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Caught Red-Handed

Sonia & Rahul Struggle to Wriggle Out of Paper Scandal

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Tr a n s c e n d i n g B o u n d a r i e s

IN THIS ISSUE

Collegium Collisions

Subramanium episode sparks controversy

s w e N d i a P 6

National Snooping Agency

18 The Scourge of Fair Journalism

Caught 20 Red-Handed

The Terror Trails

Vaidik-Saeed Meeting A Case of Self-Appointed Diplomats, Self-Serving Charlatans

Ominous signs for South Asian countries

IN THIS ISSUE

Transcending Boundaries Volume: 16

Issue: 01 August 2014 Shraavana (Jaya)

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An all-please budget But great challenges lie ahead

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Apart from the controversies surrounding Gopal Subramanium’s appointment, the collegium system under which the judges are appointed has come under some strong criticism. Judges of the Supreme Court used to be appointed by the President of India, who acted on the advice of the Union Cabinet. However, subsequent to the rulings in the Three Judges Cases, the President is required to appoint judges who have been chosen by the Supreme Court’s collegium.

Subramanium episode sparks controversy

Collegium Collisions • Raju Shanbhag

he Indian judiciary is quite upset. Many a time has it crossed paths with the Executive leaving the developments thereafter a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. The latest in this series is the Gopal Subramanium episode. It all started with the Narendra Modi government categorically rejecting the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium to appoint Subramanium to the apex court. Chief Justice R. M. Lodha had various reasons to be disturbed. First, because the government had unilaterally segregated Subramanium’s file. His main concern here was about the independence of the judiciary, which was time again put under pressure by various gov-

ernments, and now by the Narendra Modi government. Lodha’s second grievance is against Subramanium himself. As various sources in the judiciary were preparing for a showdown with the government, Subramanium opted out of the race, leaving the judiciary high and dry, by almost vindicating the government’s stance on this issue, but not before accusing both the government and the judiciary of not coming to his support. Controversy is not new to Gopal Subramanium. It was reported that while he was dealing with the 2G spectrum scam as Solicitor General, he had in his presence made CBI officers meet a lawyer representing A Raja, the minister accused in the scam. Denying that such a meeting

had ever taken place, Subramanium said that he had in fact recommended to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in writing that the case against Raja should not be closed. Also, the Nira Radia tapes, which shook the country a few years ago, suggested that he had accepted free membership of the swimming pool in Taj Mansingh Hotel. But Subramanium has flatly denied it stating that he had never got around to taking membership there. This was despite the fact that he had been offered paid membership there when he was looking for an alternative to Talkotara Stadium, which was under repair at that time. Also, a new Intelligence Bureau report has put Subramanium on the spot. The report raised questions about his “odd behaviour” giving in-

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stances of his relying on his “spiritual instincts” rather than rational logic. The report specifically mentioned the Parliament attack case of 2001 in which Subramanium was the Special Public Prosecutor and more recently the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple case where he was an amicus curiae (friend of the court). Subramanium, who spent 35 days in Trivandrum and in the temple complex and exposed large-scale pilferage of gold from the temple vaults, submitted a 575-page report that he could not take the credit for discovering any of the misdeeds, and that it was “divinely ordained”. “It was his morning ritual of (shutting) his mind and seeking guidance, which resulted in discoveries in this direction.” There were three more judges in the contention: Rohinton Nariman, Adarsh Kumar Goel and Arun Mishra. At this time, the BJP leaked two negative intelligence reports against the lawyer. The IB and CBI’s reports mentioned the complaints filed by two CBI officers against Subramanium during the 2G spectrum scam probe, which forced the authorities to take his name out. The reason why the BJP government was not keen on Subramanium may also have been political. He is believed to have been very close to the Congress government as he had served as the Solicitor General under the UPA II regime. So, many senior leaders in the BJP government felt that Subramanium may not be neutral in some sensitive cases and hence they opposed his appointment. Many analysts say that his role in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case in Gujarat also became an obstruction, as the Narendra Modi government was not comfortable with him. It was his efforts that led to the arrest of Shah, the then Gujarat minister of state for home affairs, and constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) that questioned Modi, the then chief minister of Gujarat. But if you think that Subramanium is getting into trouble with the government for the first time, you are

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mistaken. It was reported that in September 2013, Arun Jaitley wrote to the then Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that the BJP, of which he was the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has strong reservations about his appointment. As has been reported, Jaitley said that initially Subramanium had offered his services to the government in the Sohrabuddin case, which was pending before the Supreme Court. When it was decided that the Attor-

R. M. Lodha

ney General would handle the case, Subramanium offered to assist the court as amicus curiae. Though the court never formally invited him to do so, Subramanium acted as if he was the amicus curiae and gratuitously advised the Supreme Court that (1) the investigation of the Sohrabuddin case be transferred from the Gujarat Police to CBI and (2) if Amit Shah was granted bail, which had already been granted by the Gujarat High Court, he should be restrained from entering the state of Gujarat. Accordingly, the

Supreme Court passed an order. In his letter, Arun Jaitley is reported to have said that this indicates the bias of Subramanium and, therefore, he is not fit to be considered for appointment to the Supreme Court. Apart from the controversies surrounding his appointment, the collegium system under which the judges are appointed has come under some strong criticism. Judges of the Supreme Court used to be appointed by the President of India, who acted on the advice of the Union Cabinet. However, subsequent to the rulings in the Three Judges Cases (See box), the President is required to appoint judges who have been chosen by the Supreme Court’s collegiums. A collegium is a system under which appointments and transfers of judges are decided by a forum of the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court. It has no place in the Indian Constitution. There has always been confusion on the roles of the CJI and the two judges in the judicial appointments and transfers. In many cases, CJIs took unilateral decisions without consulting the two colleagues. Besides, the President became only an approver. In 1998, President K R Narayanan issued a reference to the Supreme Court asking as to what the term “consultation” really means under Articles 124, 217 and 222 (transfer of HC judges) of the Constitution. The question was if the term “consultation” requires consultation with a number of judges in forming the CJI’s opinion, or whether the sole opinion of the CJI constituted the meaning of the articles. In reply, the Supreme Court laid down nine guidelines for the functioning of the forum for appointments/transfers;

Judiciary vs. Executive Appointments Commission, wherein it would have a say in the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and the 24 High Courts. Under the proposal, the government sought to set up a panel headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to appoint and transfer senior judges. The other members of the proposed Commission would have been two judges of the Supreme Court, the Law Minister, two eminent persons as members, and Secretary (Justice) in the Law Ministry as Member Secretary. The Law Ministry had been pushing the proposal, which would require a constitutional amendment, but some sections in the government as well as judiciary had reservations over certain provisions and the proposal was never turned into a law.

hile the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is at pains to explain the government’s decision to reconsider the suggestion of Gopal Subramanium, this not the first time the government has been at loggerheads with the judiciary. In 2009, the then Law Minister Veerappa Moily had tried his best to stop appointment of Justice C. K. Prasad to the post of Chief Justice. An August 2013, the government had taken a significant decision to scrap the collegium system of appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts. The Cabinet had approved the Bill which entails replacing the collegium system with a Judicial

this came to be the present form of the collegiums. But not everyone is happy with the present system of collegiums. Many allege that the system lacks transparency and it is a burden on the judiciary to oversee the transfers and appointments of judges. Fingers have also been pointed to the limitation of the collegium’s field of choice to the senior-most judges from the High Court for appointments to the Supreme Court, overlooking several talented junior judges and advocates. There is a proposal to form a National Judicial Commission. The Constitution (98th Amendment) Bill was

introduced in the Lok Sabha by the NDA government in 2003, which provides for the constitution of an NJC to be chaired by the Chief Justice of India with two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court as members. The Union Law Minister would be a member along with an eminent citizen to be nominated by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister. The commission would decide the appointment and transfer of judges and probe cases of misconduct by judges, including those from the highest judiciary. The nine-point guidelines issued by the Supreme Court for the appoint-

ment of judges clearly state that the term “consultation” with the Chief Justice of India in Articles 124 (2), 217(1) and 222 (1) requires consultation with a plurality of judges in the formation of the opinion of the CJI. The sole, individual opinion of the CJI does not constitute consultation. It also states that the CJI can only make a recommendation to appoint a judge of the Supreme Court and to transfer a Chief Justice or judge of a High Court in consultation with the four seniormost judges of the Supreme Court. As far as the High Courts are concerned, the recommendation must be made in consultation with the two senior-

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most judges of the Supreme Court. One of the very interesting points of these guidelines states that the CJI is not entitled to act solely in his individual capacity, without consultation with other judges of the Supreme Court, in respect of materials and information conveyed by the government for non-appointment of a judge recommended for appointment. Under the collegium system, the executive has no say in judicial appointments. The recommendations of the collegium of judges are final and binding on the government. Even in Subramanium’s case, if the collegium had forwarded his name once again, the government would have had no choice but to accept his name. This is not the first time that government has rejected some names

recommended by the Chief Justice of India or denied elevation to the Bench to certain judges of High Courts and to lawyers. In the United States of America, it is a well known practice to try and pack the Supreme Court with judges whose political views are in consonance with the philosophy of the ruling party. Even earlier Congress Prime Ministers like Indira Gandhi had preferred judges like A. N. Ray who, with Justice P.N. Bhagwati and others forming a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, ruled that when a proclamation of Emergency under Article 352 was in force, the fundamental rights stood suspended, which meant that the right to life under Article 21 also stood suspended. On the other hand, Justice H.R.

Khanna, in the lone dissenting judgment, strongly opposed this view and upheld the right to life and further ruled that the fundamental rights could not be suspended. True to her nature, Indira Gandhi never forgave him and he was never allowed to secure the post of Chief Justice. Gopal Subramanium is a wellknown name in the annals of the Indian judiciary system and it will never change whether he is elected to the Apex Court or not. The Narendra Modi government has merely repeated a norm which was in practice in India and all over the world. Saying that the independence of judiciary is in danger just because his name was removed from the list appears to be taking things a bit too far.

The Three Judges Case T

he Supreme Court of India’s collegium system, which appoints judges to the nation’s constitutional courts, has its genesis in, and continued basis resting on, three of its own judgments which are collectively known as the Three Judges Cases. The three cases were S. P. Gupta vs. Union of India - 1981 (also known as the Judges’ Transfer case), Supreme Court Advocates-on Record Association vs. Union of India – 1993 and In re Special Reference 1 of 1998. Over the course of the three cases, the court evolved the principle of judicial independence to mean that no other branch of the state - including the legislature and the executive - would have any say in the appointment of judges. The court then created the collegium system, which has been in use since the judgment in the Second Judges Case. It would be interesting to note that there is no mention of the collegium either in the original Constitution of India or in successive amendments though the creation of the collegium system was viewed as controversial by legal scholars and jurists outside India.

