NEW DELHI: BJP patriarch LK Advani feels that India appears “incomplete” without Sindh in its territory.
The 89-year-old leader made the remarks at an event here today while lamenting that Karachi, the capital of the Pakistani province, where he was born in a Sindhi family was not a part of India anymore.
Read more >> THE ECONOMIC TIMES
Courtesy: Youtube
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has established a Sindhi chair for promotion of research in the language and will soon be offering certificate courses.
The varsity had earlier this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language (NCPSL) under the aegis of HRD Ministry to establish the Sindhi Chair at IGNOU headquarters in the capital.
Read more » The Economic Times
See more » http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/ignou-gets-a-sindhi-chair-to-launch-certificate-courses-soon/articleshow/49597797.cms
Edited by Deepshikha Ghosh
Delhi – One of Delhi’s most elite addresses, Aurangzeb Road, will be renamed after former president APJ Abdul Kalam, and it was announced on Friday by someone who was not involved in the decision – Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
“Congrats. NDMC jst now decided to rename Aurangzeb Road to APJ Abdul Kalam Road,” tweeted Mr Kejriwal, who has been locked in a fierce turf war with the Centre over who controls the reins of the capital.
The decision was taken by the civic body in charge of central Delhi, after an all-clear from the union home ministry.
Within an hour, Mr Kejriwal’s comment had been re-tweeted over 900 times and favourited 600 times. Many comments accused him of taking credit for a BJP lawmaker’s proposal.
The BJP’s Mahesh Girri wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month suggesting that Aurangzeb Road should be named after Dr Kalam, who died on July 27.
“As a tribute to the People’s President, I propose to rename the ‘Aurangzeb Road’ in New Delhi to ‘Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road’. In my opinion, this will be a great way of preserving his memories and legacy forever,” wrote Mahesh Girri.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Girri said, “Do we ever name our children by the name of a devil? We can’t change history but we can try to correct some wrongs.”
Read more » NDTV
See more » http://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/delhis-aurangzeb-road-to-be-named-after-president-apj-abdul-kalam-tweets-arvind-kejriwal-1211984
By Aman Bharti / KS Bharti / Creative: Maryam Rashid
‘Religion and nationality did not matter during my childhood in the city by the sea’
Aman Bharti
Once upon a time there was an Indian boy who grew up in Karachi. At the time, he did not know just how odd that simple fact was. That boy was me. I lived in Karachi because my father, a diplomat, was posted to the Indian consulate in the port city. I was three years old when we arrived in Karachi in 1983, and nearly six when we left in 1986.
Given my age, my world in Karachi orbited two locations: home and school. ‘Home’ was Hindustan Court in Clifton, a building housing the Indian government’s consular employees. Our residence was probably once part of a mansion that was haphazardly carved out into a number of small, bizarrely-shaped homes — our house, for instance, featured disproportionately large windows that went on like a runaway train. Well, in our part of the world we all know that partitions invariably have unexpected consequences.
There was one clue that there was a difference between my world and the world that my friends from school inhabited. In school, when we played ‘fauj fauj’, a variant of ‘cops and robbers’, every child — including myself — wanted to be part of the Pakistan fauj, as this team always won. But at home, I discovered that it was the Indian fauj that always won. It was the kind of paradox that makes little sense to a child, but I quickly made my peace with the discrepancy and learned to switch sides depending on where I played.
Beyond school and home, I have happy memories of going to the beach often. I remember the sea water was brimming with little fish no more than an inch long, and once, I lost a ball in the sea. I was told the ocean would take my ball all the way to Bombay. At the time, I had no idea what or where Bombay was.
A local man named Iqbal would clean our house every day, and for my sister and me, he was our friend. When we finally left Karachi for Delhi, Iqbal sent us candy and toys, including a View-Master, a toy through which you could look at stereoscopic photos. The photo slides that came with the View-Master were of Islamic holy places and festivals, and I would spend hours looking at pictures of Mecca and Muharram activities. I later learned that other children used View-Masters to look at cartoons.
