Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 12 Apr 2013 12:13

thatcher did two things that benefited the uk economy which can be ascribed to her and not the global trends - 1. she took on and broke the stranglehold the unions had on labour laws and collective bargaining for pay and conditions - the trend at the time was making uk productivity and profitability go into a tail spin. whilst everyone sees the break up of big british manufacturing - and ascribes it to her, i think that was inevitable - as the far east became the new global production centre; and 2. created the conditions for small and medium enterprises to set up and bloom - and do so with a more agile workforce created by 1.

quite apart from financial services (which is a separate policy discussion), there is a large specialist manufacturing sector in the UK, which drives much of the day to day economic activity

the fact that this is concentrated in areas with a suitably trained and mobile workforce -e.g. south and east england, naturally means that the rest of the Uk has to rely on various subsidies to remain 'affluent' - and often doesn't

thatcher created that revivial in the british economy - which was dead in the water in the mid-late 70's, the north sea oil revenues certainly helped, but then blair and co spread that wealth around the have nots for free using the welfare state and high taxation

her legacy though is of division, unemployment, poverty, struggle and riots for some and champagne and porsches for others

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 12 Apr 2013 16:50

^^^Are you sure about the manufacturing? I thought it remained roughly 1/5th (18-21%) only both by GDP share and labour/employment. The service sector contributes roughly 4 times that of manufacturing.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 12 Apr 2013 16:52

yes it is only 20%, but it drives prosperity that the service sector serves

RajeevK · Post by **RajeevK** » 12 Apr 2013 17:08

Manufacturing is about 13% of GDP
See this CBI report from 2010 CBI Manufacturing Manufacturing in the UK

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 12 Apr 2013 17:15

Lalmohan wrote:yes it is only 20%, but it drives prosperity that the service sector serves

Are you sure that the service sector primarily services the domestic manufacturing sector?

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 12 Apr 2013 18:10

no, it services much more
what i am saying is that thatcher enabled that sector of the economy - and it drives skilled employment for many (who are not bankers and lawyers)

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 12 Apr 2013 18:48

^^^Yes I come across this argument a lot. But to claim "much more so", need some numbers? Such as TTC by sector?

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 12 Apr 2013 18:54

Did Thatcher Turn Britain Around?

Margaret Thatcher’s True Heir

pankajs · Post by **pankajs** » 12 Apr 2013 23:21

BBC faces dilemma as anti-Thatcher song tops chart

LONDON: The BBC is in a bind after opponents of late British leader Margaret Thatcher pushed the song " Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead" to the top of the charts.

An online campaign to drive the " Wizard of Oz" ditty to the No. 1 spot on the UK singles chart was launched by Thatcher critics shortly after the former prime minister died of a stroke on Monday. She was 87.

Normally, a top position on the charts guarantees a song airtime on the BBC, but some called on the broadcaster not to play the song.

John Whittingdale, a lawmaker from Thatcher's Conservative party, told the Daily Mail newspaper that many would find the song "deeply insensitive."

Messages left for the BBC weren't immediately returned on Friday.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 13 Apr 2013 00:05

brihaspati wrote:I realize you are talking of the US banking collapse (mortgage primarily). But why do you think there was no UK connection that could be traced back to policy decisions under MT - to it? Just curious to hear of the "economic" arguments as to why you feel so.

IANAE, so I cannot give you any economic reasons. Even if I were one, I would not go on a fool's errand. How can I prove that something (non-mathematical) does not exist?

If you accept this argument, then a fortiori one has to accept The Economist's argument that several countries around the world including India started copycat economic reforms. Indian economic reforms should be credited entirely to PV-MMS duo who took the right step at a time India was teetering on the edge.

If you have an algorithm that can pin-point the single event (or a even a sequence of events of small length) that lead to 2008 debacle, that would be a fantastic advance in control system theory auto industries all over the world would pay top moolah to apply those methods to debug their automated assembly lines.