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National Snooping Agency Big Brother is always behind you

or years, the world had known about the totalitarian attitude of the American government. In the name of maintaining world peace and protecting its own citizens, America has often trespassed into the rights and dignities of other nations and continues to do so with gay abandon. Recently, this attitude of the big brother was brought to the fore during a visit to India by US Senator John McCain. News spread in the media that in 2010, his government had authorised to spy on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in 2010. His press conference was cancelled and the Indian government summoned a senior US diplomat to the ministry over the spying report. While the government and the public await a response from the US, there is no denying the fact that US had taken upon itself the task of spying on other countries in the name of

Western concern for India’s Muslims is cited as the main reason for opposition to Modi. It is worth remembering that, more recently than the Gujarat riots, the America-led invasion of Iraq resulted in an estimated hundred thousand to nearly half a million Muslims being killed. This Bush-Blair war had bipartisan support in US Congress, including 58 per cent of Senate Democrats who supported the Iraq Resolution.

national security. BJP was among the six political parties in the world that America’s National Security Agency or NSA had spied upon, according to classified documents reportedly leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. BJP was listed along with the Pakistan People’s Party and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood among the outfits for whom the NSA had sought permission to carry out surveillance. For long, Narendra Modi has been on the blacklist of the American government and the media, even if the Indian courts had not held Modi guilty. Since 2005, the US had been denying visa to Narendra Modi under its domestic law for “severe violation of religious freedom”. It never occurred to the US that for it to unilaterally hold Modi guilty of violating religious freedom, without the Indian legal system concluding so smells of the usual US

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imperiousness. Even though the Europeans ended their boycott of Modi after some time, the US has stubbornly refused to do so until now. Obviously, it believes that its superior legal and moral bench-marks are higher than those of the Indian judiciary. Even the Indian media and the political class, which hold the US as the pinnacle of any righteousness, tried using the Modi visa denial episode against him. It never occurred either to the media or to Modi’s opponents that our own judiciary is well positioned to pass judgments on such issues and we should trust our judiciary rather than on what the US government thinks. The leaked documents about the spying of NSA suggest that there are 193 countries in NSA’s radar on which it can spy. Virtually no foreign government is off-limits for the National Security Agency, which has been authorised to intercept information ‘concerning’ all but four countries, according to top-secret documents. The four countries exempt from surveillance are Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The NSA was also allowed to spy on the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents to media uncovering the existence of numerous global surveillance programmes, many of them run by the NSA, triggering an outrage worldwide. It is said that Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act authorises targeted intelligence collection. But NSA’s call monitoring and peeking into the business of other countries is nothing new. It had monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department. The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such as the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their “Rolodexes” so

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the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems. The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately “tasked” for monitoring by the NSA. The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies. After the German Chancellor

Merkel’s allegations became public, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that said the US “is not monitoring and will not monitor” the her communications. But that failed to quell the row, as officials in Berlin quickly pointed out

that the US did not deny monitoring the phone in the past. The public accusation of spying adds to mounting political tensions in Europe about the scope of US surveillance on the governments of its allies. In spite of how Muslims were treated in the US post 9/11 attacks, Washington still pretends to be the champion of minority rights. The US, along with various other European nations, has never been comfortable with the rise of Modi and the BJP. While the West tries to implicate Modi in a the 2002 Gujarat riots, the US and its allies have conveniently invaded and bombed countless children, women and elders in the Afghanistan war post 9/11. They have repeated similar dastardly acts in Vietnam, Iraq and many other countries of the world. Western civilization has wiped out diverse peoples and cultures, including an estimated 100 million native Americans in the American Holocaust and about six million Jews in the European Holocaust. The witch hunts by the Christian Church in Europe’s Middle Ages killed thousands of medicine women and the two European-initiated World Wars of the 20th century killed another hundred million people between them. Communist ideology imported from Europe into Russia resulted in the deaths of several million more at the hands of Joseph Stalin. Western concern for India’s Mus-

lims is cited as the main reason for opposition to Modi. It is worth remembering that, more recently than the Gujarat riots, the America-led invasion of Iraq resulted in an estimated hundred thousand to nearly half a million Muslims being killed. This Bush-Blair war had bipartisan support in US Congress, including 58 per cent of Senate Democrats who supported the Iraq Resolution. The Western Left and Right collaborated in this project. The liberal “New York Times” helped manufacture consent for the Iraq war. These hundreds of thousands of deaths are not labelled as “the Iraq genocide”, but are merely “collateral damage” from the war. Despite the false pretext for this war, neither Bush nor Blair was tried in their countries for war crimes, unlike Modi who went through multiple rounds of judicial scrutiny in India. The British policy of divide and rule resulted in the division of India on religious lines, leading to large-scale displacement and killing. After independence, simmering conflict fanned by politicians broke into riots, most often during the rule of the Congress. In Gujarat in 1969, nearly 5000 Muslims were killed under Congress rule, yet the chief minister was not ruled satanic. Unlike in Gujarat 2002, where scores of Hindus were killed in police firing to stop rioters, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots under Rajiv Gandhi hardly saw any such preventative action. However, Rajiv Gandhi was never demonised in Western academia and media. But still, NSA thinks it can spy on anyone anywhere in the world and it employs whatever means it can to carry on spying. The NSA is also said to be tapping popular smartphone apps such as Angry Birds to peek into the tremendous amounts of very personal data those bits of software collect -- including age, location, sex and even sexual preferences. The agency also seems to have a high rate of interest in Google Maps, which are accurate to within a few yards or better in some locations and would clearly pass along data about a phone owner’s whereabouts. In the overall list of countries spied on by NSA programmes, India stands fifth,

What is NSA? N

SA is an agency charged with protection of US government communications and information systems against penetration and network warfare. It monitors, collects, decodes, translates and analyses information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes - a discipline known as Signals intelligence. Interestingly, the US law allows the agency to accomplish its mission through clandestine means, among which are bugging electronic systems and allegedly engaging in sabotage through subversive software. Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, it was officially formed as the NSA by Harry S. Truman in 1952. Since then, it has become one of the largest of US intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget, operating as part of the Department of Defense and simultaneously reporting to the Director of National Intelligence. NSA surveillance has been a matter of political controversy on several occasions, such as its spying on prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders or economic espionage. Apart from its misadventures worldwide, it collects and stores all phone records of all American citizens. It also has the ability to monitor the domestic internet traffic of foreign countries through “boomerang routing” It is reported that NSA intercepts telephone and internet communications of over a billion people worldwide, seeking information on terrorism as well as foreign politics, economy and “commercial secrets”.

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with billions of pieces of information plucked from its telephone and internet networks just in 30 days. NSA carried out intelligence gathering activities in India using at least two major programms: the first one is Boundless Informant, a data-mining system which keeps track of how many calls and e-mails are collected by the security agency; and the second one is PRISM, a programme which intercepts and collects actual content from the networks. While Boundless Informant was used for monitoring telephone calls and access to the internet in India, PRISM collected information about certain specific issues — not related to terrorism — through Google, Microsoft, Face book, Yahoo, Apple, YouTube and several other web-based services. This SIGINT (signal intelligence) system collects the electronic surveillance programme records or internet data (DNI) and telephone call metadata records (DNR), which are all stored in an NSA archive called GMPLACE. Boundless Informant summarises data records from 504 separate DNR and DNI collection sources called SIGADs, the documents show. Collection of metadata is serious

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business. A detailed account of an individual’s private and professional life can be constructed from metadata, which is actually the record of phone number of every caller and recipient; the unique serial number of the phones involved; the time and duration of each phone call; and potentially the location of each caller and recipient at the time of the call. The same applies to e-mails and other Internet activities of an individual. The high volume of metadata taken from India — 6.2 billion in just one month — means that the US agency collected information on millions of calls, messages and e-mails every day within India, or between India and a foreign country. It’s the maps, which provide snapshots of the Boundless Informant data that actually show how intensely India was targeted by the NSA. As per one “global heat map”, just in March 2013, the US agency collected 6.3 billion pieces of information from the Internet network in India. Another NSA heat map shows that it collected 6.2 billion pieces of information from the country’s telephone networks during the same period. Three “global heat maps,” which give each country a colour code based

on how extensively it was subjected to NSA surveillance, clearly show that India was one of the hottest targets for US intelligence. With the colour scheme ranging from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance), the heat maps show India in the shades of deep orange and red even as fellow BRICS nations like Brazil, Russia and China — all monitored extensively — sit in green or yellow zones. Clearly, the US does not think much about the sovereignty of other countries. Every time the US is caught snooping, it tries to hide behind decorative terms like international security and battle against terrorism. But it’s time other countries stood up for their sovereignty and raised their voice against big brother’s bullying tactics. An international treaty on spying and monitoring, or whatever other terms the US would like to give it, should be arrived at and US should be among the first nations to sign it. But knowing America’s history, this is very unlikely to happen unless there is a strong urge on the country to do so.

The Terror Trails

Ominous signs for South Asian countries

he recent developments in Iraq and Syria have opened the eyes of the world about the possibilities of Islamic terrorism. Although these developments are happening in a lawless land far away from countries like India and the US, all the non-Islamic countries, and even the Islamic countries have a lot to worry about the emergence of this new terror outfit, which has threatened to disturb the precarious peace that existed in the world for a short period of time. As most of us already know, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the violent Muslim extremist group, ISIS, has announced himself the Emir of a Caliphate - recreating the Islamic state that once stretched over much of the Islamic world. The group has already set about changing its name from ISIS - the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria -to simply the Islamic State. Restoring the Caliphate has been on the list of things to do for Islamists virtually from the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1916. It was then that two European diplomats - Mark Sykes of Great Britain and Francois George Picot of France - drafted what was initially a secret agreement that drew the boundaries of the countries of the current Middle East that became reality after World War I. Islamists regard the Sykes-Picot Agreement as a boil on the face of Islam, and have made every effort to eradicate those boundaries and to unite Muslims under the banner of their religion and the rule of Sharia law. ISIS itself is a split-off from Al Qaeda, and differs from its parent only as to how to achieve the goal. Al Qaeda says that jihad, or holy war, must come first; ISIS has leaped

Many sections of the media and the so-called intellectuals still like us to believe that these terrorist groups are the products of atrocities of the West and we have nothing to fear from them. Intelligence reports submitted to the government suggest that a number of Muslim youths are attracted to these terror outfits and would like to fight for them. Imagine the plight of the already unstable security scene of the country if these brainwashed youths return to India after being trained by an organisation like ISIS! ahead to proclaim the caliphate even as it wages war. ISIS is on organisation that is often considered to be extremist by even Al Qaeda. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has not spared any non-Islamic countries and waged a war against everybody he can think of. In fact, he has even waged a war against countries like Pakistan, which, according to him, treat Muslims badly! While one can dismiss these threats as the rants from an overzealous jihadist from a faraway land, the implications of this

new Islamic state on the entire world more pressing than we would every care to consider. While ISIS may appear to be a region specific outfit which does not have the power to venture beyond its base, the fact is that it is funded generously by wealthy Sunnis in the Middle East, including some in countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The organisation has picked up material and human support as it has taken territory - robbing banks, seizing the weapons abandoned by Iraqi troops

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and drawing recruits with its two most consistently reliable attractions: the religious message and a record of success. The success of ISIS has attracted many more Islamic fundamentalists from all over the world, which is proving to be another headache for counter-terrorism experts all over the world. An estimated 12,000 foreign fighters are already believed to be helping ISIS in Syria and Iraq. About 3,000 of those are believed to be from Western nations - including about a hundred from America. The recent release of an ISIS propaganda video featuring English-speaking jihadists from Britain and Australia is aimed at boosting those numbers. What is troubling the counter-terrorism experts all over the world is the fact that this extremely hostile organisation with a long history of lethal attacks now has a territorial base from which to plan and organise terrorism against its perceived enemies, as well as to destabilise the rest of Iraq. This expansion also makes ISIS a more powerful player in Syria. The second possibility is that citizens or legal residents of other countries who have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS, so-called foreign fighters, might return home to commit acts of violence. Their training and experience make them particularly dangerous. Also this time around, the Islamic terrorism has been less visible and as a result, more dangerous than ever before. After the US and its allies cracked down on terrorist outfits post 9/11, the terrorist organisations have become much suave in their operations. Terrorists inspired by Al Qaeda have expanded the theatre of attacks and are looking for opportunities to target Westerners across the world. Bali bombings of 2002 and London tube bombings in 2005 were carried out by terror groups loosely affiliated with Al Qaeda or individuals inspired by its ideology. The victims of 9/11 included people from more than 90 countries, and 28 foreign nationals from 10 different countries were

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among the 166 people killed in the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Unfortunately the international community has failed to even arrive at a universally accepted definition of terrorism with some member states of the UN stalling the passing of the draft comprehensive convention against terrorism. Advancing arguments such as first recognising

of our problems. All that the ISIS has declared â&#x20AC;&#x201C; forced prayers, Islamic punishments like stoning to death or amputation of limbs, destroying shrines and monuments of the past, treatment of women, declaring Shias out of the pale of Islam, etc. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; are something that radical Islamists ranging from the Taliban to the Boko Haram also profess and practise.