My first school in Karachi was Onimo Montessori Private School. I remember it as a happy place. One day, when the school closed for the day, no one arrived to pick me up. I waited until it was just me and the watchman. He sat with me until someone finally arrived. What I remember most is that he also shared his lunch with me. It was this simple but unselfish act of kindness that has stayed etched in my memory.
When I turned five, it was time to go to a proper school. I remember Jennings Private School as a scary place full of rough boys who were bigger than me. A few children from the Indian consulate also attended Jennings, and my best friend was a girl named Seviyan (like the sweet dish). I remember a prizegiving ceremony at Jennings, when I had won something. The teacher moved me from the back of the line to the front. The boy who was now standing behind me did not approve of his demotion, and, once the teacher left, he pushed me behind him. So did the next boy. And the next boy. When the teacher came by again, I was standing last in line once more.
By Dawn.com
In a bid to limit the rivalry between India and Pakistan to sports grounds, a Delhi-based entrepreneur earlier this month launched a new app to improve relations between the two South Asian rivals.
‘India or Pakistan’ is an innovative application, available on Google Play store, that questions the reader, after showing pictures of the two nations. The idea is to make people focus on what unites them by making them guess whether the photographs were taken in India or Pakistan.
In light of recent events, it is a welcoming gesture that is part of the wider movement called ‘India Loves Pakistan’ that was launched in 2013. The Delhi-based social movement aims to ‘add .. human element to the India-Pakistan relationship.’
The initiative operates primarily on Twitter through #DearNeighbour and #IndiaWithPakistan.
Where the former was launched as a generic hashtag to initiate dialogue across the border, the latter was trending post-Peshawar massacre in Pakistan, with thousands of Indians expressing solidarity with Pakistanis after the terrorist attack.
Courtesy: DAWN
Read more » http://www.dawn.com/news/1166300/
New Delhi: The government has mooted the development of the e-learning curriculum in Sindhi and the uploading of rare books in the national e-library in an attempt to promote the language, an official statement said on Thursday.
The activities, suggested by Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani at the recently held meeting of the newly-reconstituted Governing Council of National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language (NCPSL), would be undertaken for the language`s development.
Under the e-learning curriculum in Sindhi Language, a foundation course of the language would be provided free of cost. Also, the works of young and upcoming Sindhi writers would be published by the National Book Trust.
The books of new writers would be exhibited during the World Book Fair in 2016.
“A competition among young Sindhi knowing students will be conducted and the top three winners will be sent on a `Shodh Yatra` across the Asian continent.”
They would be accompanied by a writer and a historian to study the roots of Sindhi language, culture and its civilization. Their experiences in the form of books will also be published by the government,” a Human Resource Development Ministry statement said.
The meeting was attended by 21 members, who are eminent scholars of Sindhi language and culture.
The minister also suggested that one cultural club in major clusters of Sindhi speaking people would be made functional in which the younger generation would participate in activities like drama, poetry, writing, music and performing arts.
It was suggested that a national-level competition be held for these activities, and an award of Rs.1 lakh has been earmarked.
“It has also been decided to upload rare books of Sindhi language in the National E-Library and such rare books would also be published by the National Book Trust for circulation.”
The task of standardisation of prescribed text books for schools in Sindhi language using Devanagari script will be undertaken by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL),” it said.
A few important decisions taken in the meeting included an increase in the award money from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to a Sindhi writer for his/her outstanding lifetime contribution in Sindhi literature.
There was also an increase in award money, from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh, for 10 eminent writers, recognising their contribution to the field of Sindhi literature, the statement said.
The increase in award money in all cases would be effective from 2014-15.
It was also decided in the meeting to provide Rs 1 crore for the establishment of a Sindhi chair in Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer.
~ IANS
Courtesy: ZeeNews
See more » http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/government-suggests-activities-for-promoting-sindhi-language_1548762.html
BY : News Nation Bureau
New Delhi : If competition from Congress and BJP was not enough, now Arvind Kejriwal has got a new rival in the name of Swami Omji who is an independent candidate from New Delhi constituency. His party symbol is flute.
