Indian Interests

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Lilo
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Lilo »

Swapan Dasgupta‏ @swapan55
Those who argued a person of foreign origin can be PM are now arguing that a person wearing saffron is not fit to be CM of UP

https://twitter.com/swapan55/status/843359203779518464
bharotshontan
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by bharotshontan »

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/ ... 848920.cms
Who is authoring these articles for consumption by Indian audiences? I will mark my comments in red...
WASHINGTON: A large number of Indian Americans turned up at the CNN office in downtown Chicago to protest against a documentary they allege portrayed Hinduism in a negative light . they allege?
"The documentary aired by CNN portrayed Hinduism in a negative light. This is now what Hinduism is all about," said Bharat Barai, an eminent Indian-American from Chicago area who attended the peaceful protest against CNN in front of its Chicago office.
Braving light rain, several hundred Indian-Americans turned up for the protest rally.
Barai alleged that the CNN documentary on Hinduism produced by special reporter Reza Aslan showed practices of five Aghori Bawas.
"This was his picture of Hinduism projected to the world on CNN," said a protest letter distributed on the occasion.
"The grotesque practices of five individuals have nothing to do with Hinduism, they are not part of any Hindu scriptures or Hindu teachings," Barai said. Another Reza-Asslan type gross generalization of Hindus using one individual from an audience. What is the authority of this Mr. Barai to speak as to whether the Aghori Babas are part or not part of Hinduism? Why is defending Hinduism from hateful propaganda requiring us to throw the Aghori Babas under the bus? Is this creating a template of showing Hindus following how "moderate" Muslims taqiya to write off Islamist terrorism, thus setting a precedent for even more equal-equal?
Hindu-American groups from across the country have held several protests against the CNN after the airing of the documentary on March 5, including New York, Washington, Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
This was the largest protest so far.
Vamsee Juluri, an Indian-American professor of Media studies at the University of San Francisco called the show "reckless, racist and dangerously anti-immigrant".
Pointing out several inaccuracies, mistranslations and mis-characterisations in the show he said, "It is one saddening reality that despite having had immigrants in America for so many decades now, a major news channel like CNN still cannot do better than the old Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sort of story when it comes to India".
"Far from wanting to experience any spirituality within Hinduism, Reza Aslan seems to have gone to India only to confirm his Orientalist biases," said Chandrashekar Wagh from the Coalition Against Hinduphobia.
In a statement posted on Facebook, Aslan said his documentary is not about Hinduism, but about Aghori, a mystical Hindu sect known for extreme rituals.
Aslan said there are people who are offended by the episode, especially when it comes to its treatment of such issues as caste discrimination, which remains a touchy subject for many Hindus in America.
Falijee
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Re: Indian Interests

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Modi govt privately took Amazon to task over insulting flag doormat
India’s reaction to an Amazon.com website selling doormats resembling the country’s flag involved an unprecedented public and private offensive against the U.S. company by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, a document shows.Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj publicly threatened in January to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its Canadian website. But a document seen by Reuters shows the government went even further in private, asking its U.S. and Canadian embassies to raise the matter “strongly” with Amazon’s senior leadership.
India also escalated the matter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and prompted a global audit by the company to “ensure that such products are not listed on any of its other” websites around the world, according to the document.mazon, which removed the products within 24 hours and apologised to the government, declined to comment.
Much is at stake for Amazon in India, where it plans to invest more than $5 billion as it takes on home-grown Flipkart <IPO-FLPK.N> and Snapdeal for a bigger share of the internet services market in the world’s fastest growing major economy.Amazon has now made Indian laws that govern the use of the national flag and other emblems “an integral part of the global compliance process,” the document said, outlining the steps Amazon and India have taken since the incident.
Last year, Modi presented a global leadership award to Bezos at a U.S.-India Business Council summit in Washington.Amazon told the government that it had strengthened its in-house compliance units that monitor products sold by third-party vendors on its websites, the document said.“Amazon India has conveyed that it is fully committed to respecting Indian laws and customs,” the document said.MNC, all over the world , only understand the language of "money" ; if it hurts them financially , like in this case, they will comply !
Arjun
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Arjun »

