Internal Security Watch

[JwalaMukhi]

Destabilizing Bodo territory facilitates teh corridor that BD Islamists, Maoists and the Chinese want with Nepal. Too many interested parties.

This is truly the core of the issue.

underachiever and gogoi are playing out a pre scripted role.

Remember how they pried away east timor.

In modern times, the capacity to wreak havoc in a short period of time is immense. Both the islamists and the commies are excellent tools in achieving maximum havoc within a very short interval. The impact of them is so massive, that the actual healing and clean up of the aftermath of their havoc will run into centuries even with available modern tools. In modern times, the technology allows far greater leverage to cause destruction than for any reconstruction or healing. This calls for extreme vigilance and caution. With selective insomoniacs, and purveyors of assigning ordinals to who has right to resources incharge, there is high likely hood for facilitation rather than any vigilance.

It is worthwhile to note, that commie Khmer rogue, was officially in power for mere four years. The destruction they caused is still being felt after many decades.

One could never be overcautious when dealing with either commies or islamists, who have extra penchant in hating what is native and natural. That penchant for destruction is only exceeded by their handlers.

[Anindya]

Church slams Centre, Assam govt for Kokrajhar violence

Accusing the Union and Assam governments of lacking in "political will" to prevent influx, National Council of Churches in India has said the "disaster" in the northeastern state could have been averted had infiltration of migrants been properly checked at all levels.

"We believe that this disaster (Assam violence) could have been averted, if both the Centre and the Assam government would have taken careful steps, with a strong political will, to check the infiltration of migrants to India, especially to Assam," NCCI general secretary Roger Gaikwad said in a letter to the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram yesterday.

Gaikwad said, "About 10,000 sq km land have been occupied by the migrants and they are now spreading over to other districts. Such influx and occupation will definitely create a fear psychosis among the indigenous people; being helpless, they are bound to retaliate."

He said the ongoing ethnic violence in Assam, especially in the districts of Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Chirang since July 19, was a "repetition" of the 2008 carnage in Kokrajhar where 55 people were killed and thousands others displaced.

[vera_k]

As Tensions in India Turn Deadly, Some Say Officials Ignored Warning Signs

[tejas]

^^^

Sultan Alam, a member of a Muslim student group in Assam, called for an inquiry by the nation’s top law enforcement agency. “The minority community here has been ruined by the violence,” he said in a telephone interview, demanding more benefits for Muslims. “We just want our rightful share in everything.

And I assume their "rightful share" as illegal immigrants is directly proportional to their population despite their aversion to education. Why is it that muslims are at the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum in India, Europe, US, Autralia and Canada? I can think of only one reason...discrimination. Luckily the UPA is fighting diligently for muslim quotas in India. It should also used its good offices abroad to fight for muslim quotas abroad. The probability of a Jew winning a Nobel prize in science vs a muslim is 10,000:1. Again obvious discrimination. Knowing this keeps me from sleeping at night.

[Arjun]

Gaikwad said, "About 10,000 sq km land have been occupied by the migrants and they are now spreading over to other districts. Such influx and occupation will definitely create a fear psychosis among the indigenous people; being helpless, they are bound to retaliate."

Hmm, so the Church supports the right of an indigenous population to retaliate when alien influx poses a threat to the indigenous. Very interesting - considering where this view is emanating from.

[Prasanna]

It's not a Hindu vs Muslim conflict in Assam, but Indians vs foreigners
July 27, 2012 15:49 IST

Assam's plight has originated in the fact that the Congress party, for its shortsighted political considerations, has refused to acknowledge that infiltrators are foreigners, says Sudheendra Kulkarni

It's a deadly and unending tale of two floods that Assam has been battling. And it's losing the battle on both fronts.

The month of July began by thrusting Assam into national and international news headlines by informing us that floods in the mighty Brahmaputra river and its tributaries had killed nearly 80 people and affected nearly two million people in the state. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh [ Images ], who conducted the ritual of an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas, told reporters in Guwahati, 'People of Assam are facing one of the worst floods in recent times.'