Talking to reporters on Monday, he said, “I am from Hindu Mahasabha but BJP is my party. I am also global president of Om Saiji Party. Since Asaram and Narayan Sai are in jail, therefore the responsibility is with me now.”
Threatening Kejriwal, he said, “I am against Kejriwal, he is anti-national. On 21, January 2014 – I entered Kejriwal’s house and thrashed him.”
He even dared the AAP leader by saying that he will kill anti-nationals like Kejriwal
Claiming to be from Hindu Mahasabha, he mentioned, “We killed Mahatma Gandhi. In the future, we will try to convince anti-nationals like Kejriwal. If he doesn’t listen, we will shoot him and kill him.”
News courtesy: News Nation
Read more » http://www.newsnation.in/article/69352-we-killed-gandhi-murder-kejriwal-too-right-wing-leader.html
NEW DELHI: China and Russia decided on Monday to back the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) — a resolution supported by India and heavily biased against Pakistan.
At a meeting of Russia-India-China (RIC) in Beijing, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said her counterparts from the two countries understood the need for endorsing the resolution that has been pending at the UN for nearly two decades and seeks to widen the existing definition of terrorism.
The CCIT was proposed by India in 1996 in lieu of Pakistan allegedly backing Kashmiri separatists.
In Tuesday’s meeting, the RIC communiqué vouched to oppose terrorism of all forms and called all countries to join efforts in combating terrorism together with the United Nations.
Speaking at a press conference after the RIC meeting, Swaraj told reporters: “Our discussions on terrorism brought consensus on two issues. Firstly, there can be no ideological, religious, political, racial or any other justification for the acts of terrorism and secondly the need to bring to justice perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these acts of terror.”
Swaraj added that the ministers emphasized the need to step up information gathering and sharing and prevent the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the purposes of recruitment and incitement to commit terrorist acts.
News courtesy » The Express Tribune
Read more » http://tribune.com.pk/story/832183/china-russia-back-india-on-un-terror-resolution-targeting-pakistan/
State Assembly Elections in Indian-administered Kashmir: People’s Participation a Strategy or Paradigm Shift.
State assembly elections 2014 in Indian administered Jammu Kashmir have glimmered a manic deliberation among the parties to the conflict and stakeholders. Indian media and politicians at Delhi and elsewhere in the country are depicting the participation of ordinary masses in the vale of Kashmir as a trust building notion on the Union of India and rejection of separatist sentiments. Pakistani media on the other hand remained both unconcerned and silent or repeated the same rhetoric of yellow journalism. Kashmir based analysts and activists are twisting the story that fits best in their pre-occupied state of mind. The reality is that after almost three decades of boycotts, strikes and shutdowns Kashmiri people decided to vote instead of boycott. Some intellectuals and writers are taking it as an abrupt decision and others are debating it as a dissatisfactory notion from the state of affairs Kashmiri people have been going through since 1988.
What basically happened has its roots in the past, political evolution, experimental judgment and revisited wisdom. It definitely involves the role of Hurriyat Conference/other separatist factions, lessons learned from militancy and a series of boycotts, role of Pakistani establishment and that of Indian government. Understanding the linkages between past and present situations in the valley of Kashmir is absolutely basic for a good understanding of the events and chain of the events that, in a nutshell, is why history matters. Finding a linkage with past and present is not only useful rather it is an essential part in understanding the social, economic and political attitudes and beliefs in a constituency. The glance of the past is essential for ‘rooting’ people, ideas, movements and events in time. Does it really matter to find the correct answer? The answer is yes it is. Because without finding the correct answer only speculations cannot put the course of “what we are today” in the right perspective.