As for US, my sense is that MT's advise would count for peanuts as there Reagan would have had his own set of advisers in the admin and the various conservative think tanks who are as arrogant, if not more,as the "stiff-upper lip", "oh so suave", "clipped-accented" British economists/political gurus.

She is a just a foot note in the saga of a fast fading empire and the two colonies - one a jewel which is being dusted and polished so that it shines brightly once more and the other a diamond in the rough which is being cut so that it shines bright.

I would like to see Indo-UKstanis leave the fast sinking Titanic in droves with all their assets and head to US (if they are used to western luxuries) or to India. Both the countries offer opportunities far exceeding that of the (blighted) bilayati and certainly welcome them with open arms.

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 13 Apr 2013 02:23

Look at the modus operandi of the deregulation under MT, and the US-UK banking links.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 13 Apr 2013 03:00

I am not saying that there is no link, but I think we should reverse the direction of the cause-effect. IOW, it is the banking/finance industry who influenced MT and Reagan. What would a chemistry undergrad who was quick to distance herself from her humble beginnings and a quick-to-forget moderately successful fading actor know about high finance, I ask. If it was somebody instead of MT, then the class-conscious lord-wannabe journos of The Economist would be singing paeans to "a shop keeper's son quickly distancing himself from his humble beginnings". 2008 would have happened whoever was at the wheel. I, for one, is very skeptical of politicians' loud claims of inventing the Internet, ending the cold war, or bringing down the Berlin wall.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 13 Apr 2013 09:50

Corera, Gordon. The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service.

The pendulum had swung too far towards risky, gung-ho operations and White began a purge to instil more professionalism. To protect his flank he later promoted Young to be his deputy, a move he would regret. Young, as head of the Middle East desk, had been involved in plotting the 1953 coup in Iran to remove the nationalist, but democratically elected, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, in concert with the CIA, a task which seemed to confirm that aggressive, covert political action could be a powerful tool. Mossadegh had thumbed his nose at the British by trying to reclaim control of his country’s oil and the British had managed to persuade the Americans to help get rid of him. In the long term, like almost every action of its type, the coup proved to be a disaster as the Shah of Iran subsequently veered towards authoritarianism and the Iranian people blamed, and continue to blame, the British and Americans for their plight, both powers gaining a reputation for conspiring and manipulating in the Middle East (a reputation which British intelligence continues to have in many countries, in part thanks to Britain’s colonial history of such entanglements). But at the time the taste for covert action had become intoxicating, a tempting panacea to mask the bitter reality that both political and economic power were rapidly ebbing away from Britain. 97 The spies hoped that with their tricks and coups they could magically preserve Britain’s status through a kind of clandestine sleight of hand. Twelve days after White took over MI6, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal and so began a farcical campaign which would lead to the shattering of the illusions of power. Prime Minister Eden took it personally. Beyond the threat to oil supplies and the concern that Nasser was taking arms from a Soviet Union challenging Britain in its old playground, the idea that some jumped-up Arab could thumb his nose at Great Britain was too much for him. Eden was all handsome, polished charm on the surface. But beneath that he was highly strung and physically and mentally under strain with gout and nerves plaguing him, feeding on delusions of British grandeur. At Downing Street on the night of the nationalisation he ranted and raged. A kind of fever took hold of him in the coming days as he became obsessed with destroying Nasser. And he was unusually explicit about what that meant. There were no euphemisms or talk of ridding him of turbulent priests. One of his ministers recalled Eden calling him up on an unsecure line and saying, ‘I want Nasser murdered, don’t you understand?’ 98 This was the licence to kill.

...