July ended with Assam once again in the news. The prime minister is to visit Assam again July 28 in response to yet another disaster, this one caused by a flood of a different kind -- the flood of Bangladeshi infiltrators into the state.

At press time, nearly 50 people had been killed and over 200,000 people have been rendered homeless in prolonged communal-ethnic violence in and around Kokrajhar district. Violent clashes have broken out between native Bodos and illegal Muslim migrants from Bangladesh. The root cause of this violence is the joint failure of the federal and Assam state governments to stop wave after wave of Bangladeshis from swarming into different parts of Assam and drastically changing the state's demographic profile, especially of the districts close to the border. In Bodo-populated areas, this 'flood' has caused large-scale usurpation of tribal lands and made Bodos feel fearful that they are being marginalised in their own land.

There is a well-known word for it -- ethnic cleansing.

What is happening in Assam, and it has been happening for decades now, is ethnic and religious cleansing caused by this massive human flood.

This is the stark truth. And Dr Singh knows it very well. After all, he is India's [ Images ] prime minister. He gets regular reports on what is happening in the state from the governor, the Intelligence Bureau and other official sources. And these sources, as we shall see, don't lie. Dr Singh has also been a member of Parliament from Assam -- as a representative in the Rajya Sabha, the upper House -- for the past 22 years. At press time he was yet to go, but one can be certain that Dr Singh, in Assam, will not utter a word recognising the disturbing truth about this second kind of flood.

It's easy to blame Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi [ Images ] for inaction. No doubt, he and his government have a lot to answer for, especially since there was ample evidence about tension building up in the Bodo-populated areas for the past several months. But a far greater part of the blame lies at the doorsteps of the prime minister and the Congress party president. Both the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] government it leads have been indulging in a game of denial and falsification when it comes to infiltration of Bangladeshis into Assam and other states of India.

Here are a few facts: July 15, 2004, Sriprakash Jaiswal, minister of state for home affairs in the UPA government, said in the Rajya Sabha: '1,20,53,950 illegal Bangladeshi migrants were residing in 17 states and Union territories as on December 31, 2001.' He also said that five million Bangladeshis were living in Assam. Dr Singh happened to visit Guwahati the following day. He was confronted by the state's Congress party leaders who were concerned that Jaiswal's reply in Parliament could affect the party's prospects in the 2006 state elections in Assam. They asked the prime minister that the official statement be retracted. Dr Singh succumbed to pressure and publicly stated that he doubted the authenticity of the information provided by his own junior minister. A week later, Jaiswal told Parliament that the information that he had provided about Bangladeshi infiltrators 'is unreliable and based on hearsay'!

Jaiswal was not the first to do this shameful about-turn under the pressure of vote-bank politics. April 10, 1992, Assam's then chief minister, Hiteswar Saikia, stated in the legislative assembly that there were 'between two and three million' Bangladeshi infiltrators in Assam. He was only stating the obvious. This met with intense anger from the Muslim Forum in Assam. The Forum's head, Abdul Muhib Mazumdar, a Congress party man, reminded the chief minister that the Congress party's survival in power depended on 'Muslim votes' and warned that it would take 'just five minutes for the Muslims of Assam to throw your government out'. Saikia soon declared there was not a single illegal migrant in the state.

One can give numerous instances of warnings sounded by people in authority. In 1996, TV Rajeshwar, a former director of the IB who was later made the governor of Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] by the UPA government, had warned, through a series of newspaper articles, that unchecked illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Assam and other border states in India's northeast 'could someday lead to a third division of India'. When he was governor of Assam, retired General SK Sinha had also cautioned about grave consequences for India's unity and security if the problem of Bangladeshi infiltration is not tackled firmly.