Elections 2014 of the state assembly in Indian Occupied Jammu Kashmir have initiated a new chapter in the political panorama of the region. A decade of off-and-on detente between India and Pakistan has drawn to a close after months of deteriorating relations that began with the election victory in May 2014 of the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janta Party and the appointment as India’s Prime Minister of a noted hard-liner, Narendra Modi. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi after had already triumphed in a landslide victory across India in the general elections held in the spring of 2014 is continuously altering the political map of Indian Union by winning the elections held for various state assemblies (constituents of Indian Union). Prime Minister Modi has decided to take that heat to the state of Jammu Kashmir to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiri people.
It is chilling winter in Kashmir where some parts are so cold just like frozen Siberia. Glaciers of Himalayas are melting down due to the political heat and participation of Kashmiri people in the elections after almost three decades. People in the valley who were accustomed to the calls of boycott and shut down calls from both the pro-freedom and pro-Pakistan leadership and in practice have sacrificed their daily means of bread and butter in solidarity with the anti-India leadership since 1987. But in 2014 the corridor of political venue has altered the paintings on the Kashmiri canvas. Instead of shutter down and wheel jam strikes lenses of both electronic and print media are capturing the live enthusiasm of people participation in the electoral process.
This apparent shift in the valley raises some serious concerns as well as some lessons to be learned. Indian state-owned media is propagating the events as a paradigm shift in the Kashmiri politics while Pakistani media is silent on the electoral process of Indian held Kashmir. The politicians across Jammu Kashmir are interpreting the events well in accordance with their pre-occupied state of mind and trying to concrete and cement their long-held opinions on the very issue.
Continue reading Where the Kashmiri nationalists really Stand in the greater game
Modi under pressure over minister’s tirade against non-Hindus
By Reuters
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is under growing pressure to sack a minister over a tirade she made against religious minorities, as his outraged opponents disrupted parliament for a second day on Wednesday.
Niranjan Jyoti, the junior minister for food processing industries, asked whether the country should be governed by “the children of Ram (a Hindu god) or the children of bastards” at an election rally.
The comment was widely believed to have been an attack on the legitimacy of the country’s Muslim and Christian minorities.
Read more » DAWN
See more » http://www.dawn.com/news/1148524/modi-under-pressure-over-ministers-tirade-against-non-hindus
NEW DELHI: India warned Pakistan on Tuesday of more “pain” if it continued to violate a ceasefire on their disputed border in Kashmir and said it was up to Islamabad to create the conditions for a resumption of peace talks.
The two sides exchanged mortars and intense gunfire this month, killing at least 20 civilians and wounding dozens in the worst violation to date of a 2003 ceasefire. While the firing has abated, tension remains high along a 200-km (125-mile) stretch of the border dividing the nuclear-armed rivals.
“Our conventional strength is far more than theirs. So if they persist with this, they’ll feel the pain of this adventurism,” Indian Defence Minister Arun Jaitley told NDTV in an interview.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1139420
By Reuters
NEW DELHI: China will pledge to invest billions of dollars in India’s rail network during a visit by President Xi Jinping this week, bringing more than diplomatic nicety to the neighbours’ first summit since Narendra Modi became prime minister in May.
The leaders of Asia’s three major economies — China, India and Japan — have crisscrossed the region this month, lobbying for strategic influence, building defence ties, and seeking new business opportunities.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1132042/
NEW DELHI – India on Monday called off foreign secretary-level bilateral talks with Pakistan which was slated to be held on August 25, Times of India newspaper reported on Monday.
The paper reported that the Indian government decided this after a meeting between Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit and senior Hurriyat Conference leader Shabbir Ahmad Shah in New Delhi. Earlier on Monday, the high commissioner met Kashmiri leader ahead of the proposed secretary-level talks between Pakistan and India.
Read more » Daily Times
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/18-Aug-2014/india-calls-off-secretary-level-talks-with-pakistan
By Karn Pratap Singh, Hindustan Times New Delhi
You have seen them regulating traffic on roads and dealing with women complainants at police stations. Soon, you will find the women personnel of the Delhi Police patrolling the streets on two-wheelers (scooties), armed with the latest weapons.