Before and after the war, Young drew up plans to kill Nasser, ranging from using dissident military officers to kitting out an electric razor with explosives, to using poison gas and sending out hit teams, all very redolent of the CIA’s attempts to ‘take out’ Castro a few years later, which were equally hapless. Others in the service were reluctant to engage in that kind of behaviour, concerned that they would create a martyr. 100 (The only other serious request for assassination was for the service to kill President Sukarno of Indonesia, a request that was ignored owing to fears of what would come next.) 101 Nasser learnt of the plans and the KGB provided him with increased security, including a caged bird to warn of poison gas. 102

shyam · Post by **shyam** » 13 Apr 2013 13:28

Financial Angle - Keiser Report: Myths of Margaret Thatcher

Haresh · Post by **Haresh** » 13 Apr 2013 15:27

The Financing of Lashkar-e-Taiba

"Britain is a major center for fundraising for LeT because of its very large Pakistani immigrant population"

https://globalecco.org/en_GB/ctx-v1n1/l ... -taiba#All

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 13 Apr 2013 22:48

UK needs to be educated in order to get Brutishers off addiction to finance terror. At the same time such problem must be raised in UN and more importantly Indian courts let know of international terror financing from the UK.

Blacklisting of UK firms & banks involved in direct/indirect terror finance as well as visa rejections of those responsible for good relations but feigning ignorance is the default step to begin with.

JwalaMukhi · Post by **JwalaMukhi** » 13 Apr 2013 23:46

On this day not so long ago (Bishaki day)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Point ... _fired.JPG

[youtube]prYCw0F_Gmg#t=59s[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prYCw0F_Gmg

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 14 Apr 2013 01:44

Lilo wrote: Ekalavya ji,

I was wondering (onlee) on how a known admirer of "Nehru ji" like you can reconcile this admiration to Thatcher/ism (this was the obvious conclusion for me given those comment less Economist articles quoted by you singing paeans to Thatcher).

Lilo-ji, one can admire a great leader without subscribing to all their views (some of Mahatma Gandhi's views on economics are hardly popular either), especially with the benefit of hindsight, in this case about the pernicious effects of the licence-permit raj, nationalisation, etc. Nehru-ji was a great freedom fighter and a great nation builder, regardless of his "economic model" having been proved wrong with the benefit of hindsight. The failures of the planning autarkic model were already apparent in the 1960s, yet it took 27 years after Nehru-ji's death to begin unravelling the licence-permit raj. You have to remember that in 1947, capitalism was discredited (Wall Street crash, Great Depression, etc), the Soviet Union was seen as a great example of rapid industrialisation, private enterprise was viewed as being politically suspect (need one mention East India Company), the UK (which did influence Indian policy makers) was veering towards Labour, etc. That India chose the socialist model in 1947 is not surprising; what is nevertheless disappointing (I know how our democracy works, and I fully accept it) is that India began unravelling it a full 13 years after the Chinese started their reforms in 1978 and the British in 1979

.

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 14 Apr 2013 02:05

Tony Blair (the man who beat the Tories 3 times on a trot) on Margaret Thatcher:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067984

TONY BLAIR, FORMER LABOUR PRIME MINISTER

Margaret Thatcher was a towering political figure. Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast. And some of the changes she made in Britain were, in certain respects at least, retained by the 1997 Labour government, and came to be implemented by governments around the world.

Even if you disagreed with her as I did on certain issues and occasionally strongly, you could not disrespect her character or her contribution to Britain's national life. She will be sadly missed.

Tony Blair: "I always thought my job was to build on some of the things she had done rather than reverse them"

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 14 Apr 2013 02:15

These are also interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067984

LORD LAWSON, FORMER CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

She had firm principles but she was also interested in detail and she, with the help of some of her colleagues, certainly saved the country from a very, very weak economic condition that may have been irreversible if she hadn't come along.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR

She shaped modern Great Britain as few have before or since. She was one of the greatest leaders in World politics of her time. The freedom of the individual was at the centre of her beliefs so she recognised very early the power of the movements for freedom in Eastern Europe. And she supported them. I will never forget her contribution in overcoming Europe's partition and the end of the Cold War.

ENDA KENNY, IRISH TAOISEACH

While her period of office came at a challenging time for British-Irish relations, when the violent conflict in Northern Ireland was at its peak, Mrs Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement which laid the foundation for improved North-South co-operation and ultimately the Good Friday Agreement.