the root causes of terrorism not only justifies violence perpetuated by terrorists but also stymies collective action against them. Selective action against some terror groups, while turning a blind eye to the activities of others ensures that terrorists retain their ability to strike anywhere in the world. Jihadi terrorism post 9/11 has become more integrated and complementary in nature as terror outfits across the globe have closely aligned under the broad Al Qaeda umbrella, willing to ideologically or logistically support each other for targeting their common enemies. And thus, extremist groups like ISIS thrive and prosper. Although what ISIS is doing may look like a shocking and barbaric act, it has been done before by other Islamic terrorist groups. Taliban have perpetrated the same atrocities in Afghanistan just some decade and half ago. Other Islamic terror groups -- Ansar Dine in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shahab in East Africa and other such groups in other parts of the world --- have been continuously doing it, but we refuse to see them or dismiss them as none

The threat to India from these faraway organisations lies in these things. Many sections of the media and the so-called intellectuals still like us to believe that these terrorist groups are the products of atrocities of the West and we have nothing to fear from them. Intelligence reports submitted to the government suggest that many Muslim youths are attracted to these terror outfits and would like to fight for them. Imagine the plight of the already unstable security scene of the country if these brainwashed youths return to India after being trained by an organisation like ISIS! If nothing else, they could bring back radical ideas that could spread these poisonous thoughts in India and disturb the already fragile communal relations in the country. They can also lead to terrorism of a kind India is just not prepared to fight effectively. Already, the mobilisation that is taking place among Indian Shias to volunteer to go to Iraq for protecting the Shia shrines could become a precursor to worse things to come. The Government of India must strongly

The roots of Islamic Terrorism L

ong before Osama bin Laden appeared on television screens with an AK-47 by his side, he released earlier videotapes in which he appears in the guise of a holy man, sitting peacefully in front of a wall of books. That scholarly backdrop is an important symbol for Laden’s terrorist movement as he tries to legitimise his extremist views of Islam. ‘’Many Americans seem to think that bin Laden is just a violent cult leader,’’ said Michael Doran, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. ‘’But the truth is that he is tapping into a minority Islamic tradition with a wide following and a deep history.’’ Although many Muslims are horrified at the notion that their faith is being used to justify terrorism, bin Laden’s advocacy of jihad, or holy war, against the West is a natural extension of what some radical Islamists have been saying and doing since the 1930’s. These radicals were

jailed, tortured and often executed in their home countries, particularly in Egypt during the 1950’s and 60’s, for their attacks on Western influences and their efforts to replace their own regime with an Islamic state. The Muslim extremists, members of Islamic Jihad, who assassinated the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, for instance, left behind a 54page document, titled ‘’The Neglected Duty’’ that provided an elaborate

theological justification for what they had done. Addressed to other Muslims rather than to the West, the document drew on earlier thinkers in arguing that rebelling against one’s rulers -- which is forbidden by most Islamic authorities -- is in fact a duty if those rulers have abandoned true Islam. But if one man deserves the title of intellectual grandfather to Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists, it is probably the Egyptian writer and activist Sayyid Qutb (pronounced SIGHyid KUH-tahb), who was executed by the Egyptian authorities in the mid1960’s for inciting resistance to the regime. Qutb, who began his career as a modernist literary critic, was radicalised by a roughly yearlong stay in the United States, between 1948 and 1950. In a book about his travels, he cites the Kinsey Report, along with Darwin, Marx and Freud, as forces that have contributed to the moral degradation of the country.

curb any such movement of Indian Muslims to go and fight for Islamic causes in other parts of the world. The countries near Iraq are already replenishing their forces to prepare for a possible attack. Jordan, known for its pro-Western outlook, is under immediate threat from the new extremist output in Iraq and it is not taking things lightly. Jordan understands that if jihadi forces are not rolled back from Iraq, an attack is imminent. In 2002-05 Jordan experienced a series of deadly terrorist operations perpetrated by ISIS’s antecedent, al Qaeda in Iraq, a group led by Jordan national Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Jordanian militants today generally appear to be more sympathetic to the Syrian al Qaeda affiliate Jebhat al Nusra, but ISIS does have a cadre of supporters. On June 20 dozens of men demonstrated in support of ISIS in the town of Maan. Interestingly, Islamic terrorism is

on the rise in the world today in spite of the Holy Quran preaching peace. There are various contradictions in the Quran, but nothing that encourages a band of terrorists to kill innocent children and women. But the self-proclaimed jihadists of Islam have a completely different take on the teachings of Islam. In a 1998 interview, Al Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, called Americans “the worst thieves in the world today and the worst terrorists . . . .” He went on to say that, “We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they are all targets.” He justified targeting Americans in the name of Islam. He said: “The terrorism we practise is of the commendable kind for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of God . . . .” Today, the violent, sectarian groups of Islamic terrorism are all over the

world. They include Lebanon’s Hizbollah, Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group, Egypt’s Islamic Jihad, Palestine’s Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Uzbekistan’s Islamic Movement, the Philippines’ Abu Sayyaf, and Pakistan’s Jaish-eMuhammad (Army of Muhammad) as foreign terrorist groups. Unlike Al Qaeda, most of these groups do not commit terrorism internationally. Instead, they use terrorism to help overthrow the regimes in control of their countries. Convincing the jihadists is not really an option for non-Islamic countries. By their own admission, these jihadist groups have gone beyond the point of any meaningful discussions. The sane minds all over the world need to be untied and take a firm stand against terrorism. Only then can the majority of this world, the peace loving, hard working populace look forward to a hopeful tomorrow.

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s w e N d i Pa The Scourge of Fair Journalism • Narayan Ammachchi

pposition party candidates are pressing Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to speak out that a dozen of news articles Mumbai papers published on the eve of 2009 Assembly elections were in fact advertisements in the garb of news stories. Chavan has continued to dismiss the allegation, because he knows full well that he will never be proved guilty until the newspapers that published the article disclose their account books. This paid news scandal is hitting the headlines day after day, yet none of the papers are disclosing the names of the papers that published stories in favour of Chavan. Like or dislike, newspaper owners have long realized that paid articles are more lucrative than advertisements. In other words, advertisements run in the form of usual news articles are earning them more money

A LokSatta candidate in Andhra Pradesh said he paid Rs 50,000 to Enaadu, Andhra’s mass circulated daily, and got three half-page news stories in his favour. “I wanted to prove that you can have anything published by a newspaper,” he said. Five years have gone by and there is no investigation whatsoever, though this candidate had included this money in his election expenses. Today, some newspapers appear to be making more money by selling newspages than advertisements. than the genuine advertisements. In 2009, the ‘Outlook’ magazine ran a hard-hitting article condemning the growing menace of paid news. According to that report, a top management executive from Punjab Kesri, one of the mass circulated Hindi dailies, admitted to making between Rs 10 crore and Rs 12 crore during the Assembly election that year. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, then Chief Minister of Haryana, talked about an interesting incident. He said he noticed a leading paper in his state publishing what he called ‘baseless’ sto-

ries against him day after day. Before long, he learnt that his opponents had booked editorial space in the paper specifically to run stories against him. Since the stories did not carry the stamp of ‘Advertisement’, he assumed that they were news articles. Soon, he called the paper’s owner and offered him money to publish the ‘right picture’. Then they apologised and discontinued printing sponsored articles. In that article, the most interesting account was Parcha Kodanda Rama Rao’s, Loksatta Party candidate in

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Andhra Pradesh. He said that he had paid Rs.50,000 to ‘Enadu’, Andhra’s mass circulated daily, and got three half-page articles in his favour. “I had to prove a point...that news could be bought for a price,” he told ‘Outlook’. He said he had no choice but to pay up as people were not even aware that he had stood for election. “One call to the Warangal bureau of ‘Eenadu’ and Rao found the Achilles’ heel,” writes ‘Outlook’. “I was politely informed that if I paid up like other candidates in the fray, I would get my share of space,” he recalled. “I called a reporter and paid Rs 50,000.

I was promptly rewarded with three half-page colour features on three consecutive days highlighting my worth as a politician and predicting my strong prospects of winning the election.” Television news channels were the worst still. According to a comment from Shiela Dixit, former Chief Minister of Delhi, a television channel even offered to mobilise a crowd. An Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists conducted a sample survey to ascertain how paid news is published. But its report fails to identify the papers that are running paid news stories.

When the Ad Executive Rules the Editorial…. I

n the last Assembly election, one of Karnataka’s leading dailies ran article after article to describe how a former state minister was going to lose the contest. Fed up with the antieditorial campaign, the politician bought space in the paper and had it publish an article in his favour. The shocked editor went to the extent of resigning the following day. It was in fact not an article written by any member of the editorial team, nor was the editor aware of publishing that story. In other words, it was an advertisement masked as a news article. In every newspaper, the advertisement department first books space in the news pages. The editorial department, led by editor, fills up what it leaves behind. The editor may not know what the advertisement department will run on the space it has borrowed in news pages. Newspaper owners generally stand by the advertisement department when wars break out between the editorial and Ad departments over publication of paid news, because media proprietors regard Ad executives as the bread-winners.

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What is paid news? Y

ou don’t generally pay a newspaper for publishing a piece of information that people need to read or want to read. It is the editor who decides what stories the paper should publish. ‘Paid news’ is having a newspaper publish an advertisement in the form of a news article. Paid news is illegal because it snatches the people’s right to identify what is editorial content and what is advertisement. Under the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, the editor of the paper is responsible for every word published in the form of editorial content (news article) and the management is responsible for the advertisement. Some editors could be found only in courts not in the newsrooms, because they are fighting defamation suits filed against the paper under their editorship. They can leave the papers they are editing but cannot escape the court cases filed during their tenure. What is worrying today is that this line of distinction between editorial content and advertisement is increasingly being blurred, leaving the reader clueless about what he is reading is news or advertisement. But what is wrong if a paper takes money to print news? Democracy survives as long as the newspapers are factual, neutral, fair and objective. Beware, media is the watchdog of democracy. It has to keep on reporting to general public how the other three pillars of democracy (legislature, executive and judiciary) are performing. Democracy can easily be burgled if the watchdog guarding it can be bribed. Therefore, paid news has the potential to prove India a failed state.

Caught Red-Handed Sonia & Rahul Struggle to Wriggle Out of Paper Scandal

‘National Herald’, the flag-bearer of the Congress Party during the Independence struggle, is ‘dead’ but its ghost has now begun to haunt Rahul and Sonia Gandhi. Don’t be surprised if both of them are punished at the end of the trial. Worst still, The Congress may even lose the benefit of tax deduction for the political donations it receives from the public. It is a classic story and the Congress has certainly been caught red-handed. • Narayan Ammachchi

n NGO run by Rahul Gandhi and his associates are today the owner of properties worth several hundred crores, with its monthly rent earning alone running into lakhs of rupees. More interesting still, Rahul came to take control of this property by simply writing off Rs.90 crores in loans lent by his Congress Party to ‘National Herald’, a defunct newspaper group run by his great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru. Economists have long suggested that governments must plug the legal loopholes to put the country on growth path. This case is a classic example of how politicians are making the most of legal loopholes they have left wide open. This scandal came to light after Subramanian Swamy sued the Congress Party in a Delhi court. The case is still on, but the modus operandi used by those involved in this affair is an interesting story to read about. It all began in 2011 when the Congress Party, led by Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, lent Rs 90.25 crore in loan to the Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd, the media group that decades ago published ‘National Herald’. A year later, the Party wrote off the loan asking the publishing group to hand over

its controlling stakes to Young Indian, the NGO run by Rahul and his associates. Every penny in the coffers of the Congress Party is a donation made by industrialists and public in general in return for tax deduction. Can a political party use money to lend loans? Hardly anyone questioned this in 2011. Then the party said it lent money to help the publishing group to relaunch its paper. But the paper never saw the light of day. And the NGO came to own properties worth several crores. The Congress Party said it wrote off

the loans because it found the publication unable to repay the loan. But it is a wonder as to how a company which owns properties worth several thousand crores is unable to pay a mere Rs.90 crore. You will find answer to this question if you try to figure out who is the owner of the publishing group. Even the publishing group is owned by the same people who launched the NGO Young Indian. The known crony of Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, Motilal Vora, is the chairman of the publishing group. Don’t be surprised if he is also the