Read more » Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/women-cops-on-wheels-to-take-on-criminals-on-delhi-s-roads/article1-1248316.aspx
By ZulfiqarShah
New Delhi: India has become the last destination of Sindhi Hindu from Pakistan, where the state-sponsored seminaries have been victimizing them since last two decades. Over 2000 Hindus have recently refuge in the premises of Delhi in last couple of years; however rough estimates suggest their number during last ten years have crossed one hundred thousand.
Hailing from the secular province of Sindh in Pakistan, their ordeal is the evidence of systematic exodus and their ethnic cleaning by the military establishment supported seminaries and Mullahs. Land grab, forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls have been heart wrecking ordeal.
Sindh, the second largest province in Pakistan, is the richest in the natural resources like gold, oil, coal and uranium. Analysts believe that the exodus of Sindhi Hindus is being systematically orchestrated by the Pakistan’s establishment, which is monopolized by ethnic Punjabis, and want to take hold of resource rich lands of Sindh as well as intent to alter its demography. The recent reports after Pakistan Army’s operation in Taliban and their associates in the tribal Pashtun area has also been indicating the influx of tribal refugee to Sindh.
“We were either targeted by the criminal gangs in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur divisions of the province or harassed by the seminaries that house ethnic Punjabi or Pshrun Mullahs from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa provinces,” told a few refugee during their protest demonstration in Delhi after fledging from Pakistan.
They have camped in the various places of Delhi and Rajasthan States of India, where they are mostly hosted either by the refugee supporting organizations or by the Hindu political outfits. One such camp in the northern Delhi is looked after by OM-SPBPJM Trust, led by A. K. Solanki. The refugees of Dravidian origin, Baghris called in Sindhi, practicing thousands years old traditions of Hinduism and have sustained as gypsies community in Sindh after the epic war between Arian and Dravidians in 1500 BC India.
On December 10 last years, over one hundred Sindhi refugees protested outside United Nations headquarters in Delhi and demanded international community’s intervention against Pakistani authorities for the crimes against humanity they have committed in Sindh province.
Sindh is the centre-stage of the provinces – federation conflict in Pakistan. On March 23 this year, Sindh rebelled as at least five million Sindhis took to the streets of Karachi and demanded the independence. Sindh is a home of 50 million Sindhi people and is believed to be the historical land, where massive and outrageous freedom movement has emerged during last decade. Hundreds of the Sindhi activists have been killed and more have been involuntarily disappeared by the intelligence agencies like ISI and the Military Intelligence.
Courtesy: CNN
Written by Pranab Dhal Samanta | New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it appears, has taken a call to hold his diplomatic conversations in Hindi, with interpreters being deployed in almost all his meetings, including those where the dignitary on the other side speaks in English.
While Modi is quite conversant in English given that many New Delhi-based diplomats have met him and never found language to be an impediment, sources said he seems to have decided to stick to the national language in his interactions. That he is reasonably comfortable with the English language is clear by the fact that interpreters are not required to translate from English to Hindi.
For instance, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke in English during his bilateral meeting with Modi and at no stage did the PM require the interpreter’s assistance to understand what the Lankan President was saying. However, his responses were always in Hindi for which the services of the interpreter were used. In fact, he followed the same protocol with the Special Envoy of the Sultan of Oman, who spoke in English.
But with those who spoke Hindi or Urdu, the interpreter was not required, like the one-on-one with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In fact, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who has studied in India, also spoke in Urdu with some Hindi words and so a translator was not needed.