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/being-bjp-lite-will-result-in-congress-zero-shashi-tharoor/articleshow/57980912.cms
Shashi Tharoor wrote:And my perspective is that intolerance is un-Hindu
The smarter question to ask and where there are no easy answers is - would the Congress tolerate the intolerant? Should Hinduism tolerate the intolerant?
LokeshC
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by LokeshC »

Justified violence is part of Dharma. The whole basis of Bhagwat Gita is on the reasons to use justified violence, even if its against ones own blood.
kit
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by kit »

LokeshC wrote:Justified violence is part of Dharma. The whole basis of Bhagwat Gita is on the reasons to use justified violence, even if its against ones own blood.

boss .. it is duty of a warrior to fight when he is supposed to. The Gita puts more emphasis on action {karma} than non doing . Arjuna being a kshatriya was duty bound to fight for his side of a war and it was not upto him to decide right and wrong.

No the Gita does not justify violence . A soldiers karma is to fight for his king.
LokeshC
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by LokeshC »

kit wrote:No the Gita does not justify violence . A soldiers karma is to fight for his king.
So Karma justifies fighting.... And what does fighting involve?
kit
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by kit »

LokeshC wrote:
kit wrote:No the Gita does not justify violence . A soldiers karma is to fight for his king.
So Karma justifies fighting.... And what does fighting involve?
as i understand the Gita has a concept of heaven for those killed fighting for duty and honour. If you die fighting for your ideal/duty you have lived your life well. Hindu scriptures does not have the concept of death being an end rather a transition. The fighting and killing done by a kshatriya / soldier who are duty/honour bound to his king/country is more justified than a person who does it for his own benefit / greed
kit
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by kit »

i guess the tricky word here is "violence" . In english it does not encompass the concept of war in the sattvic sense. Violence is more mindless mayhem disoder and chaos . War need not be violence but violence can be a war. War involving civilan population is violence for example.
LokeshC
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by LokeshC »

Boss. We are arguing semantics now. I told that violence (in the form of fighting, capturing, defending and what not) is very justified if its a part of ones Dharma. Upholding dharma is a key thing in our scriptures. If one has to apply violence in the process of doing ones duty, then it is justified. Which seems to be the same thing you are saying, but using different words.

Let us move on.
Arjun
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Arjun »

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 018664.cms

Result of this ''survey' suggests that on average every Muslim in India has two Hindus who count him / her as a close friend. That's an amazingly high figure !!
bharotshontan
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by bharotshontan »

There's a video circulating of Muslim women performing aarti on Ram Navami in Varanasi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a1WZ1k69iI

My thoughts on this presentation is, are these people actually normally burqa-clad or is whichever viraat Hindu group paying them also telling them to come dressed in their burqas? Always wondered about this regarding the topi-wearing momeens at Modi rallies also. How much of this is our own attempt at psyops? Also is this helpful in larger context? Would it not be better to just ghar wapsi these syncretic people than continue harping on the fact that they are of Muslim backgrounds? Methinks this identity allowed to fester in the background remains a pitfall. Today's syncretic can easily turn into tomorrow's fundamentalist. Just read another article today about this:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 019722.cms
I mean, what is happening is clear as daylight. Nothing "vanishing" about this. Muslims used to exist in Bharat as a "jaati" in yesteryears. So you'd have so-called Muslim bhaktas of Kali or Gorakhnath etc. Today by and large Muslims worldwide have graduated from being a jaati to being a sampradaya. Saying someone is a Muslim bhakta of Kali is as nonsensical as saying a Vaishnav bhakta of Mahadeva (in the Shaivite sense, don't muddy my point by saying all-is-leading-to-same). Just like we understand that Vaishnav is not a jaati but a sampradaya, we need to get it that Muslims are not a jaati but a sampradaya. So in this regard, folks born of Muslim parentage that are doing aarti on Ram Navami, or their kids are memorizing Sanskrit shlokas, or whatever, these people need to be extracted away from any underpinnings to a mythical Muslim jaati, because the risk of them or their descendants down the road one day actually reading their book and turning jihadi will always remain.

