Bharat Rakshak

Pakistan’s leadership, present and past, has bent over backward to invite the Indian leader time and time again. Last month President Zardari extended the invitation once again urging him to attend Guru Nanak’s anniversary celebrations at Nankana Sahib only to be snubbed once again.
Meanwhile as Singh like Prince of Denmark takes his time to make up his mind in the last couple of years in office, someone else has snatched the initiative. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, one of India’s most promising politicians and emerging contenders for Singh’s job, has surprised many by undertaking a weeklong trip to Pakistan. The Bihar leader, who lost little time in responding to the invitation of provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab and federal government, is being mobbed like a rock star wherever he goes in Pakistan.

The Hindu’s Anita Joshua reports that the Bihar leader, sporting a traditional Sindhi cap and “ajrak” for greater part of the first day in Karachi, quickly won the hearts and minds of his hosts. He repeatedly batted for stronger relations and greater economic and cultural partnership between India and Pakistan. Kumar also talked of the “Bihar growth story” to emphasize why peace is essential for prosperity and growth, drawing fulsome praise from Imran Khan and others.
Interestingly, Kumar’s party, Janata Dal (United) is a key member of the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP. That however hasn’t prevented him from passionately pitching for India-Pakistan bonhomie and an inclusive polity and tolerance on both sides of the border.
Kumar was recently in the news for warning his allies against projecting Gujarat’s Modi as a candidate for the top job in 2014 arguing that a future leader must represent the nation’s secular ethos and pluralism.

The Bihar leader plumped for the same values during his passage to Pakistan. On a visit to the Mohatta Palace Museum in Karachi, he wrote in the visitors’ book: “The visit to Mohatta Palace built in the tradition of stone palaces of Rajasthan has reinforced my belief that the cultural links between our two nations are abiding which is central to our history. If we shared a common past, it’s wise to share a common future regardless of geographical boundaries.’’
[...]
And Bihar leader is not the only one to get a rousing reception. Kumar arrived in Pakistan even as Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy leader of Punjab, was crossing Wagah after a remarkable visit to the other Punjab. Badal, the virtual head of the Akali government, had arrived with some real big and bold ideas to take the relationship to a whole new level. The young leader presented an ambitious roadmap for economic partnership between the two Punjabs in his talks with chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is to reciprocate the visit in the next few weeks.

Besides pushing for free trade zones and more trade routes and road links across the Radcliffe line, he has made an impassioned appeal asking the neighbors to clear the negative effects of the Partition and hurdles that prevent free movement of people who had not long ago been one. In doing so, Badal, whose party too is part of the NDA, may be voicing the sentiments of silent multitudes of the subcontinent that have been consistently ignored by their governments.

As C. Raja Mohan notes in Indian Express, “If the BJP has abandoned the peace legacy of Vajpayee, the Congress hasn’t had the courage of conviction to follow through its own initiatives. Conservatives in the Cabinet, like Defense Minister Antony, have repeatedly blocked the PM’s initiatives, including his plans to visit Pakistan. The Congress has ceded the initiative not to the BJP, but to regional leaders.”

Clearly, Badal and Kumar are filling the political and leadership vacuum left open by Premier Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. As on Kashmir and other hot button issues, the Congress leadership notwithstanding its liberal image has betrayed a singular lack of courage and vision to take decisive steps even when offered historic opportunities.

brihaspati wrote:^^put this in the history thread perhaps in GDF? No single article exists. The "secularist" position has not been able to prove the responsibility of "Brahminism" - and therefore now remain silent on the issue. The opposite view mentions a combination of factors - including Islamist destruction.

Richards said ministers had cut the armed forces' numbers and resources without reducing their demands for operations. "We have a whole load of tasks expected of us. Our political masters are quite happy to reduce the size of the armed forces, but their appetite to exercise influence on the world stage is, quite understandably, the same as it has always been", Richards said. "Often politicians say to me, 'Can you go and do this?' I say to them, 'With what?' " He added: "If you reduce your armed forces, there is going to be a give — something gives."

On Afghanistan, Britain's most senior military officer — who commanded Nato forces at the time of the British surge to Helmand in 2006 — said western leaders had "collectively failed" by wasting the opportunity won by years of costly military operations. "All the military can do is buy space and time and opportunity for a political resolution of a problem. It is a great shame that we have not understood this."

The chiefs of staff publicly avoid answering questions about what they think of the decision to build two large aircraft carriers for the navy or plans to build a new fleet of Trident nuclear missile submarines. Those decisions, they say, are entirely "political". But Richards, according to reports of his Oxford lecture, made it clear he was worried about a shortage of relevant resources to meet the needs of practical and current operations.