Read more » The Indian Express
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/no-more-english-modi-chooses-hindi-for-talks-with-foreign-leaders/#.U49a19yYHAc.facebook
Nawaz Sharif invited for Modi’s swearing-in ceremony
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been invited to attend the oath-taking ceremony of India’s next prime minister Narendra Modi on May 26, sources in the Pakistani Foreign Office confirmed Wednesday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also confirmed the invitation.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1107713
MOLA JATT NOORI NATH AND MOMBO JUMBO DEBATE BETWEEN THE ANALYSTS OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN
Former President of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the member of Indian Lok Sabha, Mr. Nitin Gadkari Marathi नितीन गडकरी; warned Pakistan that if Pakistan do not stop exporting terror into India, the new government will send a fitting reply to Islamabad. In a heated debate with a Pakistani analyst through the HLT studios, Nitin Gadkari issued dire warnings, that probably has made the Pak government at least discomfited. In the reply Pakistani analyst Mr. Tariq Pirzada threatens to wipe out India’s Capital Delhi with nukes if India dares to attack Pakistan in a heated TV exchange.
Courtesy: YouTube
SUKKUR: A one-day heart camp is being organised in Sukkur on Saturday, when cardiac consultants and surgeons from India will be providing free-of-charge check-up and advice to patients.
While the city has hosted many free medical camps, this is the first time that one is being organised in Sukkur for a free heart check-up.
The camp is being jointly organised by the Sukkur Hindu Panchayat and Shadhani Darbar Hayat Pitari. Sukkur Hindu Panchayat president Mukhi Eshwar Makheja told The Express Tribune that this camp is being organised keeping in mind the rise in heart disease cases, especially among children.
Makheja added that famous cardiac consultants and surgeons from the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi, India, will be performing the check-ups.
Read more » The Express Tribune
http://tribune.com.pk/story/694091/matters-of-the-heart-indian-doctors-to-set-up-cardiac-camp-in-sukkur/
By
NEW DELHI: UPA-2 will perhaps best be remembered for a series of financial scams and the so-called policy paralysis but as it prepares to sign off, it is now hobbled by its Pakistan policy.
Stung by what India sees as Pakistan’s refusal to allow any concession to the outgoing government for normalizing trade relations, senior government sources here told TOI Islamabad’s policy over the issue was being dictated by Pakistan’s military establishment. They said the upcoming elections are now certain to mark the termination of the idea that trade can lead to peaceful relations between the two countries.
“The several recent flip-flops made by the Nawaz Sharif government on the issue has greatly reduced the its credibility with Indian negotiators who have concluded that in addition to political and security policy, the Pakistan government does not even have the ability to go against the Pakistan military dictates on issues related to economic reforms,” said a top government official, in a reaction to Sharif’s comment on Monday that MFN status to India has been delayed because of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Read more » THE TIMES OF INDIA
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pak-army-stopped-Nawaz-Sharif-govt-from-trade-deal-India/articleshow/32699101.cms
India is on the verge of gaining some leverage in the Devyani Khobragade case with the unearthing of what looks like a gigantic multi-year tax evasion scam by the American Embassy School here. Even as the US has declined to drop charges against Khobragade on the ground that it does not mess around with domestic law, India now can pressure the Americans to do so, given the growing dimensions of the tax evasion. The Khobragade visa fraud case is now counterbalanced by what seems to be an American tax fraud in India that either went unnoticed or was ignored in the general need to defer to Uncle Sam in the past. In fact, there is some evidence—quoted in a New York Times story—that the spouses of American diplomats may have been encouraged to lie about their status to avoid having to get a separate work visa in India. Just as Devyani’s maid may have lied about her wages, US diplomats’ spouses may also have misrepresented their status. US Embassy in Delhi.
The Americans who threw the rule book at Khobragade and preached visa ethics are now finding themselves on the wrong side of the law here. Washington needs to be worried, very worried, on two counts. First, credible sources told this writer that the American Embassy School (AES) has been violating a number of Indian laws and fraudulently evading income tax since 1972. The cumulative tax evaded thus far and the penalties would easily run into scores of crores, if not more. The American diplomats in India have also been found to be indulging in an institutionalised mechanism of visa and tax frauds for decades. Worse, unlike the Devyani incident, which was a one-off case, the AES scam has been routinely perpetrated at the behest of top officials of the US embassy in New Delhi.