Muslims are already one step ahead and saying a person can have a name Akash Kapoor and be a Muslim as long as he has recited Kalmah and prays 5 times a day, believes in Allah and rest of 22 yards. We otoh are sitting here making syncretized so-called Muslims dress up like Taliban in our attempt at psyops, discrediting articles unfavorable towards Hindutva and Indic interests if we see the author name is Abdul Halim, etc. There need to be better thought out ways at digesting this mass of people instead of sensationalism and ostracization.
Prem
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Prem »

https://2ndlook.wordpress.com/2008/01/1 ... -gandhiji/
4000 Years – Hittites & Gandhiji
Separated by 4000 years, what could possibly be common between Gandhiji (2000 years after Christ) and Hittites (2000 years before Christ) – the pre-Greek Indians in the Middle East? Both, the Hittites and Gandhiji, rejected Hammurabi’s “eye-for-an-eye” legal thinking and system – 4000 years apart.Western historians glorified Hammurabi as the world’s first law giver – and Occidental-Levantine (including the Shariat) laws are based on Hammurabi’s legal code of “an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth”. Hammurabi’s laws and edicts were retributive, vengeful and punishment oriented. The focus of Hammurabi’s legal system is to give a ‘fitting’ counter punishment for a defined offense. Roman law calls this lex talionis and the Old Testament advocates an eye for an eye“, (Hebrew: עין תחת עין‎) is a quotation from Exodus 21:23–27.These laws created a system of revenge, fueds and vendettas. The result – a fractured Europe, a rampant history of genocide, a fueding Middle East.The largest prison population in the world is USA, currently at 2 million. The US has more people in prison than the totalitarian regimes of Russia or China. It also has one of the highest crime rates in the world is also USA. Is there a causal link between the Hammurabic legal systems and the crime it seems to engender.This is also the same system that has created, supported, protected the premier slave systems of the world. It is also the same system with a singular record for blood baths and massacres in the history of mankind. This is region and system that gave rise to the three slave religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The three ‘desert religions’, gained their first converts from slaves, but continued with slavery till the 20th century. The 3 ‘desert religions’ instead of reforming slave societies, just enabled the transfer of slave titles. Freedom meant old slaves became the new slave masters.
Gandhiji’s famous position was “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” when asked about the Hammurabi’s “eye for an eye” kind of justice.
The alternate system in that era, 4000 years ago, was the Hittite legal system. We get an insight into the Hittite legal system from (more than) 10,000 clay seals and tablets at Boghaz-koi, unearthed in 1907-08 by Makridi Bey and Hugo Winckler and deciphered by Bedrich Hrozny during 1910-1921. These tablets and seals reveal the legal minds of the Hittites. Hittite law, different from Hammurabi laws, was based on amelioration of the effect of crime and driven less by fear of death and punishment.The Hittites, Mittanis and Elamites (using Indo-Dravidian languages) were Indo Aryans that dominated Asia from Indian borders to European borders till 500 BC. Kassite, the other major ruling clan in Levant’s geography (apart from the Egyptians) heavily adopted Indo Aryan cultural motifs.Hammurabi’s main rival in the Middle East arena was Rama-Sin of Larsa (ruler of Larsa) who ruled for 60 years. Raim Sin (1753?-1693? BC) of Larsa, in Sumer (modern Iraq), ruled over Sumer, Elam – present-day Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Sin is the Assyrian moon goddess (in modern Indian languages, Ram-Sin will be translated to Ramachandra). Ram-Sin assumed the title of ‘king of all lands’, blessed by Goddess ‘Nin Makh’ at ‘Opis’, his second capital in Babylonia. Ram-Sin fought for a long time an inconclusive war with Hammurabi (speculatively identified as ‘Ravana’ of the Indus seals). Ram-Sin, king of Babylonia possibly, was finally able to defeat Hammurabi in the joint action with the chief of Subartu, Hurrian and Mitanni kings. Hammurabi was killed in the fight, speculatively suggested by one of the Indus seals.
4000 years later, Gandhiji, described the western civilisation as a “good idea“. Gandhiji’s knowledge of Hittite legal thought would have been (probably close to) zero as the decipherment of Boghazkoi and other Hittite texts was ongoing and incomplete. Elaborate analysis and the commentary on Hittites and Boghazkoi came after Gandhiji’s death.But, modern Indian law makers and jurists look to the West for getting legal ideas. Under the garb of modernisation, Indian law is becoming negative. Apart from not taking up the challenge of repealing colonial laws, the Indian Government has accepted the colonial legal system (nearly) in toto.Possibly the best example of post-colonial, western-patterned law is the Section 498. A retributive, revengeful law (patterned on western legal models) is now undermining the very structure of Indian society – marriage. Section 498 has has taken away marriages from the social domain into the legal sphere. From being contributory, accommodative, religious and life long, Indian marriage system is becoming extractive, adversarial, contractual, legal and short term. Some in the West do see the value in the Indian system – but India seems to think that West is a way out!
Manish_Sharma
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Manish_Sharma »