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 14 Apr 2013 02:20

eklavya ji,

pardon me, but I don't see how making this thread into a Margaret Thatcher fan page really contributes to the Indo-UK angle!

She was an inconsequential "leader" of an inconsequential country and as such her life and death are both inconsequential.

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 14 Apr 2013 03:05

RajeshA wrote:She was an inconsequential "leader" of an inconsequential country and as such her life and death are both inconsequential.

Rajesh, you say Margaret Thatcher was "inconsequential", whereas Narendra Modi says Margaret Thatcher was an "inspirational leader of immense stature and fortitude" and he calls her an "epoch maker". An "epoch maker" is someone who defines the period of history they inhabit.

https://mobile.twitter.com/narendramodi/tweets

Inspirational leader of immense stature & fortitude, Baroness Margaret Thatcher was an epoch maker. A sad loss for UK and the world. RIP.

2:24pm - 8 Apr 13

RajeshA · Post by **RajeshA** » 14 Apr 2013 03:17

eklavya ji,

politicians do make such noises! It means nothing.

Margaret Thatcher was the "leader" of Britain after it had become inconsequential. Some Indians still dote on Britain due to legacy brainwashing, but Britain is indeed inconsequential except for its nuisance value of supporting terrorists and Jihadis.

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 14 Apr 2013 10:33

ATT fallout? India, UK cancel talks

India on Monday cancelled its bilateral defence talks with the UK, ostensibly due to Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma’s pre-occupation with parliamentary work, officials said.

But the sudden decision to call off talks slated for Tuesday, is being seen as a fallout of New Delhi’s anger over the London for not supporting its stand in the UN during the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which was adopted last week. India had vehemently opposed the ATT in its present form, protesting against its slant in favour of arms exporting nations.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 14 Apr 2013 10:43

Start exporting arms, if that's the slant. Here's the opportunity.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 14 Apr 2013 11:08

In the BR news page,there is a report about the cancellation of the single-bendor deal with Israel for anti-tank missiles.The US earlier refused to give us TOT for the same,that's the way of so-called "friends",as we had to go to Israel,but the IA is now wary of such deals becaiuse of defence scams .

The Iron lady and Mrs. G. in comparison.The Falklands War vs the creation of Bangladesh.It is "no contest" as to who has had the greater influence on global affairs-that is if you call "Thatcherism" s the mantra adopted bu EU nations resulting in this massive collapse of the Euro! That is the real legacy of the Iron Lady,may she "rust in peace".

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 14 Apr 2013 19:57

Margaret Thatcher left a dark legacy that has still not disappeared

eklavya · Post by **eklavya** » 14 Apr 2013 21:00

Philip wrote:In the BR news page,there is a report about the cancellation of the single-bendor deal with Israel for anti-tank missiles.The US earlier refused to give us TOT for the same,that's the way of so-called "friends",as we had to go to Israel,but the IA is now wary of such deals becaiuse of defence scams .

The Iron lady and Mrs. G. in comparison.The Falklands War vs the creation of Bangladesh.It is "no contest" as to who has had the greater influence on global affairs-that is if you call "Thatcherism" s the mantra adopted bu EU nations resulting in this massive collapse of the Euro! That is the real legacy of the Iron Lady,may she "rust in peace".

Philip, Margaret Thatcher was an implacable foe of the single currency (the Euro) and its predecessor (the Exchange Rate Mechanism). It was her opposition to the European integration project that caused her to fall out with her senior cabinet ministers, Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe, which eventually cost her the premiership (with some Poll Tax political insanity thrown in).

The implosion of the Eurozone economies vindicates Margaret Thatcher's position on the Euro. It would be quite wrong to potray the troubles of the Euro and the collapsing Eurozone economy as a legacy of Thatcherism: Margaret Thatcher was the standard bearer of the opposition to the single currency!

The single currency was the triumph of a project driven by the Continental European elite (principally France and Germany: France is afraid of Germany's economic power, and Germany is also afraid of Germany's economic power) for "ever closer political and economic union" that had virtually no democratic sanction (no one asked the German people if they wanted to lose the Deutschemark) and even less sanction in economic theory (who in their right mind would place Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Germany in the same "optimum currency area"!).