Read more » First Post
More at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/multi-crore-tax-scam-at-the-american-embassy-school-unearthed-1343915.html?utm_source=ref_article
By Amit Baruah
Bharat Mata Ki Jai is a slogan associated with the Hindu Right and Inquilab Zindabad with the Indian Left. After taking oath as chief minister at the jam-packed Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on Saturday, Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) used both slogans.
He also invoked Bhagwan and Allah almost in the same breath, suggesting there was something divine about the impressive performance that catapulted AAP to power in India’s capital city.
The use of the slogans, taking from the Right and the Left, make it clear that Kejriwal and his associates can’t be slotted into neat political categories and revealed that they will use any symbols to reach the people.
By taking the name of god, the chief minister was telling Delhi (and the nation listening on television) that he wasn’t godless and was a believer who respected different religions.
Here’s what the AAP website has to say on the party being described as “leftist”:
“We are very much solution focused rather than ideology driven. There is an age old tendency to pin down political parties as left, right, center etc. In the process everyone forgets the issues at hands and their solutions. Our goal is to remain solution focused. If the solution to a problem lies on the left we are happy to consider it. Likewise, if it is on right (or in the center) we are equally happy to consider it. Ideology is one for the pundits and the media to pontificate about.”
Kejriwal’s party is arguing that “ideology” obfuscates issues and solutions and they will consider any solution that works.
Read more » DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/news/1077312/when-a-movement-became-a-government
by John Lee
In a recent security conference in Washington, a Chinese delegate caused an awkward silence among the congenial group at a post-event drinks session when he stated that India was “an undisciplined country where the plague and leprosy still exist. How a big, dirty country like that can rise so quickly amazed us”.
It is this Chinese sentiment of disdain and also grudging admiration that explains much of Beijing’s attitude towards New Delhi. Indeed, one needs to go beyond strategic and military competition to understand the depth of rivalry between Asia’s two rising giants.
China shares land borders with 14 countries. Over the past 30 years, it has made concerted attempts to improve relationships with all of them by settling border disputes. In the case of Russia, China granted significant concessions in order to improve its relationship with Moscow. But the one exception is India.
Outstanding disputes such as the one over the Switzerland-sized area of Arunachal Pradesh continue to bedevil relations. China’s militarisation of the Tibetan plateau — including placing a third of its nuclear arsenal in that region — is a direct challenge to Indian sensibilities. Indeed, India is the only country not formally covered by China’s ‘no first use’ nuclear policy.
Add to these the growing naval rivalry in the Indian Ocean that is driven by resource competition and insecurity and we have what Chinese leaders openly admit to be a “very difficult relationship” with India. These factors point to the persistence of the India-China rivalry.
But they do not fully explain why Beijing has made little effort to work towards settlement of these disputes with New Delhi, as it has with its other land-based neighbours. A more complete explanation needs to take into account the non-material factors behind China’s strategic rivalry with India.
The first factor is one of shock and surprise at India’s continued rise. Until the late 1990s, people at the highest levels in China were dismissing India’s prospects. It was only early this century that China abandoned viewing India through the lens of the 1962 war when Indian forces were decimated and New Delhi humiliated. Because Indian national scars and weaknesses are there for all to see, little is hidden or explained away. China met India’s re-emergence initially with disbelief, then with disdain, and now with wariness. Beijing does not react calmly to strategic surprises and its gruff response to Indian ambitions in Asia is evidence that Beijing is yet to determine a grand strategic response to India’s re-emergence.
By Nitisha Kashyap, TNN
Literary do: This was a good opportunity for Delhi’s literary enthusiasts to get a copy signed by an author who usually gets a fair degree of attention this side of the border.
Fatima Bhutto recently launched her book, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, in Delhi. To celebrate the occasion, restaurateur AD Singh hosted a do at The Dirty Martini at Olive Qutub, Mehrauli. Dressed in a smart blue sari, Fatima obliged guests who approached her to get their copy signed. “Earlier, there were some serials from Pakistan which were telecast in India as well. But now, Pakistan means just music and singers (here), which is not enough,” Fatima said.