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treasurer of Young Indian. Young Indian has Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandesas its members, with Sonia and Rahul controlling more than 70 percent of the stake. Other members of the board of Young Indian include Suman Dubey, Satyan and Sam Pitroda. “They are the same people exchanging musical chairs to their benefit,” said Subramanian Swamy in a TV interview. The Associated Journal, the publishing group of National Herald, owns real estate across the country, from Delhi to Mumbai and Lucknow to Bhopal. Given a conservative estimate, its properties are worth about Rs.5000 crore. Therefore, Subramanian Swamy says Young Indian is just a front to acquire control over the assets of the publication. Today, Vora is facing the charge of lying to the public that the publication had no money nor assets to repay the loan borrowed from the Congress Party. Analysts say Sonia and Rahul would find it extremely difficult to get away with this allegation. Primarily, how did the Congress Party use the party funds to lend loans to a private company? The Passport Seva Kendra, a unit of the Ministry of External Affairs, is a tenant in one of its buildings. According to NDTV, the External Ministry alone pays to Young Indian 60 lakh rupees in monthly rent. In response to Subramanian Swamy’s complaint, Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha summoned the Gandhis to appear before the court, saying “I have found prima facie evidence against all the accused... From the complaint and the evidence led so far it appears YI (Young Indian) was in fact created as a sham or a cloak to convert public money to personal use or as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Rs2,000 crore worth of assets.” National Herald, though launched to fight against the British Raj in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru, turned out to be the mouthpiece of the Nehru family as

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the Congress Party came to become the fiefdom of the political dynasty. Nehru launched it and later his sonin-law, Feroze Gandhi, worked as its Managing Editor until Indira declared emergency following the defeat of her party in the ’70s. Unfortunately, its fortunes were tied with those of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and the Congress Party. The paper was shut down for two years following Indira’s defeat in 1977. By 1986, the paper again faced the prospect of closure, because it overstaffed making little or no revenue. The chief reason for its loss was that it was run by politicians who were more bothered about political fortunes than those of the paper itself. In the ’80s, following the assas-

sination of Indira, Rajiv Gandhi tried to revive it. As it made little attempt to raise its journalistic standards, the Lucknow operations were shut down in 1998 and much of its property was auctioned off under court orders to settle outstanding debts. Limping for decades, the paper was finally closed in 2008. Three years later, the Nehru-Gandhi family wondered how it could take control of the paper’s vast assets. And it was then the party decided to lend loan to the paper so that it pays off the debt it owed to others. “How can a political party give its money to save a private company,” will be a difficult question Sonia Gandhi will have to answer when she appears before the court.

Vaidik-Saeed Meeting A Case of Self-Appointed Diplomats, Self-Serving Charlatans • Sushant Sareen

he meeting between internationally designated terrorist chieftain Hafiz Saeed and an Indian journalist (?) and political operator, Dr VP Vaidik, in Lahore has caused a veritable storm in not just political circles but also the media. Normally, no eyebrows should be raised if anyone who claims to be a journalist meets any extremely undesirable and notorious criminal. Howsoever unpleasant and politically incorrect, such meetings are part and parcel of a scribe’s profession. But Vaidik’s meeting with Saeed is extremely problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the hint of misrepresentation by him about his contacts and closeness to the new government and his subtle and insidious efforts to put a human face to someone who is by all accounts a monster and mass murderer. Before detailing the reasons for condemning Vaidik’s ‘interview’, it must be said that for publicity hounds even notoriety is welcome. After all, Dr Vaidik has managed to capture more airtime with the controversy he has generated than he would have got in his decades long innings as a ‘journalist’. What this fifteen minutes of fame (or should we say, infamy) does for him and his benefactors and mentors is hardly the issue. Dr Vaidik has a penchant for hitting the headlines for wrong reasons. In the early 1990s, he had managed to inveigle himself with Mulayam Singh Yadav (whom he lauded as the best thing that hap-

‘Apart from the fact that Dr Vaidik is neither Lord Ram nor the Buddha who could transform a monster like Saeed into a saint, it is also not his job as a journalist to do any such thing. What offends the sensibilities even more is that there is an insidious attempt on Dr Vaidik’s part to tell his compatriots that perhaps they need to show patience with terrorists like Saeed because there is still a chance of reforming them.’

pened to Indian politics….and we all know how that turned out). Over the last few years, he has managed to get close to yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who in turn has been a major supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dr Vaidik also has a tendency for name-dropping and impressing people by referring to senior leaders and politicians by their first names – Tell Nawaz I am in such and such hotel…, I asked Ahmed (Shah Massoud) to talk to Gulbadin (Hekmetyar)…, I told Hamid (Karzai) to do this and that…. and so on and so forth. The gullible (which includes some senior Indian officials, including at the highest levels in the Ministry of External Affairs) often assume that he is some kind of a South Asian Henry Kissinger and

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this tends to open doors for him, especially in places seeking some kind of private access to corridors of power in Delhi. In a sense, he is the quintessential Delhi Durbari, but also an outsider who presents himself as an insider. Countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan have been an old hunting ground for Dr Vaidik, where he has managed to establish himself as a very consequential man from Delhi. According to Pakistani sources, Dr Vaidik has presented himself in Pakistan as someone who is very close with the new dispensation in Delhi. He is believed to have sent signals or at least given an impression to his Pakistani interlocutors that he was some kind of an unofficial mediator for the Modi government. This is also the sense that comes out of his interviews to Pakistani TV channels. More than anything else, it is this that has stirred the hornet’s nest in Delhi. Beside the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made it very clear that he doesn’t subscribe to backchannel or private diplomacy, even less so by busybodies and self-appointed diplomats, there would have to be something terribly wrong with this government if it was using someone so given to self-promotion like Vaidik to either carry out such diplomacy or even some message. It is highly unlikely, therefore, that someone as indiscreet as Vaidik would be used for sending any message across the Radcliffe line. After all, one of the fundamental qualities of a good diplomat is the ability to zip up. In any case, it is unimaginable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would use a mediator to reach out to an international terrorist. This is where the other problems with Vaidik’s meeting come in. From his public utterances, he has tried to give an impression of being Modi’s advocate to Hafiz Saeed. While he claims that he met Saeed in his capacity as a journalist, he has himself stated that he tried to dispel the negative image of Modi that Saeed had. According to Vaidik, Saeed considered Modi as a ‘very dangerous’ man which he tried to correct. But is it a journalist’s job to provide clarification about his Prime Minister to a notified terrorist? And if the terrorist like Saeed considers Modi a ‘dangerous man’, shouldn’t that be welcomed by all Indians? Instead, Dr Vaidik goes out of his way to tell the terrorist who is terrified of Modi not to be afraid. Who, in any case, has given Dr Vaidik the authority to speak on behalf of the Indian Prime Minister or for that matter to seek the ‘permission’ or acceptance of a certified terrorist for a possible visit of India’s PM to Pakistan? Equally offensive is Vaidik’s TV clip where he says if Pakistan is willing to give independence to PoK, he would be in favour of India doing the same, but then adds the caveat that he would prefer if Kashmiris are given the same level of freedom as people in other parts of India. Obviously, Dr Vaidik is either totally ignorant of India’s constitution, or worse, he will say any-

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thing depending on the audience he is addressing.

It is also not a journalist’s job to impart human values or change the heart of the person he is interviewing, nor is it their job to engage their interviewees in philosophical and meta-physical discussions. Dr Vaidik defends himself talking about the life changing transformation of Valmiki and Angulimaal from fearsome dacoits and killers into saints. Apart from the fact that Dr Vaidik is neither Lord Ram nor the Buddha who could transform a monster like Saeed into a saint, it is also not his job as a journalist to do any such thing. What offends the sensibilities even more is that there is an insidious attempt on Dr Vaidik’s part to tell his compatriots that perhaps they need to show patience with terrorists like Saeed because there is still a chance of reforming them. From his tone and tenor and his efforts to attach a degree of acceptability and reasonableness to Saeed, Dr Vaidik is almost behaving

as Saeed’s ambassador to India. Despite the plethora of evidence against Saeed, Dr Vaidik, who clearly has pretensions of being a psycho-analyst (why else would he want to get inside Saeed’s head?) seems all set to be handing a ‘good character’ certificate to him. Even if he met Saeed as a journalist, Dr Vaidik should have done what all journalists should do when they interview their subject: research on the man, his organisation and his activities. This, he clearly did not do, which is apparent from the illinformed questions he raised about Saeed’s court cases. The entire Vaidik-Saeed affair is a wake-up call for the Modi government. There are all sorts of characters moving around acting as unofficial representatives of the government and engaging in their own personal foreign policy initiatives. Even before the election results were declared, Pakistani papers carried stories about an un-named NRI from US who met the top Pakistani leaders claiming to be Modi’s messenger. Then there was the dubious character – a Kashmiri who was a ‘leader’ in Ram Vilas Paswan’s party – who met the separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani. After a furore, he denied representing Modi. And now we have the Vaidik episode. Clearly, the government needs to shut these characters down if it wants to continue enjoying any

credibility, both domestically and internationally. Equally important, the government must keep spiritual gurus and other such characters at an arm’s length from interfering in government policy. These people have neither the knowledge of intricacies of diplomacy, nor do they have command over the issues of national security. Yet they insist on making efforts for ‘world peace’. They should be encouraged to stick to what they do best – yoga, pranayama and what have you – and not allowed to interfere in affairs of state and government. Similarly, other religious leaders from other faiths should also not be encouraged to act as envoys of the Indian state. These people do more damage than any good. Way back in the 1980s when India had taken action against Nepal, one of the Shankaracharyas took it upon himself to intercede on behalf of the Nepalese King, only because he was a Hindu king. While the Shankaracharya received traction from some members of the Rajiv Gandhi government, the then Ambassador gave the Shankaracharya short shrift and did not allow him to interfere and impose himself on government policy. This is what is expected from the Modi government and the sooner they shut these busybodies, the better. The author is Senior Fellow, VIF (Courtesy: Rediff.com)

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Fresh approach towards

AIDS prevention U

nion Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, has advocated changes (24th June 2014) in the way that the government promotes awareness of AIDS and HIV. He has favoured emphasis on promoting Indian culture based on the integrity of the sexual relationship between husband and wife. Dr. Harsha Vardhan favoured less reliance on condom-centric campaign to prevent AIDS. It is observed that condom-centric campaign implicitly promotes illicit sexual relationship. India reported its first case of AIDS in 1986, and for some years, there were fears that it would become a crisis on the scale that it has become in Africa. The National AIDS Control Organization, a government body, was established in 1992 to deal with the threat. Over the years, it emphasized the use of condoms and clean needles for high-risk groups — including sex workers, drug users and gay men. The projections for AIDS in India turned out to be inflated, however, and while the country today has the third-largest population of HIVinfected people — 2.1 million, after South Africa (6.1 million) and Nigeria (3.4 million) — the prevalence is just 0.3 per cent of the total adult population, below the threshold of a generalized epidemic, and confined largely

to high-risk groups. A 2011 United Nations AIDS report found that new infections in India had dropped by half in the last decade. In India, more than 85 per cent of the cases are a result of unprotected sex, according to the National AIDS Control Organisation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which worked with the government from 2003 to 2013 to help implement the national AIDS programme, has exited the effort, and the government has been tasked with taking up the program alone. Dr. Harsha Vardhan’s views are expected to fine tune the messaging of AIDS directing towards Abstinence, Be faithful and condom use. The condom use would be directed towards high risk groups where moral appeal would not be useful. For the general public, the first two messages are expected to be useful. some AIDS activists are raising alarm bells about any shift in communications strategy away from condom promotion, even if it were only for the general public. But, Dr. Harsha Vardhan’s message would not reduce the importance of condom use among risky groups but would promote a new message with roots in cultural appeal bringing a fresh indigenous approach against AIDS.