The Southern Europeans are waking up to discover that economic sovereignity has migrated to Berlin and the North Europeans are waking up to discover that they have underwritten the inefficient and corrupt welfare states of Southern Europe.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 15 Apr 2013 08:49

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/20 ... a-company/
Bailouts Were The Norm Long Before TARP: A Retrospective On The East India Company

The East India Company is Room 101 for everyone’s economic anxieties. It was the omnipotent multinational corporation that liberals fear, amoral profit driven machine that conservatives scorn, and crony capitalist creation that libertarians bemoan.It was equal parts business, war machine, monopoly, and colonizer. The company traded and taxed, persuaded and extorted, enriched and looted. How it survived a quarter millennium (1600-1858) to become, in Edmund Burke’s immortal words, “a state in the disguise of a merchant” says much about bad economics and government policy.This government created monopoly grew out of a faulty economic theory, mercantilism. This idea had two foundational premises: economic activity is zero-sum and wealth equates to how much bullion a country possesses. Accordingly, European governments enacted trade restrictions and controls to achieve positive balances of trade by completely dominating domestic and colonial markets. Tariffs, corporate favoritism, and autarky are all mercantilist policies.But its biggest legacy is bloodshed. Belief in economic gain as occurring at someone’s expense encouraged the annihilation of competitors. France and Britain, assisted by their joint-stock companies, regularly fought for economic supremacy abroad throughout the 18th Century. The assumption of wealth as fixed incentivized the proactive use of force, whether against other Europeans or natives, to obtain riches.But graft, prize money, and loot did not cover military expenditures, as wars grew larger and costlier. So the company took the next logical step, tax. At the barrel of a gun, both prince and peasant filled company coffers with tax revenues. Taxation slowed the export of bullion abroad, a major plus in mercantilist thought, and kept the balance sheets in the black. This money also lubricated a lobbying effort to protect the company’s monopoly. A mid-century loan of £1 million to finance British debt was worth paying to keep competitors out the subcontinent.
But success through belligerence is a shaky proposition. And after the Seven Years War (1756-1763), a series of inconclusive conflicts drained the coffers. The 1770 famine in Bengal (Eastern India), which killed ten million people, made financial problems dire. The stock price cratered as investors pulled their money out, and by 1772 the company was insolvent, facing dissolution, and begging Parliament for relief.The famine brought public anxieties about corruption and despotism in India beneath Britain’s flag to a boil. Lord Rockingham, leader of the opposition Whig Party, lit into the company for its “rapine and oppression” in Bengal. Indeed, the decision to raise taxes during the famine reeked of tyranny. Moreover, earlier mandates to plant certain crops and regulations against hoarding turned a crisis into a catastrophe.Company lobbyists responded with an imperialist version of too big to fail. Bankruptcy meant terminating hard won British preeminence in the subcontinent. Despite the difficulty of France overcoming the Royal Navy’s dominance at sea to reclaim Indian possessions, the argument stuck. The Regulating Act of 1773 provided a £1.5 million loan and capped dividends. It also banned employees from accepting bribes and kickbacks, and appointed a Governor General of Bengal to enforce the regulations.The problem was Parliament chose a compromise, regulating rather than liquidating the company or leaving it alone, which proved unenforceable. How could politicians in London, let alone one man in Calcutta, compel a vast corporate machine to comply with government regulations?Fifteen more years of corruption and war answered that question. After passing additional legislation in 1784, Parliament lost its patience and took serious action. It impeached Warren Hastings, the appointed Governor General from 1773. And none other than the father of conservatism, Edmund Burke, served as chief prosecutor. His grandstanding on February 13, 1788 would make any Congressmen blush, and is worth quoting at some length.Continued wars in the19th Century, namely the conquest of the Northwest Territories and Punjab, again strained finances and setup further intervention from Parliament. In 1813 the company lost its monopoly over everything except tea and trade with China, and ceased all commercial function 1833. Only the administrative machinery, the foundation of crown rule, saved it from dissolution until the Mutiny of 1857. A century after Clive’s triumph at the Battle of Plassey inaugurated British ascendance, the East India Company fell and mercantilism passed away.Observers of the TARP theatrics will notice parallels. Wall Street banks, like the East India Company, nearly paid for their mistakes with bankruptcy. But thanks to a powerful lobbying effort, each wrangled a bailout by prophesizing doom: the collapse of the world economy or the end of British dominance in India.
Both the East India Company and TARP were flagrant examples of corporate collusion with government. Concerned persons rightly fear such behavior. However, the best prevention is greater economic freedom rather than state control. The government cannot create wealth anymore than business can, or should, rule. Central planners and social engineers cannot, and will never, create more prosperity than free individuals.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 15 Apr 2013 09:00