Phoren praise: Radidja Nemar, a French national who was on an India tour, also attended the session. “I’ve heard about her. This is going to be my first book from this author. It was lovely speaking to her, especially on the unspoken violence that a majority of women go through,” said Nemar.
Courtesy: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/Delhi-comes-out-for-Fatima/articleshow/24935639.cms
By Mike Thomson Presenter, Document, Radio 4
When India was partitioned in 1947, about 500,000 people died in communal rioting, mainly along the borders with Pakistan. But a year later another massacre occurred in central India, which until now has remained clouded in secrecy.
In September and October 1948, soon after independence from the British Empire, tens of thousands of people were brutally slaughtered in central India.
Some were lined up and shot by Indian Army soldiers. Yet a government-commissioned report into what happened was never published and few in India know about the massacre. Critics have accused successive Indian governments of continuing a cover-up.
The massacres took place a year after the violence of partition in what was then Hyderabad state, in the heart of India. It was one of 500 princely states that had enjoyed autonomy under British colonial rule.
When independence came in 1947 nearly all of these states agreed to become part of India.
But Hyderabad’s Muslim Nizam, or prince, insisted on remaining independent. This refusal to surrender sovereignty to the new democratic India outraged the country’s leaders in New Delhi.
After an acrimonious stand-off between Delhi and Hyderabad, the government finally lost patience.
By James Crabtree in Mumbai and Victor Mallet in New Delhi
The Indian rupee fell to a new low against the dollar on Wednesday and stocks declined after a central bank promise to inject liquidity into the country’s financial markets provided only temporary relief from a deepening sense of crisis….
Read more » Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/af335904-0a21-11e3-aeab-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2ceOcBPBJ
NEW DELHI: Rebel BJP MP Ram Jethmalani, who had been critical of the BJP leadership and had revolted against then party chief Nitin Gadkari, was on Tuesday expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years on charges of “breach of discipline”.
The expulsion of 89-year-old Jethmalani, who is a member of Rajya Sabha, by the BJP parliamentary board comes weeks after he had barged into a parliamentary party meeting and questioned his continued suspension. He had also asked if he could be issued a whip when he has been suspended.
Continue reading Ram Jethmalani expelled from BJP for 6 years
Delhi University’s academic council (AC) on Tuesday cleared the new curricula for history and sociology, but not without stipulations.
The members found the sociology syllabus to be leaning towards “left ideology” and a bit dense for undergraduate students.
The AC has asked the sociology department to review the syllabus and make the suggested changes within the next three months.
The department has been asked to cut down on the number of papers on Marx and introduce Indian social thinkers in the content. The two courses had been pending because of “noncooperation” from teachers.
On the back of this week’s visit, both Prime Minister Singh and Premier Li are due to visit each others respective rivals. Next week, Singh is headed to Japan, which is engaged in an increasingly edgy dispute with China over a group of islets in the seas between them. Li goes to Pakistan, where he is to sign agreements to develop the Chinese-managed Gwadar port. India has often been nervous about Chinese agreements with its neighbors that are not strictly military but could be leveraged in a conflict.
By REUTERS
NEW DELHI — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, smiling and effusive, was out to smooth ruffled feathers in India this week, promising to ease tensions and increase trade between Asia’s fastest growing economies in his first trip overseas since taking office.
“China will make your dream come true,” Li told a banquet hall filled with Chinese and Indian business executives in the financial capital of Mumbai as he wound up his visit on Tuesday.
China’s overtures, which come amid worries in Beijing that it is being encircled by the United States and its allies, however met with a cool response.
India has been shaken by a recent border spat with China and is cautious about Beijing’s friendship with rival Pakistan, where Li flies on Wednesday. New Delhi is also concerned about a ballooning trade deficit with China and a flood of cheap Chinese-made goods undercutting local manufacturers.
Continue reading With Wary Eye on the U.S., China Courts India
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