Manish_Sharma wrote:A suggestion :
Just like certain "words" automatically get changed to *deleted*

I suggest in case of somebody typing "India" gets changed to "Bharat" and "Indian" = "Bharatiya"
Falijee
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Re: Indian Interests

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Cong MLAs ask Canadian minister Harjit Sajjan to clarify stand on Khalistan
Senior Congress leaders on Friday asked the Canadian defence minister Harjit Singh Sajjan to clarify his stand on the issue of Khalistan.“It is important and in the interest of the good and friendly relationship between India and Canada that Sajjan clarify his stand on this sensitive issue,” MLAs Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sukhbinder Singh Sukh Sarkaria and Navtej Cheema said in a joint statement . The Congress leaders also referred to the Canadian high commission’s statement on the matter, saying it had tried to hide more than clarifying anything. “It is surprising that the high commission has preferred to remain quiet on the specific issue that is of serious concern and consequences for the peace loving Punjabis,” they said. The legislators advised the Akali and Aam Aadmi Party leaders not to try to be more loyal than the king by coming to Sajjan’s defence when he had himself preferred not to deny his association with Khalistani sympathisers and supporters.
Lilo
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Re: Indian Interests

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x-post
chetak wrote:‘Hindu terror’ part of Pak GHQ campaign against India (Sunday Guardian)
Prof. M D Nalapat Apr 24, 2016

The effort to create the bogey of ‘Hindu terror’ was to ‘provide a camouflage net for the activities of domestic terror groups owing allegiance to ISI and also to make Muslims distrust Hindus’.

The $15 billion narcotics lobby in India was used by GHQ Rawalpindi to promote the concept of “Hindu terror”, sources close to that establishment aver. They say that “manufactured evidence was planted about such groups that were accepted at face value by Indian investigators at the time”. The effort to create the bogey of “Hindu terror” was to “provide a camouflage net for the activities of domestic terror groups owing allegiance to the ISI and also to make Muslims distrust Hindus”. Another objective was to make other countries “as suspicious of Indians as they were of Pakistanis”.

However, creating the bogey of “Hindu terror” was only Strand 1 in the design of GHQ to “make the international community regard India and Pakistan as birds of a feather in matters of extremism and terror”. Strand 2 was to “sow suspicion and mistrust about Delhi in Tehran and Kabul”. It will be remembered that cooperation between the security establishments of Iran, Afghanistan and India is vital in order to defeat the designs of the ISI and its proxies against the three countries. Strand 3 was to show to China that “India was facilitating acts of terror against Chinese nationals operating in Pakistan”, thereby passing the blame for such actions from the security establishment in Pakistan, which is honeycombed with ultra-Wahhabis who believe in the establishment of an ISIS Caliphate across the subcontinent. Strand 4 was to ensure that the international community equates India with Pakistan as countries that sponsor terror, extremist and insurgent groups, thereby preventing India from leveraging the international community against Pakistan.
These sources claim that “under the direction of Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif, all four strands are proceeding well”, even though Strand 1 (Hindu terror) appears to have hit rough weather with revelations of the flimsy nature of the charges against the alleged “Hindu terror” perpetrators.