The warning has also come from the judiciary. The Guwahati high court in 2008 heard a case relating to a Pakistani national who came to Bangladesh, then infiltrated into Assam, got his name registered on the voters' list and even managed to contest the 1996 assembly elections. Observing in despair that "this can happen only in Assam", the court noted that "illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are slowly becoming the 'king makers' in Assam and will reduce indigenous Assamese to a minority...."

The warning sounded by India's Supreme Court has been even direr. The prolonged agitation of the Assamese people against infiltration from Bangladesh -- and earlier from East Pakistan -- culminated in the Assam Accord [ Images ] of 1985. The Rajiv Gandhi [ Images ] government enacted the Illegal Migrants (Determination through Tribunal) Act. The Assam Accord was hailed as one of the great achievement of Rajiv Gandhi's premiership. The IMDT Act turned out to be a cure worse than the disease. Far from checking the infiltration of Bangladeshis, it gave it a boost.

This happened because the Rajiv Gandhi government had deliberately introduced certain flaws into the act that enabled infiltration to continue. Neither the Congress party nor any of the self-styled secular parties were subsequently willing to remove these flaws. After a prolonged legal battle by anti-foreigner forces in Assam, the Supreme Court, in its July 2005 verdict, struck down the IMDT Act as 'unconstitutional' and urged the federal government to take effective steps to stop the influx of Bangladeshis. The Supreme Court warned that large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh constituted 'external aggression' against Assam.

In the past seven years since the Supreme Court's ruling, the UPA government has done nothing to 'take effective steps' to check the influx of Bangladeshis. Considerations of vote-bank politics have triumphed over the Congress party's weakening concern for India's unity and integrity.

The problem that Assam is confronted with is not a Hindu versus Muslim conflict; it is an Indian nationals versus foreigners conflict. Native Muslims in Assam have, and should have, the same rights as native Hindus. However, foreigners who infiltrate into Assam -- or other parts of India -- cannot claim to have the same rights as Indians. Assam's plight has originated in the fact that the Congress party, for its shortsighted political considerations, has refused to acknowledge that infiltrators are foreigners.

Bhupen Hazarika, Assam's greatest cultural icon who passed away last year, had expressed his people's anguish in a lyric he composed way back in 1968: 'Today's Assamese must save themselves or else they will become refugees in their own land'.

Today, in 2012, Assam is finding itself in a far more helpless situation. The violence in the Bodo areas is an expression of this helplessness.

Violence of any kind, and targeted against anybody, is condemnable. Every human life is precious, and snuffing out any human life is a crime. But why is the Congress party silent on the ongoing demographic invasion of India, threatening our nation's unity and integrity, in the form of the never-ending influx of foreigners into our country?

http://www.rediff.com/news/column/its-n ... 120727.htm

[Prasanna]

Separatist groups add fuel to Assam fire
As the North-East State is rocked by ethnic violence, insurgent groups from across the borders and their allies here must be strongly prevented from fanning the flames.

There have been reports for quite some time that Islamist fundamentalist groups, several of them linked to the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, have been active in the State for more than two decades. A report by Surajit Talukdar and Swapan Kumar Paul of Newsfile in The Pioneer of November 6, 2003, listed as many as 15 of them. These included Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Muslim United Tigers of Assam, Islamic Liberation Front of Assam, Islamic Sevak Sangh, Muslim Security Force of Assam, Muslim Liberation Front, Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam, Muslim Security Council of Assam, Muslim Security Force, Muslim Tiger Force, Muslim Volunteer Force, United Reformation Protest of Assam and Adam Sena.

Each of these groups has a distinct role. The Islamic Sevak Sangh helps terrorists and potential terrorists to cross the India-Bangladesh border while the HuJI in Bangladesh organises their training in Bangladesh and Burma. The Muslim United Liberation Front of Assam and the People’s United Liberation Front of Manipur, which is also active in south Assam and which has incorporated the Manipur-based Islamic National Front, have been campaigning to set up an ‘Islamic homeland’ which will be ruled by sharia’h law and Islamic values and enforce the Islamic dress code. It would include parts of north-eastern India, Burma and Bangladesh. Significantly, the MULTA and the PULF have been expanding their activities among the Muslim populations of Nagaland and Meghalaya where tensions have been simmering dangerously for quite some time.

