Bharat Rakshak

partha wrote:SSji, http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/ too is a good website documenting the Bangla genocide. We could add this too in the first post.

SSridhar wrote:

partha wrote:SSji, http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/ too is a good website documenting the Bangla genocide. We could add this too in the first post.

Thanks partha, yes, it has excellent material. Added.

DAB-A-MALSI: The State Bank of Pakistan has so far declined to transfer $45 million to an Iranian firm and as a result the procurement of 13 heavy power transformers, with an installed capacity of 500MW, has been held in abeyance.
An official at the power ministry, on condition of anonymity, said that the Iranian firm successfully arranged the transformers but the SBP has now refused to pay $45 million to the firm due to US sanctions on Iran.

shiv wrote:There is yet another one that is already there in the first post under a separate heading

In technical jargon, Track II always runs opposite to Track I. Moving parallel, they never meet. These trains of thought also end up at different platforms of the same station—precisely what has been happening with Indian diplomacy for the past few decades. Why and by who was Track II invented is anybody’s guess. While changes occur in governments, Track II members, promoters and financiers remain unchanged. In fact, it has become a sinecure for retired, tired and fired civil servants, diplomats, opinion-makers and recovering journalists. Last week, when the country was outraged over the flirtatious rendezvous between former hack Ved Pratap Vaidik and proclaimed terrorist Hafiz Saeed, questions were raised over the motives and intentions of Track II diplomacy. Vaidik may be justified in meeting Saeed as a former media maven, it was undeniably inappropriate for him to make out a case for J&K as an independent country.

His two-week undisclosed cross-border visit brought the spotlight on not just his hosts but also Indians who have been granted multi-entry visas to Pakistan. The Pakistan institute is run by former military officials, including a few from ISI. It has been inviting liberal and secular Indians for promoting peace and dialogue between India and its duplicitous neighbour. Some of them genuinely feel that India should engage Pakistan in a dialogue even if Pakistan-sponsored terror groups continue to kill innocents in India. On other hand, it is not a coincidence that those opposed to the idea of ‘Paki-Hindi Bhai Bhai at any cost’ are denied visas to visit even relatives or places of birth. ISI is so powerful that it can defy its heads of state or government when it comes to granting visas to independent journalists.

Instead of working towards a single mission, there has been a serious dissimilitude between Track I and Track II over the past decade. If the official line is to demolish terror camps working within Pakistan, Track II interlocutors have been espousing liberalising the visa regime and to give Pakistan free access to Indian market. PM Narendra Modi has been hinting at possible military intervention if terror attacks don’t stop, but India’s peacenik perambulators have been pleading for restraint so that they can grab more airmiles to Lahore for red carpet welcomes followed by biryani and bootleg Scotch. In fact, the new government is now examining the number of visits made by members of various think tanks to Pakistan and other countries, as well as their presentations. The idea is to ascertain whether these self-appointed ambassadors have taken a stand at variance with official policy. An analysis reveals that at none of the conferences or seminars in Pakistan did any of the Indian participants raise the issue of closing down terror camps. Strangely, many of these talking heads have much in common—conflict resolution, peace initiatives, terror and unknown sources of funding. The NDA government has started the process of identifying their financing patterns and ensuring that government funds are not being diverted through devious methods. They acquire legitimacy because Indian missions are obliged to organise receptions in their honour and even facilitate meetings with kindred souls in Pakistan. What has baffled senior ministers is that even after the change of regime in New Delhi, none of these interlocutors make it a point to brief the government before or after their visits, unlike their Pakistani counterparts.

Another revelation is that the number of these think tanks rose during UPA regime. Though it was Brijesh Mishra, a former diplomat and Principal Secretary to Atal Bihari Vajpayee— one of the most powerful ever—who encouraged Track II, the UPA under Manmohan Singh patronised legions of the intransigent interlocutors. Most were promoted by former diplomats and military officials, since serving officers who worked under them make it a point to oblige their former bosses by creating opportunities to indulge in non-stage diplomacy. This has dangerous implications. These retired diplomats get informal access to sensitive information from their colleagues in the government. There are many examples of individuals working as go-betweens for decades after their retirement—even after governments changed. The Track II establishment is so powerful that it can influence any government to follow its advice and ignore views of its ministers. Surprisingly, the composition of Track II phalanx defies any logic. It consists of individuals from all parties who are known for defiance of party or government line. Their only virtue is their consistency in keeping their honeymoon with Pakistan alive. They are found haunting residences of the Pakistan and UK High Commissioners and ambassadors of the US and China. They include senior media personalities known for their soft approach to Pakistan. But it is not that these think tanks are working only for a dialogue with Pakistan. Some have taken upon the responsibility of disarming the world by fighting against nuclear proliferation. Their only mission is to discourage India from becoming a nuclear power so that Western nuclear equipment manufacturing companies can capture Indian market. No wonder, their membership comprises those who share the doctrine of ideological junketing.