BRINGING NATIONAL RESURGANCE TO THE FORE, SINCE 1999

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Mission of Conversions Christian organisations on fast track There are intelligence wings whose strategy is modelled after military intelligence, such as gathering information from spies on the ground and knowing micro details about other religions and culture. The social and economic divisions in the various Indian communities are closely examined. Evangelical strategists are exploiting the diversity of the Indian society and are focusing mainly on caste groups. Intensive propaganda war is being unleashed on the Hindu social structure.

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• Vishal Desai

here are about 20 lakh nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in India and about 2% of them (about 43527) are registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act as of March, 2012. About 50% of these NGOs (22702 organisations) reported a total receipt of Rs.12,000 crore in foreign contribution. The World Vision of India, a Chennai-based NGO, received the highest sum ––Rs.233.38 crore. It was followed by the Believers Church India Pathanamthitta, Kerala (Rs. 190 crore), the Rural Development Trust, Ananthapur, A.P. (Rs. 144.39 crore), the Indian Society Of Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, Delhi (Rs. 130.77 crore) and Public Health Foundation Of India, Delhi (Rs.130.31 crore). More interesting still, of these about Rs.2,253 crores were spent without specifying the purpose of spending. About Rs.227 crores were spent on maintenance of priests/preachers/other religious functionaries, while Rs 208 crores spent for religious education. For maintenance of schools and colleges, about Rs.825 crores were spent and Rs.540 crore on research. Thus, explicitly, Rs.4250 crores of rupees were spent for religious and related purposes. This is about 33% of the total foreign funds received in the year 2011-12. Top 15 donor agencies contributed to about Rs.800 crores. Of these 15 donor agencies, 13 are Christian charities and one Islamic. Even the only secular Melinda Gates Foundation was found funneling funds to NGOs with religious propaganda. The majority of recipients are Christian organisations, with Aga khan Foundation and Mata Amritanandamayee being exceptions. The FCRA act and FCRA rules regulated foreign funding to Indian

NGOs. Section 9 of the FCR Act empowers the Central Government to prohibit any individual or association accepting foreign contribution, or require an association to receive funds only after obtaining prior permission. Before issuing permit, government needs to assess the impact the foreign funding will have on the country’s security and social harmony etc. No need to say that the foreign fund should not be used to inflict harm, physically or financially. Now you will be wondering if the government did try to know if these funds were used for religious conversions – an act of poisoning religious harmony. Of course, laws are in place

to uncover the ‘vested interests’ behind charities. It is true that due to weak law-enforcing agencies the country has failed to identify the good and bad NGOs.

Global Examples In 1989, AD2000 & Beyond Movement, a large network of Christian missionaries committed to world evangelism, launched a convention of international evangelical missions called Lausanne II in Manila. This Movement – headquartered in Colorado Springs, US, and spearheaded by Luis Bush – devised a plan to launch a large-scale conversion programme in various countries across North

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Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The programme, known as 10/40 Window and ‘The Resistant Belt’, was designed to cover a geography dominated by Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. The original 10/40 Window included only countries with at least 50% of their land mass within 10 and 40 degrees north latitude. The revised 10/40 Window includes several additional countries, such as Indonesia, that are close to 10 or 40 degrees north latitude and have high concentrations of non-Christians. An estimated 4.42 billion individuals are residing in approximately 8,618 distinct people groups are in the revised 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is home to some of the largest unreached people groups in the world such as the Shaikh, Yadava, Turks, Moroccan Arabs, Pushtun, Jat and Burmese. In 1995, the Movement renamed its programme as Joshua Project. The name Joshua refers to one of the twelve spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. After the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of North Canaan, and allocated the land India has to the tribes. been the The chief aim of the project is to identify non-Christians main focus of and Christian missionaries evangelists. It in the regions dominated was described by other religious groups as the “core and to gather and share information. It compiles of the core of the research documents the core” of of numerous missionara worldwide ies about non-Christian evangelical ethnic groups.

movement. It is the heartland of Hinduism and 40% of the Indian population lives here. In the 1990s this movement was shaped by the World Evangelical Fellowship (an international alliance of national evangelical alliances), working with the AD2000 movement. A U G U S T 2014

Indian manifestations Under the Joshua Project, the Movement funded evangelical operations in India, trying to figure out the opportunities and challenges of conversion in the

country. To convert others into Christianity, they devised sub-programms like PLUG, PREM and NICE. PLUG refers to the target people across linguistic, ethnic and geographical divisions. PREM refers to the techniques to be used such as Prayer Research, Evangelization and Mobilization. NICE refers to how the work is to be done – networking, initiatives and different types of persuasion for conversion. In short, the Project is designed to set the stage for a systematic, sophisticated and self-sustaining religious conversion in the 21st century. There are intelligence wings whose strategy is modelled after military intelligence, such as gathering information from spies on the ground and knowing micro details about other religions and culture. The social and economic divisions in the various Indian communities are closely examined. Evangelical strategists are exploiting the diversity of the Indian society and are focusing mainly on caste groups. Intensive propaganda war is being unleashed on the Hindu social structure. Transnational Missionary Organisations (TMOs) fund and strategize conversion activities in India. Organisations like the International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, Christian Aid, World Vision, Seventh Day Adventist Church, and multi-billion enterprises run by evangelists like Pat Robertson, Billy Graham and Roger Houtsma, amongst many others, were instrumental in running a coordinated conversion campaign in India under the banner of AD2000. These later became the Joshua Project and when the decade-long movement officially closed down in March 2001, Joshua Project II was launched to sustain conversions and intelligence-gathering. There are reports suggesting Graham’s TMO, Billy Graham Evangelist Association, supports conversion activities in Gurgaon, Haryana, and Kolkata. North India has been the main focus of evangelists. It was described as the “core of the core of the core” of a worldwide evangelical movement. It is the heartland of Hinduism and 40% of the Indian population lives here. In the 1990s this movement was shaped by the World Evangelical Fellowship (an international alliance of national evangelical alliances), working with the AD2000 movement. It brought together a wide variety of individuals and organizations with the single goal of achieving “a church for every people and the gospel for every person by the year 2000.” Its focus was mobilizing missionaries and building churches in places where Christian population is minimal. This movement was also a massive intelligence gathering exercise funded and supported by missionary organisations. And the Joshua

Project II is a continuation and expansion of the original plan. Its professed aim is to identify all the least-reached people (non-Christian) of the world and to help build ministry networks and partnerships to lure them to Christianity.

Church planting machinery in India With a large machinery of intelligence-gathering, the evangelists thought of building one church for every 10,000 people. Christian research teams arrived in India to prepare roadmaps for their “church-planting” mission. The India Missions Association (IMA) in partnership with Gospel for Asia, another big American missionary outfit, conducted countrywide survey using PIN-codes. The 6-digit PIN code, introduced in August 1972, identifies and locates every departmental delivery office. The first digit represents the zone, the second the sub-zone, the third digit shows the postal sorting district, the fourth digit indicates the mail route and the last two digits indicate the specific post office of destination in that zone. The PIN codes divide the country into eight zones, with each region in each zone having been assigned to oversee a bunch of postal circles. The Indian postal system has a network of 1,52,786 post offices - 89 percent of whom in villages, meaning one post office for 23.12 sq. km of rural land and one for every 3.16 sq. km of urban stretch, or one for a village with 4,612 people or one for 12,924 people in a town or city. The postal codes is seen as a boon for strategizing missionary work, coding the data came from the field workers for the missionaries. Latest cutting-edge web technologies are used to keep in touch with various “unreached people groups” through key local interlocutors.

The Bible is available in almost all Indian languages and dialects. A coordinated gospel literature distribution exercise was staged to reach 600,000 villages by the end of 2000. Slots on Indian television networks were taken to beam messages of Christ. A studio in Hyderabad was established by CBN to help Indian evangelicals through television programmes.

Based on the profiling of communities, Lingayats have been identified as the target group for conversion. In 2004, a call to “Pray for Lingayats” with the intention of converting them to Christianity was leaked and it generated public outcry in Karnataka state. Global NGOs and TMOs with the active support of some governments partner with the Indian NGOs to further the conversion agenda. Local NGOs, including registered Trusts, societies and non-profit companies, take up the responsibility of supervising the implementation. In India, the Evangelical Fellowship of India was central to the fulfillment of the goals set by AD2000 initiative. The India Missions Association (IMA) in partnership with Gospel for Asia researched and published very informative and accurate books that unraveled the intricate mosaic that

is India. Preachers, missionaries and Church officials from outside the country frequently visit different parts of the country and contribute to strengthening the initiatives on the ground. Everyone comes on tourist visas and are welcomed by their local partners. Many evangelists entered India fraudulently. Amongst them were extremist Christians like Don Noble, president of Maranatha Volunteers International, affiliated to a fundamentalist Christian group, the Seventh Day Adventists and Pastor Michael Ryan, director of Global Mission, the Seventh Day Adventist church’s international outreach department which coordinates India evangelistic initiative. The US state department website makes no bones about the fact that American evangelists enter India by employing fraudulent means. Robertson is one of America’s most rabid Christian fundamentalists, in an interview said “Hinduism and many of the occult activities that come out of the Orient are inspired by demons and demon worship...There’s this concept that all religions are the same and all are good. That is not true. The worship of the Devil is not good. Benny Hinn visited Bangalore in 2006 and his “Pray for India” created many controversies and generated social resentment. The Bible is available in almost all Indian languages and dialects. A coordinated gospel literature distribution exercise was staged to reach 600,000 villages by the end of 2000. Slots on Indian television networks were taken to beam messages of Christ. A studio in Hyderabad was established by CBN to help Indian evangelicals through television programmes. These programmes are broadcast on various networks in India.

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Service activities with conversion motive Service activities and genuine social needs provide opportunity to organizations with proselytization intention to intervene in the communities. In North India, lower literacy rate (30%) and higher infant mortality rate have been identified as an opportunity for missionary intervention. Similarly, AIDS treatment, De addiction programs, tribal welfare are common themes across the region. Employment generation schemes are sustained as a means to provide economic stability to underprivileged people. In a classic example, the same schemes are used to strengthen the converted communities. Employment generation activity is being exploited to weaken the non Christian religious practices through project Tessalonica. Project Thessalonica aims to stop or limit Hindu activity by converting people who form the pillars of Hindu culture, festivals, traditions and activity. Traditionally missionaries hate any public expression or display of heathen religions in the form of festivals and temples. Missions want to ensure that no new temple construction activity starts. With this objective they are converting masons, craftsmen and others involved in temple construction activity. The First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee adopted towns where the annual Kumbh-

Mela takes place and has been actively converting the locals so that visitors face extreme hardship during their next visit trying to find services and supplies. Another mission group is adopting boatmen of Kasi where Hindus drop rice balls in river Ganges as an offering to their forefathers. The boats men are being trained in other fields so that they abandon this profession. They are making environmental groups raise the voice so that Ganesh processions, KumbhMelas and JagannathRathYatras are limited. One big worry seems to be the extremely popular Hindu television programs. Christian agencies have decided on buying these prime slots at a premium and are actively working with programming sources. Over the past 20 years, missionaries also appear to have invested a lot in handling the political leadership, so much so that their activities appear to be almost immune to the ruling political party. It seems that a good section of media is also on their side to such an extent that any group opposing their activity finds itself identified as a militant or extremist group in the news media. Financial resources to AIDS and tribal welfare are two other examples for utilization of service activities for the conversion goals.

Exploiting the AIDS victims On September 21, 2000, Bush wrote in USA Today that he would allocate $80 billion over 10 years in tax incentives to help churches in America provide social services. In the last week of September 2003, the US administration announced new rules enabling Christian religious institutions to access $20 billion worth of federal grants. Faith-based organizations can access and use this fund to deliver services from drug/alcohol deaddiction to prison reform to HIV/ AIDS related care and support activities. The idea, of course, is to exploit drug addicts to lure to Christianity. Faith-based organization use prayer and proselytizing as an integral part of its provision of social services. The intervention of faith based organization in the social sector is justified in many ways. Many people praise faith-based organizations whose core philosophy is conversion while dispensing social services. In India, the Church, Christian NGOs and the trans-national faithbased NGOs, like CARE or World Vision, consciously infuse Christian religiosity as part of the help they provide to socially and e c o nomically marginalized communities.