The Taliban-Al Qaeda-ISI link is most clearly manifest in the case of the HuJI, which the US Department of State designated in March 2008 as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organisation’. The most sinister of all the organisations mentioned above, it has a pan-Islamic network. The unit active in Assam is an extension of the HuJIB. In Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, Rohan Gunaratna states, “The Bangladeshi authorities now believe that Al Qaeda had founded it.” Most significantly, he further states, “The group also operates in north-eastern India in tandem with several small Islamist groupings. Osama is said to have sent his private secretary to attend a meeting of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami in Bangladesh to draft a strategy to intensify their violent campaign in that region.”

It is significant that Gunaratna states that the HUJIB was formed in 1992 to recruit volunteers to fight in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Begum Khaldea Zia was then the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Indeed, the activities of the HUIB and other Islamist groups in that country received massive support from Bangladesh when Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party was in power in two stints from 1991-96 and 2001, the second time as the overwhelmingly dominant partner in a coalition Government in which the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh exercised an influence far in excess of its parliamentary strength. Pathologically anti-Indian, it has been the matrix of all fundamental terrorist organisations in Bangladesh like HUJIB, Hizbut Tawhid, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.

The Taliban-Al Qaeda-ISI-linked terrorist organisations active in north-eastern India have been active among the region’s Muslim population. The latter has been rapidly growing in number since Independence in 1947 because, more than anything else, of the growing influx from Bangladesh. This is a problem which the Congress Governments at the Centre and Assam have allowed to grow untrammelled largely because of vote-bank politics. In fact, both appear to have connived in the process as evidenced by the enactment of a pathetically weak Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act of 1983 ,which was set aside by the Supreme Court in 2005.

The first priority in the present instance is obviously the immediate restoration of law and order. This will require firm and scrupulously even-handed action against both Bodos and Muslims engaged in murder, looting, arson and rioting, and their leaders. That done, both the Centre and the State Government will have to unearth and destroy the Taliban-Al Qaeda-linked secessionist terrorist network in north-eastern India. Bangladesh’s cooperation will be crucial to the success of the effort both to do this and stanch flow of illegal migrants. Fortunately, Bangladesh has now a Government which is friendly towards India. While securing its assistance, India must also address Dhaka’s concerns. It is a shame that New Delhi has not been able to sign the Teesta water sharing treaty with Bangladesh because of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s opposition.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/ ... -fire.html

[vera_k]

Hmm, so the Church supports the right of an indigenous population to retaliate when alien influx poses a threat to the indigenous. Very interesting - considering where this view is emanating from.

Well, three of the Northeast states are Christian majority, and therefore Christians are the indigenous people.

[Arjun]

Hmm, so the Church supports the right of an indigenous population to retaliate when alien influx poses a threat to the indigenous. Very interesting - considering where this view is emanating from.

Well, three of the Northeast states are Christian majority, and therefore Christians are the indigenous people.

Neither the person who was quoted nor the context of his comment had anything to do with the three states you mention. Presumably he was enunciating a broader principle the Church approves of across India.

Even otherwise, the three states were Christianized less than 150 years back. Seems to me, the definition of 'indigenous' should be somewhat independent of the proselytizing capacity of missionary drones.

[svenkat]

Stan says in the other blog that most bodos are christians now and want the devnagari script to be replaced by roman script.They want a separate state.

[Arjun]

Stan says in the other blog that most bodos are christians now and want the devnagari script to be replaced by roman script.They want a separate state.

Just to get facts right,in case some one forgot.

Assamese Bodos are 90% Hindu as per 2001 census. Have the figures changed over the last decade?