Establishment sources claim that General Raheel Sharif is working on “reversing the global perception that India is the victim and Pakistan the aggressor in the matter of fomenting terror and unrest”. This is being done by “getting India and Pakistan equated in the matter”. “This strategy (of painting India in the same colours as Pakistan was globally regarded) was worked on (by General Sharif) during his time heading the Pakistan military academy around a decade back”.

General Sharif, according to these contacts, “asked for and got set up a special cell which collected information on Narendra Modi while he was Chief Minister in Gujarat”, as the present Prime Minister of India was identified as the likely successor to Manmohan Singh in 2014, in 2011 itself by the GHQ brains trust.{passed onto pakis by the ultra deep congi moles in the Sangh} It will be recalled that the ISI, which functions as per the direction of GHQ, expended considerable effort in seeking to damage the image of Narendra Modi in London, New York and Geneva through the instrumentality of NGOs set up for the purpose of blackening the global image of India, including Khalistan groups{the ISI funded GulabNabi Fai foundation in concert to Dileep Padgaonkar, Kuldip Nayar, Justice Sachar (author of the Sachar report) Gautam Navlakha - all voicing credibility to the "Hindu Terror" bogey while bestowing victimhood to Muslims} that have recently become hyper-active after years of relative somnolence. These NGOs were also given significant traction in Washington and other capitals through “logistical support” by individuals linked to the ISI.

Sources within Pakistan claim that Kulbushan Yadav, accused by GHQ of being an R&AW agent, will only be the first in a long chain of those who are to be paraded globally as evidence that India is involved in destabilisation operations in Pakistan, “especially in seeking to do a Bangladesh in Balochistan and even in assisting terror groups active against the Pakistan state”. They say that nine individuals are now in the custody of the security agencies in Pakistan and they are being coached to come out with stories of Indian involvement, not only in Pakistan but in Iran and Afghanistan as well. They say that in the case of Kulbushan Yadav, “General Sharif personally briefed the Chinese that the Indian national was involved in seeking to blow up a lodge in Gwadar where Chinese technicians were staying and also seek to commit other acts of sabotage along the $45 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”. The Ashraf Ghani government in Afghanistan “has been given dossiers (which purport to show) that India is keeping contact with and assisting elements of the Taliban, contrary to stated policy”, while Iran “has been given dossiers about Yadav using the territory of that country to assist the Baloch not only in Pakistan but in Iran as well”. Soon, “other (so-called) Indian agents will be outed and made to tell how they were active not only against Pakistan, but against China, Afghanistan and Iran as well”.

The sources say that “by 2019, when the present term of Prime Minister Modi ends, the objective is to paint Delhi as South Asia’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and insurgency, far ahead of Rawalpindi on both counts”. Indeed, Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz has publicly called India a “state sponsor of intervention”, including in giving support to terror groups. It is extremely unlikely that any of the unfortunates apprehended by the ISI is a genuine agent, as sources in Pakistan admit that “even the most elementary precautions (such as dead drops, cut-outs and personal meetings) were dispensed with in their operations”. However, the Pakistan side claims that such lack of precautions on the part of the supposed agents was motivated by “a desire for quick results as well as over-confidence”.

Already, Islamabad has briefed ASEAN as well as GCC envoys about manufactured claims of “Indian interference and support to terror”, and after more so-called Indian agents get paraded, more such briefings are likely. In short, Pakistan is following to the letter the rulebook followed by India in the past while exposing the activities of GHQ.

There has also been a ramping up of efforts to ensure a drumbeat of terror strikes in India during the coming two years, which are seen as crucial for the Modi government as it enters 2019, when Lok Sabha elections take place. No less than 13 suicide attacks have taken place in Kashmir since Modi became PM, and an organised effort is on to re-ignite insurgency in the Valley. Simultaneously, “clusters of Indian nationals are being organised in India and in other locations and given directions on what is needed to get done to poison communal relations in India”. It needs to be kept in mind that the ISI recruits from all communities for its activities in India, rather than just a single community. Indeed. “in Nepal, almost all the key ISI facilitators are Hindu”, many involved in the hawala trade, which, together with narcotics, is controlled in South Asia by the ISI.