Days of the Raj: Huge collection of photographs depicting life in India a century ago are found in a shoebox

Haresh · Post by **Haresh** » 15 Apr 2013 19:05

abhishek,

I saw the story some time ago.
It's the comments that I find amusing. They actually think it was the greatest time in the the UK's history.

The one comment that did catch my eye was the one which said, if India had stayed as part of the British empire it would have been better for India and Britain. Yes they could then boast about controlling India, and Britain would have had all that wealth to leech on like a parasite.
Of course now they have to work and compete in the world.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 16 Apr 2013 13:07

Tx Ekky,however,her pro-active capitalist mantra without a social conscience was hailed by the west as the answer to economic prosperity (for the rich) and the resultant promiscuity of the western banking system.While she sensibly kept Britain out of the Eurozone,the collapse of Brit banks like the RBS,Barings,etc.,were the result of the greed of the bankers to acquire vast profits and bonuses by any means,taking massive risks ,confident that conspiratorial govts. would bail them out in any crisis.Thatcherism and Reaganism was the mirage that the faithful followed leading them to the financial "cliff" today that many of the world's economies are teetering on.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... arges.html

Andrew Bailey: it's 'odd' UK bank bosses have avoided formal charges
Britain's chief financial regulator, Andrew Bailey, has said it is “more than odd” that the chairmen and chief executives who were at the helm of the failed banks have avoided formal charges.

More criticism of the Thatcher funeral arrangements.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013 ... criticised

Lady Thatcher funeral arrangements under fire as Big Ben is silenced
Diane Abbott criticises ceremony and senior Tory says the Queen has been placed in an invidious position

brihaspati · Post by **brihaspati** » 16 Apr 2013 15:28

Cross posting from Internal security watch - courtesy Carl:

Separatists in high places: Harsh Mander
By Sandhya Jain on February 20, 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/02/20/s ... 48550.html

Separatists in high places: Harsh Mander

Nowhere in Harsh Mander’s impressive CVs found on the websites of various organisations, including Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council of which he was a member till June 2012, and Wikipedia, is it mentioned that he is associated with the Justice Foundation Kashmir Centre UK, along with the ISI’s now-famous Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai.

The Justice Foundation Kashmir Centre was set up in London in January 2004 by Dr Ayub Thakur to seek ‘justice and peace for the oppressed people of the world, including the people of Jammu and Kashmir’. Informed sources believe it is a project of British intelligence to undermine India’s claim on Kashmir. The foundation received some money from the ISI when Fai was roped in as Director. Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl, an academic who writes regularly for all major Pakistani newspapers, took over the reins after Ayub Thakur’s death in 2004.

As is well known, Ghulam Nabi Fai, an American citizen of Kashmiri origin, was arrested by the FBI in July 2011 on charges of concealing receipt of USD 3.5 million from Pakistan’s ISI to fund his illegal lobbying efforts to influence the US government on the Kashmir issue in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. His arrest coincided with a sharp deterioration in US-Pak relations following the American stealth attack on Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in May the same year.