[Singha]

wrt to Assam:
- INC always saw BD immigrants as a vote bank (both hindu and muslim) and encouraged it.
- the hindu immigrants in barak valley (centered on silchar) gradually became BJP supporters - the only place in assam where BJP has a base
- so the BJP changed its tune to say 'deport only muslim immigrants, not the hindu immigrants!'
- the AGP initially said deport all immigrants, then got busy making money, splintered and has vanished now
- the muslims formed their own political parties as they felt INC was soft on giving them special freebies while using their votes. they felt their own party would be better
- the bodos and other tribals felt the brunt of BD occupation of farmland being in western assam close to the BD border.

with cynical thugs like these 4 political formulations attempting to solve the assam problem there is no solution.

giving shelter to hindu migrants from BD purely on a religious/humanitarian basis while standing mute as they are oppressed in BD is not a solution. instead BD political elites/economy/islamists need to be beaten and shaped to our diktat such that hindus get their equal rights to muslims in BD itself and can continue to have a future there.

we cannot absorb the overflow of a highly fertile nation with 150 million + souls , which might feel effects of global warming/sea level rise also -

[svenkat]

giving shelter to hindu migrants from BD purely on a religious/humanitarian basis while standing mute as they are oppressed in BD is not a solution. instead BD political elites/economy/islamists need to be beaten and shaped to our diktat such that hindus get their equal rights to muslims in BD itself and can continue to have a future there.

No chance of that happening in any Islamic polity.What was the justification for driving away SDRE hindu bengalis from BD or supporting paki terrorists.

We all know the only feasible solution.I dont want to get banned and will stop here.

[devesh]

what is stan's blog? would be interested in reading his thoughts.

[svenkat]

It was a comment in the blog which is mostly a commentary on BRF.

Please see http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 5#p1140195

[chilarai]

wrt to Assam:
- the AGP initially said deport all immigrants, then got busy making money, splintered and has vanished now

The AGP govt was the biggest dissappointment. Their campaign was great. The people were hugely enthusiastic. They had all the support they wanted. Many voluntarily helped in their campaign I remember my parents walked miles in hot sun ( pulling along my siblings ) to vote for AGP.
and so did many people , there has never been such a huge turnout for any election in the district after that.

and all that we got was a massive corruption and neglect.

[Singha]

Bodos do have some demand for roman script as did some other NE tribal groups trying to find a separate identity...but I dont think the EJs have got their claws into them yet, they remain majority hindu.

[D Roy]

roman script is an NDFB demand not a BLT one who back Devnagari. The Bodos are mostly hindu.

[vera_k]

If this is the case, it is high time the state leadership was changed.

Assam CM Gogoi ignored warnings on impending riots

[Atri]

Cops name Iran military arm for attack on Israeli diplomat

NEW DELHI: Alleging that an Iranian state agency was involved in the February 13 bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat in the capital, the Delhi Police has concluded that the suspects were members of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the nation's military.

The investigation report, exclusively accessed by TOI, states that the IRGC members had discussed the plan to attack the Israeli diplomats in India and other countries with Indian journalist Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi in January 2011, after Iranian scientists had been attacked allegedly by the Israelis. The cops have also learnt that Kazmi was in touch with these people for almost 10 years.

Details about the suspects have been shared with Iran through a letter rogatory. Delhi Police has sought more details of the five IRGC members, including the main bomber, Houshang Afshar Irani, who mentions his profession in Iran as a builder, Sedaghatzadeh Masoud (sales employee in a commercial company on Baharestan St, Tehran), Syed Ali Mahdiansadr (a mobile shopkeeper in Tehran), Mohammad Reza Abolghasemi (clerk in the finance department of Tehran's water authority) and Ali Akbar Norouzishayan (a retired accountant in Tehran).

According to the sources, Masoud is said to be the operational head and it was he who planned the attacks in Georgia, Bangkok and Delhi.