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TMOs are operating in India under different masks. Classic example is World Vision. World Vision projects its community development programmes as holistic development. WV alone is involved in hundreds of projects in 25 states. Its programmes are implemented through Area Development Programmes (ADP). Each ADP works in an area that is contiguous geographically, economically or ethnically. These programmes provide access to clean drinking water, healthcare, education and setting up of income generating projects. But infused with such development works is the spiritual component-Bible classes. WV projects itself as a “Christian relief and development agency with more than 40 years experience in working with the poorest of the poor in India without respect to race, region, religion, gender or caste.” However WV is identified as a Church Ministry in government records. Its mission statement is selfexplanatory: “World Vision is an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in working with the poor and oppressed, to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the Good News of the Kingdom of God.” WV, has consultative status with UNESCO and partnerships with UN agencies like UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR and ILO. It has funded World Vision is evangelical activities all an international over the world, including partnership of India. WV uses its interChristians whose national clout and its close links with USmission is to AID to network with follow our Lord and governments and Savior Jesus Christ, corporate entities in working with the in the developing world. poor and oppressed, WV has an onto promote human going channel transformation, of interaction seek justice and bear with the Confederation of witness to the Good Indian IndusNews of the Kingdom of tries (CII); its God. 2003 financial report it states that “the

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Rural Development Department of the Government of Assam recognized WV India as a leading development agency in the state and has recommended that WV be the choice for receiving bilateral funds. The government has also sought WV’s assistance in creating a proposal for US$ 80 million for development work in the state.” However, what goes unnoticed by the governments and the corporate world is WV India’s evangelical missions as part of its development agenda. Proselytization is an integral part of its provision of development services under its much-touted ADP programmes. Though none of the literature published by WV India even mentions its evangelization missions, foreign publications of WV India proudly proclaim its “spiritual” component.

Targeting the Tribal In Mayurbhanj, Orissa, WV regularly organizes spiritual development programmes as part of its ADP package. The WV report says: “Opposition to Christian workers and organizations flares up occasionally in this area, generally from those with vested interests in tribal people remaining illiterate and powerless. WV supports local churches by organizing leadership courses for pastors and church leaders.” WV India is active in Bhil tribal areas and openly admits its evangelical intentions: “The Bhil people worship ancestral spirits but also celebrate all the Hindu festivals. Their superstitions about evil spirits make them suspicious of change, which hinders community development. ADP staff lives among the Bhil people they work with, gaining the villagers’ trust and showing their Christian love for the people by their actions and commitment.” This being the case it is not surprising that WV India was honored with the 2003 Mahatma Gandhi Award for Social Justice. This award is hosted by the All India

Brief profiles of the Donor agencies G

ospel Fellowship Trust India, USA, Gospel Missions of India (GMI) is an IRS approved non-profit, tax exempt, religious organization based in Michigan, USA to support Christian workers and ministries in India associated with the Brethren assemblies. GMI is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and Christian Ministries Management Association. GMI stays abreast of the work of the missionaries and ministries in India to ensure that gifts are faithfully invested for the Lord’s work. URL Gospel for Asia [9] is a Texas-based Christian missionary organization whose focus and goal as a ministry is to reach the 2.7 billion people in the 10/40 window who have never heard about the love of God. In India alone, they are targeting over 500,000 villages with no Gospel witness. Plan International, UK, is a childcentered community development organization with no religious and political affiliations, enabling families and communities in the poorest countries to make lasting improvements to the lives of their children. Foundation Vicent E. Ferrer Alicante and Madrid Spain - Until 1970 Vicente Ferrer was a Jesuit missionary associated with the Society of Jesus. In 1996, the Foundation was created in Spain to promote economic development in rural India by organizing small cooperatives to dig wells, form seed banks and irrigate small plots as well as building community hospitals and schools. Christian Aid, UK, was formed after World War II by British and Irish Church leaders to help European refugees. In the 1950’s Christian Aid began responding to emergencies in Africa and Asia and in the 1980’s Christian Aid received government funding. Miseror Mozartstrasse, Germany,

is affiliated with the Catholic Church in Germany. The organization has mandated to, fight the causes of hardship and misery as manifested chiefly in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America in the forms of hunger, disease, poverty and other forms of human suffering thus enabling the people affected to lead a life of human dignity and to promote justice, freedom, reconciliation and peace in the world. Oxfam, UK, is an affiliate of Oxfam International. Oxfam International is described as a confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. Oxfam UK is known for specializing in crisis aid such as clean drinking water and tents. Novib, Netherlands, is and will remain an independent organization, rooted in the Netherlands. Twelve independent Oxfams are collaborating, dedicating their efforts to the five basic rights of people throughout the world: the right to an honest income, to drinking water, to healthcare and education, to safety and to one’s own opinion, for women and minorities too. Dept for International Development (DFID), UK, is represented by both the Cabinet and the House of Commons, the 1997 White Pater on International Development describes the focus of DFIB as, “A commitment to the Millennium Development goals. Much of this involves direct poverty reduction work, through our development activities, and work with multilateral

institutions such as the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union.” Kindemothilfe, Germany,was founded in 1992 and encourages monthly sponsorship of a needy child in a third world country. The sponsorship of 60 Marks a month is transferred to the native churches and Christian organizations of third world countries and from there a welfare organization called the ‘child help in need’ coordinates the cash dispensing for meals, clothes, and medicine. Save the Children Fund, UK, was founded by two sisters at the beginning of the 20th century to assist starving children in Berlin and Vienna. Under the initial leadership of EglantyneJebb the ideals spread worldwide and inspired the present UN Convention on the rights of the child. Manos Unidas, Spain,is a Catholic development organization which fights against poverty, hunger, malnutrition, lack of education and underdevelopment as well as against their causes: injustice, unequal share of goods and opportunities between people and countries, ignorance, prejudice and lack of solidarity. The purpose of its work is to contribute to the full development of the countries of the South, to take an active role in the fight against famine and inequality and to support those countries in their process of liberation from poverty and dependency. Missio, Germany, is the German Catholic Bishops’ Agency for International Mission Work and has been known to campaign against sex tourism and child abuse. Population Service International, USA, is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that harnesses the vitality of the private sector to address the health problems of low-income and vulnerable populations in more than 60 developing countries.

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Foreign donations for Indian NGOs Christian Council. Incidentally, Joseph D’Souza who was AICC’s President during that year also heads an evangelical network, Operation Mobilization, in India. OM, again, is an AmeriPlan can TMO. It was founded by International, Georg Verwer and today is a UK, is a global ministry “committed to working in partnership child-centered with churches and other community Christian organizations for development the purpose of World misorganization sion.” The Southern Bapwith no religious tists fiercely believe in and political conversion. The US Inaffiliations, enabling ternational Religious families and Freedoms report (2003) conveys the communities official US policy in the poorest supporting evancountries to make gelization. US oflasting improvements ficials have continued to engage to the lives of their state officials children. on the implementation and reversal of anti-conversion laws.

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Aid dispensed by some international donor agencies was hardly meant to spur development. For example, USAID during the Cold War utilized its funds to keep the former Soviet Union at bay and to keep afloat, bloated, venal and corrupt regimes all over the world. Including Saddam’s. Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) reports of Indian Home ministry provide annual data of the foreign donations to Indian NGOs. According to these reports, Karnataka state has moved up from 6th Position in 2005-06 to 5th position in 2006-07. Its share increased from Rs 621 crores to Rs. 1077 crores. Bangalore district is in the top three positions in receiving the foreign contributions. Among the purposes for which money was donated by the donors or utilized by the recipient NGOS, the following items can also be seen. 1. Publication and distribution of religious literature 2. Religious Functions 3. Maintenance of priests/preachers/other religious functionaries 4. Construction/Repair/Maintenance of places of worship 5. Religious functions. 6. Religious schools / education of priests and preachers. All the major donor countries, USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, contributed towards the above mentioned purposes.

Brief profiles of the recipient NGOs Church of South India - Karnataka Southern Diocese

he Church in India is aimed at playing an important role in the field of education. Church of south India, Karnataka Southern Diocese runs several educational institutions. It claims to provide an opportunity to people to lead self-dependent and lead a respectful life through the education it is providing through its educational institution. The educational institutions were first started by the missionaries who came to India in the eighteenth century. Formerly the educational institutions of the churches were managed by the Management Committees / Diocesan Executive or Administrative Committees. Finding need to frame equal policy and rules for the management of all the educational institutions under the Diocese a society called “ CSI Karnataka Southern Diocese Education Society” was set up and registered under Registration Act 1960 on 6th May 1974. All the schools, colleges under the Diocese are now managed by the correspondents and Management Committees appointed by this Society and approved by the Diocesan Executive Committee.The technical and the vocational institutions are managed by the respective institution to which they are attached. Mission Work is being carried out by the Diocese through ministries. Educational institutions play a very important role in its aim towards: l PUC colleges - 3 l High Schools - 6 l Primary and Nursery Schools - 73 l Rural literacy centers managed by the Diocesan Women’s Fellowship - 6 l Technical Institution -1 l Vocational Institutions- 7 l Boarding homes and special homes- 13 l Day care centers- 10

l l

Hospitals- 3 Medical institutions-10

Child Fund International: Founded by a Presbyterian minister in 1938.But they say that CFI has not made evangelizing a part of work for more than 30 years. It was renamed as “Christian Children’s Fund”, revealing the religious identity. In 2009, In India, it was renamed to Child Fund India (CFI).

Campus Crusade for Christ International: Helps to build spiritual movements everywhere so everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus Christ. The sole basis of their beliefs is the Bible, God’s infallible written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it was written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks. The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel through-

out the world and to disciple men of every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to “Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.”

India Campus Crusade for Christ (ICCFC): ICCFC is based in Bangalore and is involved in campus ministry and plant churches by screening Jesus film. Students are en-couraged to share the gospel with their friends. They also work among the influential people and motivate them to influence others. They have summer camps in different places, especially for the students. KEA is based in Bangalore, Karnataka, and is involved in Evangelism, Church Planting, Child develop¬ment, Community development and Mission awareness in churches, research and films. Praise God for His grace to construct Ullalu Child Development Center (UCDC) for holistic child development. Pray for the forth coming KEA Christmas Carnival on 6th December 2009 in Bangalore.