"One of my biggest concerns is the number of frigates and destroyers the navy has," he said. Pointing to the EU's counter piracy operation, he continued: "You get to this ridiculous situation where in Operation Atalanta off the Somali coast, we have £1 bn destroyers trying to sort out pirates in a little dhow with RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] costing $50, with an outboard motor [costing] $100," he said.

"That can't be good. We've got to sort it out." Richards' lecture was reported on 14 November in the Daily Telegraph. Two days later, the former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown said British forces must withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible before any more troops are killed.

"We cannot pretend there is any more to do in Afghanistan", he told the Times newspaper in an interview. "The urgent priority is to get out. It is not worth wasting one more life in Afghanistan. All that we can achieve has now been achieved. All that we might have achieved if we had done things differently, has been lost."
Ashdown continued: "The only rational policy now is to leave quickly, in good order and in the company of our allies. This is the only cause for which further lives should be risked." This was a significant intervention from a former Royal Marine Commando, member of the Special Boat Service, and of Britain's foreign intelligence service.

Britain's armed forces seem to be on a hiding to nothing in Afghanistan and want to get out, at least as far as combat operations are concerned, as soon as possible. They are waiting for ministers, after advice from the National Security Council, to decide when the 10,000 British troops in Helmand should leave, and how quickly, between now and the end of 2014, when all Nato troops will cease combat operations in Afghanistan.

The British government is in a hurry, and since Britain is supposed to synchronise its moves with the US, it wants Barack Obama to take a decision rather more quickly than is his wont. The army is already planning a massive extraction operation, the biggest, it says, in a generation. It will involve the removal from southern Afghanistan of 20,000, 20-foot, containers, Lt Gen Richard Barrons, deputy chief of staff responsible for military strategy and operations, told the Commons defence committee last week.

Asked if he seriously believed that by 1 January 2015 Afghan security forces will be sustainable, Lt Gen David Capewell, the UK's chief of joint operations, told the committee earlier it was " an assumption we have to make".

Under immense pressure at home and abroad, and encouraged by the public outcry over the fact that the Swat Taliban were only 70 kilometers from the capital Islamabad, the Pakistani army launched Operation Rah-e-Raast (Right Path) in May 2009. Earlier, the failure of the first and second phases of the military operation Rah-e-Haq (Just Path) in Swat had forced an influential elder and political leader from the area, Afzal Khan Lala, to tell the army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that the army and Taliban were "two faces of the same coin."

Lala, who survived an attack believed to have been carried out by the Taliban, earned praise for his exceptional courage by staying put while much of the rest of the population (nearly 2.5 million people) left the area for fear of the Taliban and the looming military operation.

The nearly two-month-long Rah-e-Raast operation, closely covered by this writer, successfully ousted the Taliban from Swat and helped return the displaced population to their villages by restoring public order. However, like what happened with other militant and Taliban leaders, including Mangal Bagh in Khyber, Faqir Muhammad in Bajaur, and Hakimullah Mehsud in the Waziristan tribal agencies, the leader of the Swat Taliban, Mullah Fazlullah, miraculously survived and escaped the valley.

Within a few months of the military operation, the Taliban attempted to stage a return, targeting and killing a member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly, Shamsher Ali Khan, in a suicide attack outside his house in Swat on December 1, 2009. Since then, any tribal elder, politician, social worker or journalist who dared to criticize the Taliban or pointed out the Army's failure to root out the militants -- or at least block their entry back into Swat -- was kidnapped, beaten, threatened or killed, by either the Taliban or sometimes even the Army.

One such voice was that of Zahid Khan, president of the Swat Hotels Association and one of the leading figures of the Swat Qaumi Jirga, an organization striving for peace and development in the valley. Khan used to criticize the Taliban for their inhumane practices both in public and in private. I still remember my last meeting with him in November 2009 at his home in Swat. During our conversation, Khan showed me an AK-47 assault rifle that was left behind by armed men who ambushed him near his house after he had returned from a meeting with army officials at the Circuit House in Swat.

Khan's family members exchanged fire with the unidentified attackers in the dark of night, and forced them to flee and leave the AK-47 behind. After the restoration of calm (though not peace) to Swat, Khan began to criticize the Pakistani security forces as well as the Taliban, for what he called the army's failure to kill or arrest the Taliban's leadership.

Zahid Khan is now on a hospital bed after receiving severe injuries in an armed attack in August this year. According to police accounts, the unidentified attackers managed to escape. Khan is no longer likely to attend meetings to discuss peace and development in Swat, nor will he be talking to the media.