Apart from these five, police have also come across the role of an Iranian woman, identified as Leila Rohani, in the February 13 attack in New Delhi as well as the attacks in Bangkok and Georgia, and has sought details about her as well from Iran. Rohani had allegedly helped Iranian suspects in Bangkok attack of February 14 in getting a flat, after which she fled to Tehran.

[Prasanna]

Sex racket: Girls taken to Gulf on forged passports
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sex-racket-g ... 2-126.html

[sugriva]

How is that power grid manages to collape everyday. Stuxnet?

[Aditya_V]

May be Sudden overdrawal to connection with Pakistani Grid under Aman KI Asha?

[A_Gupta]

Need to watch this:
http://kashmirreader.com/07312012-ND-th ... -2246.aspx
Next generation of Kashmiri separatism.

[Altair]

I think the grid failure may not be an accident. There is a definite play here.
My theory
India is playing hard ball on Iran and "The lobby" is trying to arm twist us. Grid failure may be a demonstration of their power. India's alignment with the lobby's vision might be on the scope. I expect to see an escalation like a terrorist hostage crisis in the next 1 week. Chidu's shift to Finance and Shinde to Home is a sign.

[Hiten]

someone speculating that grid collapse is Chipanda maal at work, or not at work

http://governancenow.com/news/regular-s ... wer-mantri

[habal]

Common sense should prevail in such crises, causes usually being parroted out put blame on UP and Haryana overdrawing by 80 times. Now UP nor Haryana have done any such gimmick before and have no reason to do so now. They have qualified engineers overseeing their grids and know when the safety net is violated. Quite obviously something is wrong elsewhere and either UP or Haryana grids have been infected with virus or this is an EMP attack. If it's latter, then Indian govt will take some time to digest the issue and give a measured response to public.

[shyamd]

Its better this happened now rather than during war time or something like that. Now this will prompt comprehensive reviews and make things better. But in general - it would help if people didn't steal electricity and paid for it. No one is going to invest in more electricity if people aren't going to pay for it.

[brihaspati]

If say gov does find sabotage - EMP/otherwise/virus whatever - from Chini bhai or its Paki allies or Iran, or anti-Iran, what can the measured public response be? It can't be pointing at Chini bhai, because it shows a vulenrability, it damages Indo-Chinese trade and increasing good relations. It can't be pointing at Pakis either, who are simply suffering from non-state actors, and there is a window of opportunity to improve relations.

It can't be Iran, because we have strategic interests with Iran. It can't be GCC, anti-Iran - because we have potential huge infrastructural investments from them. It can;t be USA either for other strategic reasons.

So no external sources can be blamed. The best possible answer is rogue states within India, and perhaps it would be better if Maharashtra intel or NSA can show saffron conspiracy was involved.

[vera_k]

Someone posted in NYT that the blackouts were caused by the government to take focus away from Anna Hazare's fast.

[Pranav]

After Kashmir, another case of ethnic cleansing - Hindu Reangs from Mizoram - http://organiser.org/archives/historic/ ... 397&page=8

[Aditya_V]

Are there any any public information on what is situation with supply to Pakis

i) What is the daily supply

ii) Is it connected to the Northern Grid

iii) Have they overdrawn power and has this caused the collapse.

[Altair]

So no external sources can be blamed. The best possible answer is rogue states within India, and perhaps it would be better if Maharashtra intel or NSA can show saffron conspiracy was involved.

We will hear this:
Modi is the main conspirator for the blackout! Hang'em!

[nawabs]

Shinde thanks PM, Sonia for considering a Dalit again for Home Minister's post

http://in.news.yahoo.com/shinde-thanks- ... 43494.html

Sushil Kumar Shinde on Wednesday thanked Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for showing trust in making him, a Dalit, the country's Home Minister.

He, however, said he would perform his duties both as a Dalit and as a citizen of the country.