Fai pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion and was sentenced to two years imprisonment for “conspiracy to defraud the US” by concealing transfer of funding from the ISI for illegal lobbying on Kashmir. His activities included hosting seminars to promote Pakistan’s viewpoint on Kashmir internationally; prominent invitees included Dilip Padgaonkar, the Indian Government appointed interlocutor on Kashmir.

Former IAS officer Harsh Mander shot to international fame when he publicly blamed the Gujarat Government and Chief Minister for the 2002 riots. Since then, he has positioned himself as a social activist, writer, and moral crusader of neglected causes. He heads the Aman Biradari trust which works for communal harmony and is a founding member of Shabnam Hashmi’s Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD).

Although he has publicly supported the demand for removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from Jammu & Kashmir, Harsh Mander has never informed his Indian audience that he is a member of the Working Group of the Justice Foundation which operates as Pakistan’s propaganda vehicle on Kashmir.

The Foundation website gives a slanted history of the Kashmir ‘dispute’, such as, “It is rumoured that the Maharaja acceded to India in exchange for military assistance and the promise of a popular referendum”. The purpose, of course, is to undermine the unquestionable accession of the erstwhile Kingdom to India by Maharaja Hari Singh, though it is true that Jawaharlal Nehru and Louis Mountbatten played a role in muddying the waters.

As a member of the Working Group of the Justice Foundation, it follows that Harsh Mander, doyen of the Indian secularists and human rights activists, is actually serving the Pakistani cause advocated by the Foundation. Mander is listed as representing the Centre for Equity Studies, India, a body appointed by the Delhi Government as the nodal agency for managing residential homes for street children in allocated Government buildings, a mandate in which it failed completely.

In August 2012, a Delhi Police investigation found that three minor boys were sexually exploited in the Centre for Equity Studies’ home in Mehrauli and that the management had ignored the abuse despite being aware of it. Despite a direct warning from a former staff member of the home, neither the project in-charge nor Mander himself took steps to prevent the abuse of the boys or called the police.

In Britain, the media has questioned the association of MPs of both the Conservative and Labour parties with the Justice Foundation, which is alleged to be a front for Pakistani spies. In August 2011, there was a furore over MPs hosting a Justice Foundation conference in the House of Commons. It was attended by Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party.

The British Press noted that Ghulam Nabi Fai, who had been arrested by the FBI the previous month for running an organisation called the Kashmiri American Council while acting as an agent of a foreign power, was a director of the Justice Foundation based in Bloomsbury, central London. American prosecutors then claimed that the three Kashmir Centres in Washington, London and Brussels were run on behalf of “elements of the Pakistani government, including Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).”

The Foundation hosted Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s visit to Britain in 2010. The latter’s party, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, is believed to have links to the Taliban. Over the years, the Justice Foundation has organised several conferences on the Kashmir conflict with millions of dollars of covert funding, according to British media.

Another function of the Foundation was hosted by the Labour peer Baron Nazir Ahmed in the House of Lords in 2010. Moreover, Ahmed and two Conservative and Labour MPs accepted Foundation funding for a trip to Kashmir, including Occupied Kashmir. All three MPs later claimed ignorance of the Foundation’s links with the ISI; Ahmed even claimed that though he knew Ghulam Nabi Fai for many years, he did not know that Fai was a director of the Foundation!

Since Harsh Mander has been a member of the all-powerful National Advisory Council and would have enjoyed unprecedented access to the highest echelons of Government, and former Air Chief Marshall SP Tyagi was co-chair (with Pakistan General Jehangir Karamat, retd.) of a Track-II initiative in 2012 which favoured India withdrawing from the strategic Siachen Glacier, the Government of India must clarify its position on Jammu & Kashmir State without further ado. And if it is serious, it should sternly warn citizens against associating with individuals and agencies hostile to the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 16 Apr 2013 21:13

abhishek_sharma wrote:Days of the Raj: Huge collection of photographs depicting life in India a century ago are found in a shoebox

what happens if Queendom becomes U of little pakistans?