Surprisingly, these intellectual itinerants of both India and Pakistan are like MACs ( Mutual Admiration Clubs). They invite only those from each other’s country who are ideologically, culturally and politically compatible. For them, any change of government hardly makes a difference. An analysis of their writings or presentations reveals that all of them follow the same line of argument even if they come from different parties or outfits. They are so organised that if any non-MAC member makes a contrarian move, they move heaven and hell to gag the disagreeable point of view using their connections. Modi’s challenge is finding the right formula to dismantle the monstrous machinery, which has destabilised and undermined South Block with fraternal finesse. He has to take a call to merge both Tracks so that national interest prevails over culinary and travel preferences of retired apparatchiks who try to transcend oblivion with undying ambition.

Peregrine wrote:Sania Mirza appointed brand ambassador of Telangana

Cheers

SSridhar wrote:Modi Must Find Formula to Dismantle Monstrous Track-II - Prabhu Chawla, New Indian Express

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Syed Tariq Fatemi has said Pakistan would like the United States to continue its funding in support of fight against terrorism in the shape of CoalitionSupport Fund (CSF) after withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.Talking to journalists today, Tariq Fatemi, who is now in the US capital for important talks, said if the objective of fighting against terrorism is not achieved in the next two years and Pakistan continues tofight the menace, Islamabad would expect Washington to continue meeting the expenditure as in the past

SSridhar wrote:Modi Must Find Formula to Dismantle Monstrous Track-II - Prabhu Chawla, New Indian Express

These sorts of events are not always “junkets”, though some of them can turn into those. Track-II meetings often generate valuable ideas that the governments of India and Pakistan are able to pick up for implementation. The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus is one such idea. The push for expanded trade is another. It would be a real tragedy if the controversy over Vaidik’s personal meeting with Saeed were allowed to derail a valuable and essential element in the fraught bilateral relationship between the two countries.

ISLAMABAD: Qatar has turned down an offer to participate in Pakistan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply tender, saying it is interested in clinching a direct government-to-government deal to meet needs of the energy-starved South Asian nation.

In the current PSO tender, big energy giants have expressed interest and submitted bids including Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum and Mitsubishi. Officials term this a good omen for Pakistan’s energy needs as these companies have LNG supplies available with them

According to officials, Pakistan is seeking to set a benchmark LNG price through bidding, following which it will try to weigh different options for a direct government-to-government deal. For the time being, talks for finalising an agreement with Qatar have stalled until the time bids are accepted.

At present, all attention is focused on the bidding process as the government has drawn criticism from inside the country on reports that it will agree on LNG import from Qatar at a higher price.

First LNG shipment is expected to arrive in the first quarter of next year. The country plans to import 200 mmcfd in the initial phase, which will be increased to 400 mmcfd later.

Jhujar wrote:Beghairat Bikhari Bakistani

Pakistan expects US to continue CSF after withdrawal from Afghanistan to help Pakistan fight terrorism: Tariq Fatemi

ramana wrote:

Jhujar wrote:[
Pakistan expects US to continue CSF after withdrawal from Afghanistan to help Pakistan fight terrorism: Tariq Fatemi
They would like some fries with that?

SSridhar wrote:Chinese envoy lauds ISI's anti-terror role - ToI

China's newly-appointed special envoy to Afghanistan on Monday defended Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as "responsible force battling terrorism'' and ruled out its involvement in the recent attack on the Indian consulate in Herat.

"I think as an agency for the government and military of Pakistan, the ISI has been effective in fighting against terrorism," Sun Yuxi said at a presser a day before his Kabul visit.

"As for the specific [Herat] case, I have not been following regional developments for some time. I do believe that the Pakistan government or any responsible agency of Pakistan will only fight against terrorism instead of being involved with any terrorist groups,'' said Sun, who would visit Islamabad after his return from Kabul.

Sun rejected concerns suggesting China will work closely with Pakistani agencies including the ISI in Afghanistan. His comments come even as President Hamid Karzai blamed the LeT for the Herat attack on May 23 and amid concerns over ISI's destabilizing role in Afghanistan ahead of the US pullout.

The special envoy said he would maintain close working relationship with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts to contribute to peace and fighting terrorism. He claimed Islamabad would "play an important and positive role in the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan and fight terrorism''.

Sun, who has served as Chinese ambassador in India and Afghanistan, hoped New Delhi and Pakistan would work closely in Afghanistan. "I want to tell my colleagues from India and Pakistan that I know that both countries are making efforts to safeguard peace and stability and helping Afghanistan with reconstruction.'' {Pakistan, working for peace & reconstruction of Afghanistan? }

The special envoy said China's main concern remained Xinjiang's separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement's links with al Qaida and terrorists groups in Afghanistan {He avoided Pakistan}.