Shinde is the second leader from the Dalit community to be appointed India's Home Minister, the first being Buta Singh under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

He had earlier held charge of the power ministry. He said he was of the view that the Gandhi family never forgets Dalits, Adivasis, Minorities or Backward Classes.

"I am in politics for the last 40 years. People from the Dalit community do not generally get the charge of the Home Ministry. But for the first time, Rajiv Gandhi had given a Dalit (Buta Singh) the charge of Home Ministry, and now for the second time, it is under Sonia Gandhi's leadership, that Dr. Manmohan Singh has given me this post," said Shinde.

"It has always been the theory of the Congress to bring forward those people, who are suppressed. And, the faith with which I have been given this responsibility, I would not only work as a Dalit, but as a citizen of this country. I would definitely give the result," he added.

Shinde was born into a Dalit family in Solapur on September 4, 1941. He was appointed the country's new Home Minister on Tuesday, replacing P. Chidambaram, who has moved to the Finance Ministry.

Encouraged by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Shinde quit his police sub-inspector's job to enter politics in 1971. He contested an assembly by-election from Karmala. In November that year, the late V P Naik, then Maharashtra's chief minister, made Shinde a junior minister in his government.

He became the finance minister in the Vasantrao Patil government.

As an active participant in the nation's politics, he won Maharashtra state assembly elections in 1978, 1980, 1985 and 1990.

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra between July 1992 and March 1998. He acted as Sonia Gandhi's campaign manager in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh in 1999.

In 2002, he contested the election for the post of Vice President of India against the National Democratic Alliance's candidate, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and lost.

On October 30, 2004, he was appointed the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. He replaced Surjit Singh Barnala, who became the Governor of Tamil Nadu.

Shinde was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha for second time from Maharashtra on March 20, 2006.

[sum]

^^ pathetic...

[shyamd]

Why was Army deployed late in Kokrajhar, NSA wants to know

August 01, 2012 12:40 IST

The home ministry has sent a detailed sequence of events to the Prime Minister's Office, primarily blaming the ministry of defence for the inordinate delay, reports RS Chauhan

National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon [ Images ] has asked for a detailed report on the delay that occurred in deploying the Army in riot-hit Kokrajhar last week that many believe was a result of a bureaucratic indecision.


The home ministry has sent a detailed sequence of events to the Prime Minister's Office, primarily blaming the ministry of defence for the inordinate delay.

According to knowledgeable sources, the first request from the Assam government to the Army for help was sent by the district magistrate of Kokrajhar on July 20, within hours of the killing of four Bodo youths, including one former militant belonging to the Bodoland Liberation Tigers. The district administration had anticipated retaliatory killings after the bodies of the four Bodo youths were found in the middle of Kokrajhar town.

Most of the 53 killings happened between July 21 and 24. The moment the Army was deployed on the morning of July 25, the violence immediately subsided.

The local Army unit, however, informed the state government that it was unable to deploy till a clearance from the MoD and the Army headquarters was obtained.

Under pressure to stem the rising violence, Assam's home department wrote a letter on July 21 to the ministry of defence again requesting for the Army's deployment. Still, there was no decision forthcoming. Two days later, on July 23, the deputy commissioner of Dhubri, Kokrajhar's neighbouring Muslim-dominated district, also requisitioned the Army as the violence started spreading from Kokrajhar.

The following day, on July 24, the state administration sent another reminder to the MoD, and also informed the MHA, that its repeated pleas for deployment of the Army hadn't been either acknowledged or acted upon.

All this despite the fact that the law clearly states that the highest ranking executive magistrate, who is present at the site of violence, can requisition the Army to deal with a riot-like situation and disperse mobs.

Local formations of the Army, notably the 21 Division located at Rangiya and its controlling headquarter, the 4 Corps at Tezpur, were constantly sending intelligence inputs about the deteriorating situation in their areas of operation. Shockingly, despite the presence of 11 Brigade (and three of its battalions within a 100-km radius) being present at Kokrajhar, the Army was reluctant to get involved citing a two-decade old SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that requires it to take a prior clearance from the MoD before deployment in what it thinks is a communal situation.