GHQ is looking warily at Prime Minister Modi’s innovative approach towards diplomacy, and to his outreach towards Pakistan, China and the US. The nightmare scenario for the generals would be a closer military partnership with the US (through the signing of the three Foundation Accords) and ultimately a trillion-dollar commercial partnership with China, beginning with an India-China Economic Corridor that would cut through the Maoist belt across India with roadways and growth opportunities. Fortunately for GHQ, elements in the Indian strategic and security establishment remain wedded to the hyper-cautious approach of the past, and regard with disfavour the breakthrough in India-US and India-China relations that could take place before 2019, in case Prime Minister Modi is able to ensure that “naya soch” enters a system clogged with debris from the past. What is clear is that there is an organised effort by GHQ to blacken the international image of India, and that this is a process in which General Sharif has registered some success. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has lost much ground to the Chief of Army Staff, in large part because the US and China both favour the military rather than the civilian leadership, unlike India.

The “masterstroke” being planned by GHQ, according to sources close to the establishment, is to pin the blame for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on India before 2019, thereby “further planting suspicions about India within the international community”. The coming years will show whether General Sharif will succeed or fail in his efforts at separating the US, Iran, Afghanistan and China from India through allegations that are a mirror image of the charges made against Pakistan by successive governments in Delhi.
Another corroborating article by Sankrant Sanu on Fai+FOIL+FOSA their anti-Indian Pro-Paki Nexus as served by Leftists.
'India' out, 'South Asia' in. How academics ill serve us
Sankrant Sanu May 11, 2016

'South Asian studies' academics in the US would do well to introspect how they wittingly or unwittingly become part of Pakistan's proxy war in wielding influence over academics and policy, says Sankrant Sanu.

In the early 2000s I tracked the activities of an organisation called the Kashmir American Council, started by Ghulam Nabi Fai. KAC conferences regularly included prominent Indian Leftists in the US such as Angana Chatterji who would excoriate India for 'human rights violations' in Kashmir.

According to The Atlantic (external link), Chatterji was among 20 special guests that Fai flew, all expenses paid, to a five-star conference in Uruguay about 'human rights' in Kashmir.

Later Fai was exposed as being a front for Pakistan's spy agency and pleaded guilty (external link) to receiving millions of dollars of illicit ISI funding for his US lobbying efforts.

While Chatterji and others denied knowing about Fai's ISI links, the issues that the Fai episode raised go beyond that. Of concern remains the fact that the anti-India work of certain scholars neatly aligns with Pakistan's advocacy agendas, whether or not direct funding from Pakistan is being received.

Another Indian-origin 'radical' academic Kamala Visweswaran has been leading the fight to erase references to India (external link), and replace these with 'South Asia' from textbooks in California.

How does this relate, if at all, to the issues raised by the Fai episode? For this we have to look at two aspects. One, at the goals of Pakistan's multi-million dollar advocacy campaigns in the US, and two, how the work of some Indian Marxist academics in 'South Asian studies', whether by accident or by design, actively support those goals.

Unlike India, Pakistan is a client State that is heavily dependent on funding, particularly from the US, for its defence needs. It also is, as C Christine Fair points out, a revisionist State (external link), one that seeks to change the status quo in Kashmir.

As a revisionist State it is hampered in its goals by the fact that India is much bigger -- economically, militarily and geographically -- than Pakistan. Thus it sees influencing government and academia in the US as critical to both a continuing flow of funds as well as leverage over India while such influence is of relatively lower importance for the Indian State.

