban in 2005 was "an effort to stop Modi", he says, but "they've realised they can't stop him now". The coalition focused too much on keeping him out and not enough on India's broader slide towards illiberalism, he says.

A former US State department official, who was willing to comment under condition of anonymity, says the US is in a difficult position. "It becomes harder to not deal with certain leaders as they move higher up their domestic political ladder, so a meeting in India seems to be a middle-of-the-road option. But you can be sure the various groups in the US opposed to normal relations with Modi will not back down. If anything, they will be energised."

This is partly because there are fears of repercussions. "A Modi win in India would undoubtedly strengthen intolerant Hinduism here," Gita Sahgal, a veteran campaigner with Southall Black Sisters who is also the director of the Centre for Secular Space, says. "There will certainly be increased threats to scholarship, and free expression."

Not long after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hindu and Sikh groups, including the VHP some say, campaigned for Asian radio stations in London to drop the word "Asian" so Hindus and Sikhs would not be lumped together with Muslims. An umbrella group called the Hindu Forum of Britain, earlier led by the VHP and the HSS, has campaigned against exhibitions and even Royal Mail stamps for supposedly insulting Hindus. Its former general-secretary, Ramesh Kallidai, also alleged that British Muslims were "aggressively" converting hundreds of British Hindu girls to Islam through intimidation and beatings, even though no such evidence was found by the Metropolitan Police.

"It's imperative to mobilise against the Hindutva organisations in Britain," Sahgal says. "All Indian political parties have played communal politics and fallen short of their ideals but religious and gender inequality is at the heart of the Hindu right agenda."

That agenda could become mainstream if Modi's likely victory strengthens such groups in India and the UK. Twenty-five years on from Rushdie's fatwa, it is paradoxical that some Hindu groups are pushing an ancient religion towards a mirror image of the same hardline Muslim groups that they say they are against. The withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book was a small milestone in what they hope will be that "pulping of liberal India". Tragically, for those of us who believe in liberal, secular values and pluralism, these events may herald an even more terrifying future.
Last edited by anmol on 27 Feb 2014 20:49, edited 1 time in total.
svinayak
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

ramana wrote:The recent spate of issues(pharma, FDA, whatnot) being raised by US shows that DK episode was not a one off incident but a systemic issue with US political groups. I think until 2017 India can write off the relations.

The reasons are US has too many pressures to change itself and finds India a conveinent whipping boy to divert attention from its own issues.
Internal politics inside USA is showing up in other countries.
The religious groups consider foreign policy is also their control and want to bring about change in other countries with the foreign policy
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

In the 1960s/70s, in South Xinjiang there was a book/play/movie called "Ninhgal enne Communist aakki"
Translation:
U made me a Communist
It accurately explained why the Marxist Communist Party and its Left Front swept 109 of 129 seats in the South Xinjiang Assembly elections circa 1967.
Today in India (and the US, and UK), the parallel is
"Ninhgal enne Hindoofundamentalist aakki"

An article like the one above by this Sunni Halal or whatever, is so full of blatant lies that one can only pulp it, not bother to rebut it. I am not saying that this makes the author a liar, mind u, he was probably born that way.
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

UB, The irony is Penguin was founded by Krishna Menon (another mangolian) while a student agitator in London to provide quality paperbacks!!!!
UlanBatori
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by UlanBatori »

Maybe that's a good model to emulate today? Through the Internet?
ramana
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

What do you think BRF is?
A lonely oasis for indics to rage and sometimes think.
svinayak
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by svinayak »

anmol wrote:
This is partly because there are fears of repercussions. "A Modi win in India would undoubtedly strengthen intolerant Hinduism here," Gita Sahgal, a veteran campaigner with Southall Black Sisters who is also the director of the Centre for Secular Space, says. "There will certainly be increased threats to scholarship, and free expression."

Not long after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hindu and Sikh groups, including the VHP some say, campaigned for Asian radio stations in London to drop the word "Asian" so Hindus and Sikhs would not be lumped together with Muslims. An umbrella group called the Hindu Forum of Britain, earlier led by the VHP and the HSS, has campaigned against exhibitions and even Royal Mail stamps for supposedly insulting Hindus. Its former general-secretary, Ramesh Kallidai, also alleged that British Muslims were "aggressively" converting hundreds of British Hindu girls to Islam through intimidation and beatings, even though no such evidence was found by the Metropolitan Police.

"It's imperative to mobilise against the Hindutva organisations in Britain," Sahgal says. "All Indian political parties have played communal politics and fallen short of their ideals but religious and gender inequality is at the heart of the Hindu right agenda."

That agenda could become mainstream if Modi's likely victory strengthens such groups in India and the UK. Twenty-five years on from Rushdie's fatwa, it is paradoxical that some Hindu groups are pushing an ancient religion towards a mirror image of the same hardline Muslim groups that they say they are against. The withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book was a small milestone in what they hope will be that "pulping of liberal India". Tragically, for those of us who believe in liberal, secular values and pluralism, these events may herald an even more terrifying future.
[/quote]

How foreign countries are involved in the internal politics of India

Once outside India all the people of India is one people. There is no politics outside India.


When fake narrative is used then false impression is given
Twenty-five years on from Rushdie's fatwa, it is paradoxical that some Hindu groups are pushing an ancient religion towards a mirror image of the same hardline Muslim groups that they say they are against. The withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book was a small milestone in what they hope will be that "pulping of liberal India".
These guys think that political parties control the religion Hinduism and think hinduism has a political system.
They want to create a western narrative about India and Indian political system. They want to create their interpretation of Indian events not looking at the Indian narrative. Ignoring Indian narrative from its root history is clever plan
Last edited by svinayak on 27 Feb 2014 21:09, edited 1 time in total.
Singha
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Re: India-US Strategic News and Discussion

Post by Singha »

I am sure they can discuss and debate their terrifying future sipping red wine in literary clubs in liberal arts western campuses.

none of this tribe have remotely any interest in working in india even under a friendly UPA regime.
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