There is no clarity, however, on why or who had cleared this SOP.

Now, the MHA has written to the PMO seeking to scrap the SOP.

NSA Menon has reportedly told the two ministries to sit down together and evolve a common code for such situations since "loss of lives" because of bureaucratic procedures is unacceptable.

[vishvak]

Advani blames illegal immigration for Assam conflict

He accused the Centre and Assam government of not taking any action to detect and deport illegal immigrants even seven years after the Supreme Court had stuck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act in July, 2005. "I would like the Prime Minister, the Congress president and the Assam government to introspect on how this situation arose," he said. Advani said the government's inaction in dealing with the problem of infiltrators had resulted in the indigenous communities feeling threatened.
..

More Illegal immigration behind Assam riots, says LK Advani

"As a result of the infiltration in collusion of state government and government of India, people of Assam are feeling that they are losing control over their own land while illegal Bangladeshis have embarked upon large-scale land grab," Advani said.

Collusion of central Govt and state Govt against natives on votebanking. Can this be taken to courts? Short-sighted politics to ignore that the same infiltrators could blame natives to remove the very same Govts when convenient, in any which way including votebanking.

More politics, Gogoi slams Advani for Assam violence remarks

when he was the home minister and the deputy prime minister, Godhra riots took place in Gujarat
..
Assam will never turn into Kashmir. In Assam, all Indian citizens will stay and nobody will leave
..
Accusing Advani of having "double standards", Gogoi said the BJP-led NDA government took no action against illegal infiltrators when it was in power at the Centre.
..
The All India United Democratic Front wants my resignation and BJP also wants my resignation. I cannot understand how they share such similar views. I find it strange that AIUDF leader Badruddin Ajmal and Advani has such similarity of opinion (== between pressure group from AIDUF with opposition to avoid being called irresponsible)
..
Terming Assam as a "complicated state", he said the aim of the government was to reconcile all communities. "It is a fact that there is some conflict. Conflict has been there in the whole state because of the problem of land, identity crises, language and employment opportunities.

"Bodos have grievances. Others also have grievances. We have to look at addressing grievances of all," Gogoi said.(== in grievances of natives and infiltrators. because everyone including infiltrators have problems so reconcile is government 'aim'. votebanking at the highest level.)

No word on infiltrators. So a CM can do 'blame opposition for Gujarat riots' routine while ignoring national interest of natives. Anyone other than opposition are silent as usual on national tragedy.

[chaanakya]

Three low intensity blast at Pune being reported on TV Channel.

1. Cycle used in one case.
1. Dustbin near McDonald outlet
3. Bal Gandharva Theatre.

Police not ruling out anything as yet.

Updated

five low intensity blast now being reported. 7.38-7.45 pm
all blasts on Jungalee Mahara Road
Additional area
Dena bank
Some statue on the road
Deccan Bus stand, cycle used
Some Auditorium

One injury so far reported.

[member_23629]

Regarding Assam riots, the langauge LK Advani and other BJP folks use is not accusatory enough. As a result, it has no impact. Advani should accuse the Congress government of conniving with illiegal infiltrators and religious bigots to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Indian citizens from Assam, especially of the Hindus, and shout that "Bodos will never forgive the Congress for not protecting their women and children" and that "In their lust for votes, leaders should not turn traitors to their own people." This will strike a cord with Bodos and Hindus. It is important to project Congress as a party under which Hindus would never be safe.

Congress on its part never has any problem in accusing BJP of trying to ethnic-cleanse Muslims from Gujarat and label it as an anti-Muslim party. Has the BJP ever accused congress of being the biggest gang of anti-Hindu forces in India? The BJP softies will never have any impact if they don't learn to speak the language of combat.

[shyamd]

4 blasts - 2 defused in all.