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North Waziristan Operation Pak Army Facing a Tough Challenge

‘North Waziristan is a magnet for jihadists from across the world. Earlier their terrorism was directed internationally and hence tolerated. But now their full fury is frontally directed at Pakistan: the people, state, and military... This military operation will certainly not eliminate terrorism. But unless radical militants are contained using force, they will soon overrun Pakistan...’ • Brig (Retd) Gurmeet Kanwal

he Pakistan army launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Sharp and Cutting), its much delayed ground offensive against the Tehrike-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in North Waziristan, on June 15, 2014. Since then, the army claims to have killed 386 TTP and Uzbek terrorists, including the mastermind of the twin terrorist attacks on Karachi airport on June 9th and 10th, while 20 soldiers have lost their lives. Approximately 600,000 civilian inhabitants have had to leave their homes and join the swelling numbers of IDPs (internally

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displaced persons) in Pakistan. North Waziristan is the last bastion of antiPakistan terrorists who have killed over 50,000 civilians and army personnel in ten years. According to the Karachi Airport Security Force, 29 people died in the suicide attack on the airport, including all the ten terrorists, while 24 were injured. On the same day, in the latest manifestation of continuing sectarian violence, Sunni extremists killed 23 Shia pilgrims travelling by bus in Balochistan. Later, on June 24th, a PIA flight was fired upon while landing at Peshawar airport; one woman inside the aircraft suffered fatal gun-shot wounds. Earlier, on June

4th, two officers of the rank of Lt Col and three other personnel had been killed by the TTP in a suicide attack in Rawalpindi. These attacks are clearly indicative of the ability of Pakistan’s terrorist organisations to strike at will and underline the helplessness of the security forces in taking effective preventive action. Despite facing the grave danger of a possible collapse of the state, the Pakistan government’s counter-insurgency policy had until now lacked cohesion. The commencement of a peace dialogue with the TTP in February 2014, despite the abject failure of several such efforts in the past, allowed the terrorist organisation to re-

arm, recruit, train fresh fighters and plan new operations. In March 2014, the TTP offered a month-long ceasefire. The army honoured the ceasefire and refrained from undertaking active operations, but several TTP factions disregarded the diktat of the leadership and fought on. On April 16th, the TTP reneged on its ceasefire pledge and blamed the government for failing to make any new offers. In the face of mounting public and army pressure, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reluctantly agreed to approve military strikes. He was apprehensive that General Raheel Sharif, the COAS, may unilaterally decide to launch an all-out offensive. The army had been recommending to the government for quite some time that firm military action was necessary to deal with the menace of home grown terrorism. The PM is now backing the army fully and has said that he will not allow Pakistan to become a “sanctuary of terrorists” and that the military operation will continue till all the militants are eliminated. The deteriorating internal security environment has gradually morphed into Pakistan’s foremost national security threat. Karachi remains a tinderbox that is ready to explode. The Al Qaeda is quietly making inroads into Pakistani terrorist organisations like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Harkat-ulJihad Al-Islami (HuJI), Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has consolidated its position in North Waziristan and could have broken out of its stronghold into neighbouring areas. Fissiparous tendencies in Balochistan and the restive Gilgit-Baltistan Northern Areas are a perpetual security nightmare. Realisation about the gravity of the internal security situation has dawned on the Pakistan army as well. Two successive army chiefs have declared publicly that internal instability is the number one national security threat. However, unlike the Indian Army that has been embroiled in low

intensity conflict since the 1950s, the Pakistan army is relatively inexperienced in counter-insurgency operations. The then Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani had declared 2009 as ‘Military Training Year’ to re-orientate the army to internal security duties. Before becoming COAS, General Raheel Sharif had developed the training manuals for counter-insurgency. Over the last decade, the Pakistan army has deployed more than 150,000 soldiers in the Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and FATA areas. It has suffered over 15,700 casualties, including about 5,000 dead since 2008. The total casualties, including civilian, number almost 50,000 since 2001. Hurt by a series of Taliban success-

even further. Counter-insurgency operations against the TTP in South Waziristan drove most of the fighters to North Waziristan, but till now the army had been reluctant to extend its operations to this province. North Waziristan has rugged mountainous terrain that enables TTP militants to operate like guerrillas and launch hit-and-run raids against the security forces. When cornered, the militants find it easy to slip across the Durand Line and find safe sanctuaries in Khost and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan. A large number of militants are known to have escaped into neighbouring provinces in the month preceding the ground offensive.

es in “liberating” tribal areas and under pressure from the Americans to deliver in the “war on terror”, in the initial stages the Pakistan army employed massive firepower to stem the rot – as was visible on television screens worldwide when operations were launched to liberate the Swat Valley (Operation Rah-e-Rast, MayJun 2009) and South Waziristan (Operation Rah-e-Nijat, Oct-Nov 2009). Fighter aircraft, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery were freely used to destroy suspected terrorist hideouts, irrespective of civilian casualties. This heavy-handed, firepower-based approach without simultaneous infantry operations on the ground failed to dislodge the militants, but caused large-scale collateral damage and alienated the tribal population

Pervez Hoodbhoy, well-known physicist, said in an interview on July 3rd, “Pakistan’s biggest problem is that religious extremism and intolerance have penetrated deep into the bones of society. North Waziristan is a magnet for jihadists from across the world. Earlier their terrorism was directed internationally and hence tolerated. But now their full fury is frontally directed at Pakistan: the people, state, and military... This military operation will certainly not eliminate terrorism. But unless radical militants are contained using force, they will soon overrun Pakistan. Recent events in Iraq and Syria should open our eyes to that terrible possibility... Forced into a war that is not of its own choice, the Army is seeking a way out.Today the Pakistan Army is

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genuinely at war against a fanatical, religiously charged enemy. It should not be dismissed as “noorakushti”…I suspect that, like the Lal Masjid operation, Zarb-e-Azb will turn out to be a kind of watershed. It has seriously disturbed the relations between the army and its former allies, and will deepen the split within the army as well. The traditionally pro-military Jamaat-e-Islami is furiously condemning the military action and demanding talks instead.” Ahmed Rashid, author of “Taliban and Descent into Chaos”, has written: “Not only does North Waziristan house Pakistani and Afghan Taliban; it is also a training ground for al-Qaeda, which attracts Central Asians, Uighurs from China, Chechens from the Caucasus and a flow of militant Muslim converts from Europe.” Quite clearly, the Pakistan army is in for the long haul and will undoubtedly suffer a large number of casualties. Though the Army Chief has said that the present operation is aimed at eliminating “all terrorists and their

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sanctuaries” in North Waziristan, it is not yet clear whether strikes are being launched against the Haqqani network and two other militant groups that are based in North Waziristan. These groups have been primarily targeting the NATO/ ISAF forces and the Afghan National Army (ANA). Of these, the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group has hosted the Haqqani network and the TTP in North Waziristan and the Mullah Nazir group is in control of the Wana region of South Waziristan. These three groups are called the “good Taliban” by the Pakistan army and the ISI and are looked upon as “strategic assets” to influence events in Afghanistan after the NATO/ ISAF draw down has been completed. The Haqqani network has also been employed to target Indian assets in Afghanistan. What do these developments portend for India? Regional instability always has a negative impact on economic development and trade. Creeping Talibanisation and radical extremism are threatening Pakistan’s

sovereignty. If the Pakistan army fails to conclusively eliminate the scourge in the north-west, it will soon reach Punjab, which has been relatively free of major incidents of violence. After that, it will only be a matter of time before the terrorist organisations manage to push the extremists across the Radcliffe Line into India. It is in India’s interest for the Pakistan government to succeed in its fight against radical extremism. Political turmoil, internal instability, a floundering economy and weak institutions make for an explosive mix. Pakistan is not yet a failed state, but the situation that it is confronted with could rapidly degenerate into unfettered disaster. All institutions of the state must stand together for the nation to survive its gravest challenge. The Pakistan Army and the ISI must concentrate on fighting the enemy within, rather than frittering away energy and resources on destabilising neighbouring countries. (The author is Visiting Fellow, VIF)

An all-please budget But great challenges lie ahead

inance Minister Arun Jaitley has played an astute balancing game by presenting a budget that doesn’t “bite”. He has put more money into the pockets of the salaried class and avoided administering any bitter medicine that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hinted at while addressing Parliament. But one thing is clear: the government cannot afford to mollycoddle the electorate when actually the economy is not faring well. The minister is faced with the gigantic task of scaling down the huge subsidies on fertilisters, foodgrains and the natural gas supplied by the public sector companies which are incurring huge losses. Therefore, a realistic approach is absolutely essential, but may be the Finance Minister doesn’t want to be seen riding rough shod over the sensibilities of the people who had pinned high hopes on the new government. The budget has received warm welcome from all quarters. For one thing, the minister has raised the tax exemption limits of the salaried class as well as the senior citizens. He has announced tax exemptions on income, investments (PPF and insurance) and home loans. The education sector will receive a boost with the

The Finance Minister has presented the Union Budget which has been welcomed by all sections of society. He has performed a miracle, as it were, in a short time, and succeeded in instilling confidence among the common man as well as among the business community. The Sensex soared; the FFIs poured millions into the stock market and the salaried middle class rejoiced. But there are challenges ahead, inflation being one of them. One hopes Arun Jaitley, with active support from his colleagues and officials, will be able to solve them without any hitch.

decision to set up 5 IITs, 4 AIIMS, 12 government colleges and 2 agricultural colleges. The income tax exemption has been raised by Rs.50,000 for all tax payers below 80 years of age. An extra exemption of Rs.50,000 will be available for those investing in provident fund and insurance and tax exemption of Rs.50,000 has been announced on interest payments on home loans. All these will benefit those in the top income bracket to the tune of Rs.39,000. Well, all this is good news, but the challenging tasks lie ahead for the government. First, there is the stubborn inflation that has to be tackled. Price spiral is affecting the common

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man most. Vegetable prices are zooming and there is no telling whether the monsoon will be favourable. True there has been a revival of late, but unless it pours at a steady pace for a few weeks more, if not months, chances are that the prices will again escalate. Tomato prices have gone up by 20 per cent; so have onion prices which are up by 50 to 70 per cent. In order to check the price push, the government has announced a number of measures. These two items have been included in the list of essential commodities whose stocks should be limited by state government orders. But red-tapism at the state level is hampering its implementation. Maharashtra being one of the main producers of onion, it has to take drastic steps immediately to prevent hoarding. But the government has not so far issued any order to this effect. Onions, potatoes and tomato are the three most widely consumed commodities. Of these, prices of potatoes are showing a somewhat steady trend. There was an announcement that inflation is dipping, but the common man is yet to see whether this is benefiting him at all. Two types of data are put out: Wholesale price index and consumer (retail) price index. Of these, the latter is the one that affects the consumer most and it is always higher than the wholesale prices. Besides, from the common man’s point of view, the data released is of not of much relevance, because it is always released a month late whereas for the consumer the rate prevailing now is more important. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has urged the state governments to tackle “hoarding, cartelization and artificial storages.” But will it work? That is the question uppermost in the minds of consumers. Let us hope the NDA government will succeed in tackling all these problems and stimulate growth to a remarkable level. The Economic Survey prepared by the Finance Ministry and presented to Parliament on the eve of the Union Budget has called for addressing the

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urgent need for reducing subsidies and cutting down on government expenditure. “Apart from distorting production, subsidies … encourage wastage of scarce resources,” it said. It has called for a comprehensive reform plan for subsidies with clear long-term objectives. It has

also called for the introduction of the goods and service tax (GST) and a new fiscal policy scenario including a new “Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act”. This, according to the Survey, should take into account business cycles and impose penalties that are strong enough to

YOUR SAVING UNDER THE NEW PROVISIONS OF THE UNION BUDGET Income Up to 2.2 lakh 2.5 lakh 3 lakh 5 lakh 10 lakh 50 lakh 1 crore 1.5 crore 2 crore 5 crore that it cannot be ignored. According to the Survey, the emphasis of policy to revive growth momentum would have to remain on fiscal consolidation and removal of structural restraints. The state of gov-

Old tax liability -3,090 8,240 28,840 1,33,900 13,69,900 29,14,900 49,05,890 66.05,390 168,02,390

New tax liability -Nil 3,090 23,690 1,28,750 13,64,750 29,09,750 49,00,225 65,99,725 167,96,725

ernment finances has been a concern and the Narendra Modi government is saddled with huge unpaid bills. As stated earlier, the bloated subsidies on food, fertiliser and fuel pose a huge challenge for the new govern-

Gain -3,090 5,150 5,150 5,150 5,150 5,150 5,665 5,665 5,665

ment and the government must initiate a new strategy to tackle this problem. Reducing subsidies at one go is impossible; it should be done slowly. Indications are that the Finance Ministry is moving in that direction.