Practically, Pakistan's goals in influencing public opinions, particularly in think-tanks and academia include 1. continued hyphenation of the India-Pakistan relationship with Kashmir as the outstanding issue needing resolution; 2. to project Indian Kashmir as 'occupied territory' and highlight 'human rights' issues there while keeping its occupation and abuses in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan out of the discourse; 3. hurt India's soft power and rising economic power that it sees as a threat to its territorial ambitions; 4. keep the independence movement in Balochistan and its widespread human rights abuses there out of view; 5. create a narrative of India as a source of terrorism to counter the well-documented reality of Pakistan's support for 'non-State' terrorist actors; and finally, 6. promote a 'there was no India' narrative to help in a goal to create a 'national history that seeks to claim Pakistan's pre-Islamic past in an attempt to compete with India's historic antiquity' (Ayesha Jalal, Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, (1995), 73 to 89, here (external link).

Given this, Visweswaran's work can be seen as an example of the confluence of some South Asian academics' work and activism with the Pakistani establishment goals. This individual confluence may well be coincidental, and our idea is not to single out Visweswaran as an individual but use her work as an illustration of a larger malaise, of the rot in 'South Asian' academics and throw light on other academic signatories of these petitions.

Visweswaran is the queen of petitions, a petitionista par excellence. In February 2016, she petitioned for the erasure of references to India in California textbooks, to be replaced by 'South Asia.'

Earlier, in 2015, she was part of the petition urging Silicon Valley companies to boycott Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit and to not work with India (external link). She was part of earlier petitions to prevent Modi as Gujarat's chief minister to come to the US.

Visweswaran has also been actively involved with FOIL (Forum of Inquilabi Leftists) and the related FOSA (Forum of South Asia), self-described 'radical activist' organisations whose members support various violent insurgencies in India, including those by ultra-left 'Maoists.'

Interestingly, the Fai-linked Angana Chatterji has also been active in these two radical left organisations.

Saying this is not to mean that Visweswaran is funded by the ISI nor are we even implying it. But we do point out that her positions have been consistently aligned with the goals of the Pakistan establishment we laid our earlier.

Her petitions against Silicon Valley's economic collaboration with India attack India's economic interests.

Her California textbooks petition, for instance, reveals explicit awareness of the Pakistani agenda. The proposed edits suggest multiple insertions of the term 'Pakistan', and the agenda of replacing India with 'South Asia' is stated at the outset.

This is an ahistorical stance, since variations of the term 'India' have been vogue to refer to this region from before the time of the Greek traveller Megasthenes' work Indica in the 3rd and 4th centuries BC while both 'Pakistan' and 'South Asia' are 20th century creations with no historic precedence.

If it is argued that the boundaries of modern India are somewhat reduced, it's worth a mention that the term 'India' also referred to present-day Bangladesh, but Visweswaran's recommendations do not include a single reference to that term.

The Mauryan empire, for instance, had its capital in modern-day Bihar and included most of present-day Bangladesh. Yet, even when referring to the Mauryan empire, Visweswaran does not bring up Bangladesh, keeping a persistent focus towards the inclusion of the term Pakistan.

Visweswaran's proposed edits (external link) claim to be countering changes by imagined 'Hindu nationalists' in the US.

Commenting on a previous set of changes, the document states: 'Indeed, apparently responding to pressure from Hindu nationalist and community organisations, several deleterious changes have been made... '

What drives these changes? To understand Visweswaran's motivations there are also possibilities of sympathies beyond links to Pakistan. For instance, in a passage dealing with the most significant event in the US in the 21st century, the bombing of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, Visweswaran recommends the following change:

'On p. 498 we recommend that the sentences, "Anti-Western violence perpetrated by the followers of a fundamentalist version of Islam has contributed to the appearance of deep conflict between the Islamic and Western worlds, especially since 9/11. Students should learn about the roots of modern Islamic extremism by reading a variety of sources from Egyptian writers and the Muslim Brotherhood," for example be changed to, "Anti-Western violence has contributed to the appearance of deep conflict between the West and other parts of the world. Students should learn about the roots of modern religious extremism by reading a variety of sources from Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist nationalist texts."

So, 9/11 must be erased and the 'appearance of deep conflict between the Islamic and Western worlds' must somehow allude to 'Hindu and Buddhist texts'!

While Visweswaran repeatedly points out others' motivations in the proposed textbook edits, she appears completely oblivious to documented advocacy by the Pakistani establishment in the US.