So, a clean chit to ISI and this tells India what to expect from China as it endeavours to fill in the vacuum to be left behind by the US & NATO withdrawal. China will work closely with the ISI in Afghanistan.

Press Briefing on Afghanistan.
James F. Dobbins. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kabul, Afghanistan.
July 22, 2014 …………………

As regards the Haqqani Network, we believe that they, like other militants, have in fact been pushed out of North Waziristan and our concern is whether they would come back or be allowed to operate elsewhere in Pakistan. We’ve been assured by the Pakistani government that they will not be allowed back into North Waziristan and they will not be allowed to operate from elsewhere in Pakistan. We will, of course, be observing that carefully.

Press Briefing on Afghanistan

SSridhar wrote:Zindagi channel may dispel misconceptions about Pakistan in India - DAWN

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Shehla Raza claimed on Wednesday that martial law could not be imposed in the country until three general elections were held in the country, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to a private TV channel, the PPP stalwart said that the agreement was reached under a clause in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), adding that the United States, Britain, UAE as well as then ISI chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had guaranteed this.

“What is a constitution? It is a booklet with twelve or ten pages. I can tear them away and say that tomorrow we shall live under a different system. Today, the people will follow wherever I lead. All the politicians including the once mighty Mr. Bhutto will follow me with tails wagging.”

arun wrote:Pakistan violated ceasefire 19 times since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over:

IBN Live

We have already seen the Modi government reverse half a dozen domestic positions of the Modi campaign. …………………………………..

Nowhere is the U-turn more apparent, though, than in foreign policy. One of the first acts of the newly-elected Prime Minister was to invite Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his inauguration, after attacking the Congress Party and his predecessor Manmohan Singh for being too soft on our neighbour. Modi, who had excoriated the Congress for "serving chicken biriyani" to a Pakistani visitor, now exchanges shawls and saris with his Islamabad counterpart. (I mischievously tweeted my hope that chicken biriyani would be on Modi's dinner menu for his Pakistani guest: it wasn't.) ………………………………………..

The most poignant issue relates, of course, to the most sensitive: the killings of Indian jawans in shooting incidents on our Line of Control with Pakistan. Every time any such tragedy occurred, Modi and the BJP used to savage the Congress. Their campaigners frequently said that if Modi won, the killings would stop because Islamabad knew that a Modi government would retaliate ruthlessly in taking ten Pakistani heads for every Indian one that fell.

The first killings occurred immediately after the BJP victory, but before Modi had been sworn in: the victors' silence was understandably not held against them. But this week, when news again came in of a jawan being killed on the LoC, the silence of the Modi government was deafening. …………………............

Anujan wrote:No martial law until three elections after NRO: Shehla Raza

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Shehla Raza claimed on Wednesday that martial law could not be imposed in the country until three general elections were held in the country, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to a private TV channel, the PPP stalwart said that the agreement was reached under a clause in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), adding that the United States, Britain, UAE as well as then ISI chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had guaranteed this.

"India and Pakistan have no formal bilateral trade agreement. India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996. Pakistan is yet to reciprocate," commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Grant of the status to India would help in boosting trade between the countries.

The meeting between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan in May held that the two countries could move immediately towards full normalization of trade on the basis of the September 2012 roadmap worked out between commerce secretaries of both the sides, Sitharaman said.

Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet on August 25 in Islamabad to discuss the way forward in bilateral ties, which have made no headway since the interruption of dialogue process nearly two years ago.

A simultaneous announcement about the meeting was made from New Delhi and Islamabad on Wednesday after Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry had a telephonic conversation.

An understanding that the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will be in touch to see how to move forward on bilateral relations had been reached during the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif here in May to attend the swearing—in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two leaders had a “constructive” bilateral meeting for 45 minutes, a day after the ceremony.

Neela wrote:The above is a response to Siddharth Varadarajan's ...

CRamS wrote:TSP has lived for 60+ years to get something from India, and now there are in a no win situation that makes it impossible for them to come to any reasonable compromise with India.