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 17 Apr 2013 03:05

We Indo-Americans on our way to India would get down at Heathrow to empty our inner pakistaniat in the U. of little Pakistans

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 17 Apr 2013 15:18

X-post

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 0#p1441661

By Japan K Pathak

Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 16 April 2013

With official documents in hand, in this series I am trying to narrate the details of crorepati non-government organizations functioning in Gujarat – author

When I read status updates on left-winger NGO operator Shabnam Hashmi’s foreign tours, when I look at her anti-Modi ad anti-Right campaigns on Facebook, when I learn that she travels in planes, and manage to have a house in Amdavad, when I learn she camped in Gujarat before the assembly elections for weeks and weeks, the questions arise in my mind: how one manage to spend so much without doing job or business like normal people!

But after getting hold of the official documents on foreign funded organizations in India, I have been able to find some answers.

Shabnam Hashmi runs ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) with registered address as 23, Canning Lane (Pandir Ravi Shankar Shukl Lane) in New Delhi.

Her association is described as Cultural, education and social. Yes, the word ‘political’ is not part of the description.

Hashmi’s NGO received Rs. 1,66,10,753.60 foreign fund in year 2011-12 for “strengthening communal harmony and democracy.”

Now let’s do dissection of the foreign fund, Shabnam Hashmi received during that year.

The highest foreign fund was donated by Britain based organization Christian Aid. ANHAD has received around Rs one crore fund in a year from this organization.

Among the other organizations that made donations to Ms. Hashmi’s ANHAD are IMRC (Indian Muslim Relief and Charities) headquartered in Palo Alto California and Church Auxiliary for Social Action(CASA).

Now let’s move on to the figures of year 2010-11.

ANHAD received foreign donation of Rs 1,65,25,433. Christian Aid was again the main donator with donation in this year worth Rs 84 lakh around.

In both 2011 and 2010 OXFAM was also one of the major donors of ANHAD.

Interestingly Action-Aid India is also one of the major donors of ANHAD. We accessed the funding details of Action-Aid Associations and found that in same year Action Aid was donated Rs 46053800.00 by a single donor – Google India Private Limited for “welfare of other backward class.”

ANHAD was established in March 2003, as a response to 2002 Gujarat riots by Shabnam Hashmi, Marxian historian Prof. K N Panikkar and social activist Harsh Mander. As per its Wiki page, ANHAD plays a major role in Gujarat to fight against human right violations,as well as in the Kashmir Valley.ANHAD is registered as a trust and has six trustees. They are Shabnam Hashmi, K N Panikkar, Harsh Mander, Shubha Mudgal, Kamla Bhasin, Saeed Akhtar Mirza.

Neela · Post by **Neela** » 17 Apr 2013 16:45

^^^
Just FYI:
Harsh Mander and Shabnam Hashmi together formed ANHAD.
Harsh Mander was a member of Working Group of the Justice Foundation , funded by GHulam Nabi Fai.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 18 Apr 2013 08:22

Whatever her divisiveness on social issues,when it came to taking hard decisions,Mrs.T never shirked-whether it was the Falklands War or IRA terrorism. In the context of the repeated terrorist acts in India and a govt. of eunuchs prostrating themselves at the false god of "Peace with Pak",a strong decisive leader like Mrs.T is what India desperately needs,but will our people be hoodwinked again and descend yet again into voting for caste,community and creed instead of a national agenda?

kancha · Post by **kancha** » 19 Apr 2013 12:51

Lilo wrote:

^^ Map of India as depicted in Mirror.uk .

First picture of British tourist, 24, 'stabbed to death' on houseboat in India

Just went to the link, they seem to have changed the map to the official, political map of India. Was the above map on the same page as the news story, or someplace else?

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 19 Apr 2013 13:13

^
Looks like they changed it now.
Yes it was on the same place where the current (correct) image of India is placed.

The older image url -->> hxxp://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1814609.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Srinagar-India-Kashmir-map-1814609.jpg

is still a giveaway that it was associated with that article and was hosted on the mirror.co.uk server.