'South Asian studies' academics would do well to introspect how they wittingly or unwittingly become part of Pakistan's proxy war in wielding influence over academics and policy in the United States.
JohnTitor
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by JohnTitor »

Couldn't find a better thread to post this in, but this is big.. I hope it happens, and soon!

Prasar Bharati to launch digital news platform to counter “anti-India” narrative
The Government of India through its broadcasting unit, Prasar Bharati, has announced its plans to set up a global digital news platform to counter the ‘anti-India’ narrative, reports Press Trust of India.

Unlike All India Radio and Doordarshan, this digital platform will cater to international audiences. The committee headed by Prasar Bharati Chairman, A Surya Prakash intends to focus on South Asia, North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, China and Asia-Pacific with the platform. The reports added that the committee that approved the platform also included Rajeev Singh (acting CEO of Prasar Bharati), board members Shashi Shekhar Vempati and Sunil Alagh, R Jagannathan, (journalist and director at Swarajya Magazine), academician Vamsee Juluri, and Ritesh Bawri, a ‘management expert’.

“India is the fastest growing economy and there have been extraordinary steps taken in the area of governance. These can act as a template for many governments. But the western media portrays a picture as if it is a conflict zone which is absolutely bogus. We need to set it right,” said Prakash speaking to PTI.

According to Indiantelevision.com, this platform will focus on changing the narrative that presents India as a “constant point of conflict between Hindu nationalists and so-called secularism.” This 24×7 platform will have correspondents around the world.

The new digital body will be registered under the Companies Act with an annual operating cost of Rs. 75 crores.The panel has also suggested that the platform will have programmes including talent shows, quizzes, travel, adventure, apps and even humour-based shows with the ‘flagship programmes’ hosted by popular anchors. Though the platform would initially be in English, it plans to also have a Spanish and Chinese desk to reach a larger audience.

It appears that the platform will also be available as a mobile app and be present on YouTube and plans to reach 10 million to 100 million page views in the next three years along with a million mobile app downloads and YouTube subscribers each.

But presstitutes are against it, surprise surprise! So telling the world our POV is propoganda.

Prasar Bharti doesn’t need an international propaganda channel

I CBA to post the farticle, but as expected, its just spewing anti-india nonsense
ramana
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by ramana »

Lilo X_posting....

rohitvats wrote:Big revelation on TIMES NOW about Lt Col Purohit case. They've have somehow :mrgreen: got hold of secret MOD documents on the case including MOD's reply to the court on the officer.

This is very BIG! Lt Colonel Purohit coming out innocent from this case will drive the final nail in Congress's coffin. I've a very strong feeling that Chidambram is going to get squeezed between the money laundering and this case. He's going to jail or will sing like 'performers' in the famous Heera Mandi of La-Whore.

Do watch this.

Posting links to short videos on the same:

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/855037606526033920

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/855039162235277312

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/855040332022521856

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/855043794550398976

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/855050447463170048

https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/855050505222930432

A lot of folks say what is the big deal we knew all along that it was a setup.

They are wrong its not about just setting up Lt. Col Purohit but the debasement of the entire ruling systems by motivated coterie of individuals.

Lt. Col Purohit case is India's Drefyuss case where an Army officer is made a criminal for serving an agenda.

The entire system connived in this criminality: Indian Army top brass, Ministry of Defence Officials, Home Ministry, NSA MK Neroynan and SS Menon, politicians like Chidamabaram, and Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi and not to forget the judiciary which still holds Purhit in jail despite many please by NIA that they have no evidence. And the press like Shekhar Gupta and his ilk.

While whining about coups, Congress subverted and launched a coup on the Indian Army with will stool pigeon Generals who were busy in Adharsh Scam type of crimes.

I want an Inquiry Commission to unravel what happened and let the facts come out.
Its not just about setting Lt Col Purohit free.
Its about India and the failure of the Constitution to protect individuals when all connive to defame Hindus.

This can happen to any other religion too.
So need to find out what happened and fix it.
Rahul M
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Re: Indian Interests

Post by Rahul M »

please open part-II of this thread.
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