Every day you open your computer, there are more images of death and destruction in Gaza. It is painful to see them, but even more painful to realise and tell the children of Gaza that the world will cry for them but not be able to do much. I wonder how to tell those in the anguish of being caught in the crossfire between the Israeli state and Hamas that our support for you is mainly limited to social media. We are anxious for you but will use your pain to stand on judgment against people around us. It is interesting to see how people engaged in social media are calling out people who seem to be slow or timid in condemning Israeli atrocities. We have to do it very loudly. Malala Yousufzai will only be seen to confirm that she is a traitor with a weak condemnation. At least so says the laal topi fame Zaid Zaman Hamid.But for all these condemnations and holier than thou attitudes, one wonders where are the real political protests in the Muslim world and the Third World at large? There were reports of hundreds of people protesting in Jordan. Just hundreds? This is something on which thousands ought to have come out. Other places are even worse. I haven’t heard anything happening in Saudi Arabia or a large part of the Muslim world. Even in Pakistan, where we have been passionate about Palestine for a long time, there are no noticeable protests.. The ripple effect had a problem that countries, which earlier sympathised with the Palestinian issue, began to see it as something that connected with violence in their own states. India, for example, was once a supporter of the Palestinian cause; its government did not even censure Israel for the latest round of atrocities. For New Delhi, the issue is how can it condemn Tel Aviv that has supported India in beefing up its military and technological strength to fight terror. The Indian leadership may no longer look at Palestine as a secular political and human rights issue but a problem of militant political Islam.In fact, this is where depoliticisation of civil societies around the world, especially the Islamic world, has turned into a bothersome problem. I once remember a conversation with a renowned Pakistani academic currently engaged in think tank activity, who, while discussing Afghanistan, blurted out that it were only the Taliban that could fight American imperialism. There are many who are selectively uncomfortable with the fate of oppressed people in other parts of the world but secretly comfortable with outsourcing the act of opposing such state-led atrocities to non-state actors. We have certainly lost the capacity for political protestation and doing things short of violence. Others opined how we could protest American atrocity while wearing Western clothes. As if political protest has a religion or a dress code. An apolitical society and its conspicuous consumption-driven middle class and elite may not find the strength to save the children of Gaza.The fact is that the trader-merchant class in a lot of Muslim countries finance militant outfits that eases their guilt for not doing anything themselves. Let’s pay for militants rather then launch a political protest. But why can’t Israel feel the heat of public condemnation, just like Turkey has done? In the tragedy of the dying children of Gaza, lies the inner tragedy of our divided and disempowered societies.

Leaving home is always stressful, but Pakistanis have special reason to be nervous when flying abroad: Since 9/11, we have faced particularly stringent security checks and have often been singled out for special questioning at immigration lines.. When we land abroad, the extra scrutiny and suspicion aroused by our green Pakistani passports amplify fears that we might be deported back to Pakistan, rather than be allowed to reach our destinationsBut the deepest cause of anxiety for Pakistanis leaving home may be historical memory. The ghosts of the millions who were slaughtered 66 years ago during Partition, when they were migrating between India and Pakistan, still haunt us when we travel. Who hasn’t heard the stories of entire trainloads of immigrants arriving dead at the train stations; of sword-wielding mobs killing defenseless men, women and children just because of their faith? These stories have been passed down through the generations, and their impact is imprinted onto our collective psychology. The Taliban’s actions at Jinnah International
exposed that nerve, with eerie precision. Pakistanis are always superstitious when we travel: We utter special Islamic prayers for safe departures and arrivals, and we give alms and thanks when we return home safely. But these customs won’t help to ease our anxiety nearly as much in the future. Not now that there are menacing-looking soldiers in combat fatigues clutching submachine guns as they patrol the airport’s corridors. Not now that only one person is allowed to drop you off at the airport, instead of the entire family that was present to comfort and distract you from last-minute jitters. And only one person can greet you when you return — taking some of the joy out of a successful homecoming.

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Lauda Khan
19 minutes ago
We are nuclear power and can destroy UK/USA/Europe/China and Bangladesh in one second. Also India. If we dont get aid from UK/USA etc we can destroy them in one second. We dont need IMF or any other bank. We can get as much aid as we demand. No need for several generations of Pakistanis to work, الحمد لله‎
1 Reply

Baikul wrote:Childish to laugh, I know, but

chetak wrote:

Peregrine wrote:Sania Mirza appointed brand ambassador of Telangana

Cheers

as big a brat as the chief minister and his genetic brood.

given his religious compulsions he does NOT have a choice

Telangana BJP leader K Laxman on Wednesday flayed the TRS government's decision to appoint tennis star Sania Mirza as brand ambassador of the newly carved-out state, terming her as "daughter-in-law" of Pakistan and questioning her credentials for the honour.

Sania was born in Maharashtra and settled in Hyderabad only later and, hence, is a "non-local", he told reporters here and sought to dub her as "daughter-in-law" of Pakistan, pointing out that she was married to that country's cricketer Shoaib Malik.

The 27-year-old tennis player had never participated in agitation for a separate state of Telangana, said Laxman who is leader of BJP in Telangana legislative assembly.

Laxman accused the government of taking the step with an eye on the minority community votes in upcoming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

shiv wrote: ...
What we will find in Pakistan within the next decade is a democratically elected Islamist government

What will this mean for India? For India it will make little difference. All governments of Pakistan are anti India. It is Indian stupidity if we fail to acknowledge that Pakistan exists only because they are "not India". Closeness with India will dissolve the state