Two months before the attack on Zahid Khan, armed men gunned down a local leader of the Pakistan Muslim League party in Swat, Muhammad Afzal Khan, spreading fear among Swat's people. While speaking to this writer soon after the attack on Malala Yousafzai, a number of Swat's notable elders and political leaders questioned the role of army troops stationed in the valley, if not to prevent such devastating attacks on civilians.

Just like the outspoken Zahid Khan, Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai were the real voices for peace in Swat; both of them criticized the Taliban for their medieval practices, and the military for not restoring real peace in the valley. Though a shadow Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for attacking Malala, many Swat observers believe that the aim of the shooting was really to silence her father, who is also the spokesman for the Swat Qaumi Jirga.

Some others see a distinct pattern in all his ventures -- these are all in sectors with some amount of government regulation.

"Rao is good at managing the environment," says a Delhi-based businessman. The coincidence cannot be missed -- sugar, brewery to roads, power and airport are all regulated sectors. Rao, mind you, started out in business during the licence raj. Skills acquired during those days serve him well to this day. Rao declined the request for an interview for this article.

Indeed, the Delhi airport had faced more than one hiccup, including some from within the government, but Rao was able to overcome all of them. Rao had proposed to sell land within the airport to real estate developers and plough the money into the venture as equity capital. Some sections of the Union civil aviation ministry cried foul.

This would pull down the profits of the venture in which the Airport Authority of India happens to be a stakeholder, they argued. But the opposition slowly died down. By then, real estate prices had crashed. Instead of the Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) he had initially expected, all Rao got was Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion). The government then allowed him to charge an airport development fee to travellers to cover the shortfall. A National Facilitation Committee was set up under the Cabinet secretary, country's topmost bureaucrat, to iron out all glitches in the project.

Rao is a trailblazer amongst Indian business families. The Raos were the first to write a family constitution. After them, others like the Bharatrams of SRF have come out with a similar document and the Godrej [ Get Quote ] family is known to have put one together. While sitting across the table with his debtors at Vysya Bank, Rao realised that enterprises come to grief because of family feuds.

To avoid that, the Raos carried out extensive studies to find out what can cause discord in a family. Finally, British family business expert Peter Leach was called to codify the constitution. It lays down the family values, sets out a mechanism to resolve disputes, and specifies succession principles as well as the norms for media exposure. It even provides a forum for spouses to get together and air their differences.

Each business vertical of the group has a chairman. The tenure is fixed for three years.

Well, it all started with his flirtation with the banking sector. Being part of the Vysya community, in the mid-80s Rao was offered a directorship in the Vysya Bank run by Ramesh Gelli.

Says Rao: "The bank wanted to attract deposits from our community in the coastal areas, and I had linkages with them. A large part of the depositor base came from there."

The bank was set up with a Rs 60 lakh equity capital, but when its rights issues did not get subscribed, Rao moved in and built up a large stake. So when Gelli decided to move out and set up Global Trust Bank, Rao shifted base from his small town to Bangalore to take over the reins of the bank.

Of course, winning Delhi or Mumbai won't be a cakewalk for the group. Says one of the competitors in the bidding race: "It is highly unlikely that the government would like to create a monopoly by giving GMR another private airport. That will go against him. Plus, his closeness to Chandrababu Naidu might be a problem."

RamaY wrote:^ Interesting. I read about the "family constitution" in some Telugu news paper but didn't know the British connection.

I myself was contemplating a "family constitution" where in learning Sanskrit, Family Fund, Learning certain martial and business skills are codified.

Gelli quit but remained as an investor. In December 2002, Sebi imposed a ban on Gelli. A JPC report stopped short of giving him a clean chit. Taking a cue, he was re-inducted on the board of the bank in February 2004. However, On March 13, Gelli walked out again.

ramana wrote:I think we need to look beyond. Someone in Londonistan got upset with GMR rise. Fact GOI is not doing much except wring hands shows that.

I am sure he will come out shaken but will fight back.

Scholars and spies: A disastrous combination

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 34641.html

Sushupti wrote:relationship between US scholars and intelligence agencies

Scholars and spies: A disastrous combination

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 34641.html

ramana wrote:The reporter should file an FIR against Bukhari for assault and see how the state handles that.

brihaspati wrote:

Scholars and spies: A disastrous combination

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 34641.html

Al j'S interesting feature is that it typically remains almost silent about Saudi Arabia - in all its extensive "documentaries" about the filth, atrocity and dirt in other countries. When talking of slavery, it shows Europe and Asia to its glee - but never talks of slavery practised in its immediate environs, around its homebase in the Gulf.

So is that disastrous combination also allowed for "Islamic scholars" from the Gulf?

...And now it seems we could be bracing for another such communal breakdown. Tension prevailed a few days before Diwali when the Bhagayalaxmi temple abutting the historic Charminar in Hyderabad, caused a flare-up in the old city due to some temporary structure that was erected around it.

Just like the Ayodhya case, here too, the temple authority is insisting that the temple is as old as the 16th century monument, a claim refuted by locals, historians and the Archeological Survey of India.{Usual suspects in secular India} The locals are divided on how the temple came into existence. Some believe during the Qutub Shahi dynasty, a stone was erected to mark the end of a plague, while some say the stone was installed to maintain distance between the Charminar and vehicles on the road. Both views, however, are in agreement that the stone gradually became an auspicious entity, was replaced by a picture of a goddess and eventually, an idol of Laxmi....

It appears that if the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) had not reacted to this incident and filed a petition seeking a stay-order on further construction by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, a full-fledged temple would have been constructed. Or was all of this crafted to polarise communities before an election?

The area surrounding Charminar has a dense Muslim population comprising lower middle class population. The Bhagayalaxmi temple has been around for at least a few decades, without any strife between Hindu and Muslim communities, which is exemplary. So why has it suddenly become a hot-spot for potential rioting? Was the concrete structure of the temple turned from temporary to permanent overnight? Is the MIM’s withdrawal of support to the UPA-II and the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh by its president Mohd Owaisi mere political drama to ignite and nurture communal emotions? Why had he not noticed this development at the Charminar before? After the order of the High Court to maintain a status quo on 30 October, what prompted further violence? The withdrawal of support after a warning of communal tension by the MIM is being considered as blackmailing Chief Minister Kiran Kumar. Interestingly, Reddy had turned down Owaisi’s plea on two different occasions: first, in clearing a three-acre plot at the Mahavir Hospital in the AC Guards area of Hyderabad whose 30-year lease period ended in 2007, and second, to hand over possession of the prime property to the Deccan College of Medical Sciences, run by Owaisi’s family. Many feel Owaisi just wants to draw political mileage from the temple row. Alternately, the temple controversy could also be construed as a smart move for the MIM to snap ties with the Congress and join the YSR Congress for the upcoming elections.

The MIM seems to be following what the Congress was doing to Muslims – garnering votes by inculcating the fear psychosis of the Hindu extremist, by projecting itself as the lone savior of Muslims.

Power tussle aside, one cannot but help think all of this could be the Congress’ strategy to divert attention from the Telangana issue, and create a chance to appease Muslims. Or at the least, it could be a plot by YSR Congress in collusion with MIM to attract Muslim votes in the next election.

kittoo wrote:I personally feel very insecure about how much Hindus care for their identity. Today it was discussed in the assembly elections thread that the new census data might reveal that now only 75% of the population is Hindu. I was having this discussion with a friend of mine, and I was telling her how at this rate Hindus might become minority within some 50 years, and she replied point blank that she will convert to any other religion, at that time, if it meant a somewhat peaceful life. I cant even express how it made me feel. On one hand she recognizes that she might have problems if Hindus are a minority and she is a Hindu, but still on the other hand she thinks all the religions are same. When I probed her further, she said the same trite phrase that Hindus keep using- 'How does it matter with what name I call God?'
How does that make any sense. On one hand somewhere deep down you yourself know that a Hindu minority will not be a good situation for Hindus, yet you keep spouting that you dont care about religion and its OK? If that's not simple 'not facing the truth', then what is?

RamaY wrote:Singha ji

This is PRC's tactical brilliance. They are trying to create a Taiwan for India in SL, with the help of West (especially the ba$tard Britishers) IMHO. The only problem is that India doesn't (yet) say SL is part of its nation. But if you see SAARC this is obvious.

Pakistan, by nature, is already an extension of PRC nuke deterrent to India.

My gut feel is that, In the next 10 yrs there will be attempts in SL to offer port services to PRC ACs (especially after PRC gets 2-3 ACs) and even offerings of a military base. Please note that PRC would need it to protect its shipping lanes in IoR.

India should start making strategic-alliances with as many willing SAARC nations as possible in the lines of NATO. And SL should be top on that list, even before Nepal and Bhutan because that direction is already covered by China.

RamaY wrote:If India wants to protect its territorial, cultural, social and economic integrity it should treat most of the SAARC nations as part of it and include them in its growth story.