Exposure of systemic failure by Justice Katju J ustice Markandey Katju is chairman of the Press Council of India. He was the chief justice of Madras High Court before becoming a Supreme Court judge. The following is a shocking exposure by him showing how the system actually works, whatever it is in theory. “There was an additional judge of the Madras High Court against whom there were several allegations of corruption. He had been directly appointed as a district judge in Tamil Nadu, and during his career as district judge there were as many as eight adverse entries against him recorded by various portfolio judges of the Madras High Court. But one acting chief justice of Madras High Court by a single stroke of his pen deleted all those adverse entries, and consequently he became an additional judge of the high court, and

he was in that post when I came as chief justice of Madras high court in November 2004. That judge had the solid support of a very important political leader of Tamil Nadu. I was told that this was because while a district judge he had granted bail to that political leader. Since I was getting many reports about his corruption, I requested the Chief Justice of India, Justice RC Lahoti, to get a secret IB inquiry made about him. The CJI Lahoti verified the allegations through IB and got them confirmed. Since the two-year term as additional judge of that person was coming to an end, I assumed he would be discontinued as a judge of the high court in view of the IB report. However, what actually happened was that he got another one year’s appoint-

ment as an additional judge. I later learned how this happened. The Supreme Court collegium recommended discontinuation of the Judge in view of the adverse IB report and this recommendation was sent to the central government. The UPA government was at the Centre at that time. The party in Tamil Nadu which was backing this corrupt judge was an ally of UPA. On coming to know of the recommendation of the threejudge Supreme Court collegium they strongly objected to it. Unable to bear the pressure the Congress in turn communicated the impending crises to JusticLahoti. On hearing this, Justice Lahoti gave another term of one year as additional judge to that corrupt judge. The additional judge was later given another term as additional judge by the new CJI Justice Sabharwal, and then confirmed as a permanent judge by the next CJI Justice KG Balakrishnan, but transferred to another high court.’’

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‘Dumbing’ Down the News Change of perspective of modern media

ensationalizing the new is one thing, and dumbing the new is completely other. Unfortunately, it seems like the Indian media is basking in the abundance of both. We sensationalize news, and when the issue demands some intelligent introspection, we simply dumb it down, on the pretext that people look for these types of news items. Sevanti Ninan, a media critic, author and editor of the media watch website thehoot.org, has some interesting perspectives about the way news is dumbed down in our mainstream media. This was evident in the way TV channels ‘analyzed’ the railway budget and the main budget recently, she said. Maybe media channels believe that taking out the complicated aspects out of a news item will make more people understand the subject. Maybe they feel that the common man on the street is not interested in the nitty-gritties of a budget. We are only interested in knowing what is the income tax slab limit or how much more television sets will cost this time around. The larger implication of a budget on the economy of a country is best left to the experts, and experts do not bring TRPs. The dumbing down of news in the media also happens because of lack of subject matter experts in the discussion panels. These alleged discussions are primarily hogged by well-known anchors interested mainly in creating controversies (read increased TRPs). Although real subject matter experts are sometimes given the invitation, they are hardly allowed to speak at length. ‘People are not interested in these things,’ is the general defense of news channels.

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In this modern age of TV channels and other media, important news that touch the common man are ignored or what we might say, “dumbed”. The death of the pet dog of an actress and her tearful face are more important than the poor who beg on the street for a loaf of bread. There is a fundamental distortion of perception of news these days in the media. What is news for media is not of so much importance to the common man. In majority of news items that appear in mainstream media, the tendency is to oversimplify things and sensationalise the news. So, when the railway budget was presented, the media discusses about toilets, automatic doors and bullet trains, says Sevanti Ninan. Says Ninan, “TV reporters, too, are math-resistant. Monday saw channels send their people hunting around

trying to find out how much the poor pay for their food. A reporter of India News badgered a poor woman into trailing him with her three children to the nearest grocery shop to buy her day’s rations on a budget of Rs.47. Where was the news editor who could have said that he had got his facts all wrong? The cooking oil did not fit into her budget, he announced triumphantly, holding up a small bottle. And sabzi? There is no money left for sabzi! If she has three children, her budget for the day should have been Rs.188 for the four of them, at a per capita figure of Rs.47 per day. And would others like her be buying their rice and dal in the open market or with a ration card? But the story got aired.” It’s not only the analysis of news, but the dumbing down works in the selection of newsworthy items too. A local channel in Karnataka recently aired a news item about the death of an actress’s dog for more than three hours in a day. The said actress’s tearful face was flashed as if the channel expected us to join her in this time of national distress. Thankfully, better sense prevailed in the end and the channel stopped short of setting up a panel to discuss the ill-effects of pet deaths on celebrity psyche. It is generally considered that the Indian public is getting smarter with every generation. Movies do not spoon feed content even to the children and you are expected to have some sort of intelligence while reading a story of watching a sport. But when it comes to news, slow-wittedness still sells, or that’s what our media barons believe. News Source: http://www.livemint. com/Opinion/n2mIQ464OYjsSOthTqOsiO/ Dumbing-down-at-budget-time.html

Yoga is Gaining Popularity in China

oga is rapidly gaining following in China. Almost every major city has several Yoga centres. Recently (Saturday, 19th July 2014), about 5000 Chinese participated in a first ever Yoga festival of four days in Beijing. AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) facilitated participation of teachers from the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga and one expert from the Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy for conducting workshops as part of the four-day Beijing festival. Indian Ambassador Ashok Kantha launched the yoga festival. The topics covered in the Yoga festival included ‘asana’, ‘pranyama’, and ‘dhyana’. In the past, when Yoga Guru B.K.S.Iyengar visited Guangzhou, the organisers had to rent out a stadium to accommodate more than 1,300 students who were keen to listen to him. There are several authentic Yoga training centres across China and they are striving to align the training along with the traditional Ashtanga Yoga of ancient India. For example, the Yogi Yoga, one of the bigger training centres, holds classes in 57 cities and has trained more than 15000 Chinese as Yoga teachers. The Yogi Yoga is founded by Ms. Yin Yan with her husband Manmohan Singh Bhandari, a Yoga teacher from Rishikesh, India. While the postural aspects of Yoga (Asana) is most popular across the world as Yoga, Pranayama (breathing exercises) is also practised by many. But still, many trainers are not equipped to teach higher aspects of Yoga,

vizpratyahara, dhyana, dharana, and samadhi. Interestingly, today by and large, Asana part of Yoga is approached without even familiarizing the prerequisites of yama, and niyama of Yoga. “Yoga is not just a physical exercise, so what we are trying to do is give Chinese an authentic learning experience,” said Ms. Yin, who has introduced dhyana in her training with the help of Indian Yoga teacher, Mr. Bhandari. The Indian government is planning to open up a first-ever yoga resource centre in China. The Health Ministry’s Department of Ayush has opened a resource centre at the Indian Embassy in Beijing, which will liaise with Chinese yoga centres such as Yogi Yoga, to promote true tradition of Ashtanga Yoga in China.

BJP president Amit Shah Consults RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat

he newly-appointed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, met RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat recently (Friday, 19th July 2014). The meeting lasted one and half hours, BJP sources said. RSS leader Bhaiyyaji Joshi was also present at the meeting. Shah refused to speak to the reporters. As usual, there was no official communi-

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cation from RSS about the meeting. But, according to the media reports, claiming authentic sources, Amit Shah was seeking the blessings of the Sarasanghchalak. The RSS chief advised him to opt for fresh Assembly polls in Delhi rather than attempting to form a government in Delhi despite being short of majority in the Assembly. It is learnt that the expectation from BJP government and the party is to work on promises made to the people during the Lok Sabha poll campaign. Shah was also told not to expect help from the RSS in the coming Assembly elections in five states, including Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. The RSS supported the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls because the country was facing a difficult situation and needed a stable Central government with trong leadership. BJP sources said the RSS had chipped in with its resources down to the booth level to ensure a massive victory for the party in the general election. According to sources, Bhagwat advised Shah to strengthen the BJP and prepare workers for the coming polls instead of banking on RSS cadres. The move is being seen in BJP circles as the RSS is asserting its authority over the party chief and, through him, on Modi. The speculative reports in the media about the meeting are in alignment with the image of the RSS as a socially-oriented organisation and as a guide and philosopher to the BJP. The short-term thinking of BJP and the long-term outlook of RSS are also substantiated in the media reports.

President Rejects Mercy Petitions

ercy petitions of six death row convicts have been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee. The convicts are Surendra Koli, found guilty in the sensational Nithari serial rapes and killing, sisters Renukabai and Seema (Maharashtra), RajendraPralhadrao Wasnik (Maharashtra), Jagdish (Madhya Pradesh) and Holiram Bordoloi (Assam) following recommendations of the Home Ministry. 42-year-old Koli, who brutally killed and later axed children in Nithari locality of Noida in Uttar Pradesh,

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was awarded death sentence by a lower court which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court in February 2011. Koli was found guilty of serial rapes and murders between 2005 and 2006 at his employer businessmanMoninder Singh Pandherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house in Nithari. Remains of several missing children were found near the house. While 16 cases were filed against Koli, he has been awarded death sentence in four of them so far and others are still under trial. Sisters Renukabai and Seema along with their mother and another accomplice KiranShinde kidnapped 13 children between 1990 and 1996 and killed nine of them. However, the prosecution could prove only five murders. The two sisters were given death sentence. The case against the mother had to be abated as she died in 1997 while Shinde turned an approver in the case. The two sisters used to kidnap children from localities of poor people in the areas of their operation and force them to commit thefts, lift goods and snatch chains.

Congress and National Conference End Electoral Alliance

ational Conference in Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian National Congress have ended their alliance ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in

the state. The decision to end the alliance was announced by leaders of both parties independently on Sunday, 21st July 2012. Congress and NC entered into alliance in 2008 after hung Assembly verdict. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad made the announcement saying that the party wanted to emerge as the single largest party in the state and complete pending projects. AICC general secretary AmbikaSoni also confirmed the decision and said that Congress will contest on the 87 state Assembly seats alone. President of National Conference, Omar Abdullah, took to Twitter and said that the decision to not have any pre-poll alliance was conveyed to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi around 10 days back.

School Fails to Protect Girl Child in Bangalore

angalore city is shaken by a rape of a 6-year old girl in her school. Police have arrested a skating instructor Mustafa of the school VIBGYOR, an elite school in Bangalore. Mustafa, alias Munna is aged about 30 to 32 years old and is from Bihar and has been in Bangalore for 20 years. Police have also seized a laptop and a mobile with videos and images of schoolchildren being raped.

According to reports, a non-teaching attendant Susan locked the child in a dark room and in the dark room at least two persons commited the crime against the child. Although the teaching staff came to know about the incident and provided first aid to the child, the management tried to hush up the incident to protect the reputation of the institute, and to avoid controversy and possibly to protect the culprits. The Child developed fever after returning from home and was suffering from pain. Parents of the child could understand the reasons for the trauma of the child when they sought medical help. During this period, they received an anonymous call enquiring the reason for the childs absence. When the mother of the child visited the school, she realised that the call was from an unofficial, unauthorised person. Agitated parents, after confirmation of the rape, visited the school and sought explanations from the management. They were not even allowed inside the school premises and the school management was not responsive. There were attempts by management to dismiss the incident, blame the child, and hide behind the school regulations. When the anger of the parents grew, the public support swelled, and the government agencies intervened, the management relented to co-operate .

Rustom Kerawalla, trustee of VIBGYOR, is a graduate of electrical and electronics engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology. He is a successful hotelier from Mumbai and is known for converting any property into a profitable business. Attracted by commercialisation of education, he started a series of educational institutions across the country. Bangalore alone has several branches of VIBGYOR. Interestingly, the VIBGYOR is an unaided minority institution and refuses to abide by RTE Act. According to reports, the school charges Rs 3 lakhs for 4th standard. It has outsourced some of its sports and

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physical activities to an external agency in which management members have financial stakes. Several social organisations such as ABVP are participating actively in the protests led by parents of the school and the protests are attracting sympathy of lakhs of citizens in Bangalore and across major cities of India.

Atrocities on non-Muslims in Caliphate

hristians in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, are facing an ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay a tax or abandon everything and leave. If they don’t, they could be killed. The ultimatum was issued by the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS). The Sunni rebel group issued the orders in a letter after Friday prayers. The order was issued after Christian leaders failed to attend a meeting called by the group. In response, the group says in the letter that Christians must either convert to Islam, pay a tax on non-Muslims known as Jazia, or give up their possessions and leave the city. Failure to do so would result in a death penalty, “as a last resort”. Mosul’s Christian population stood at roughly 3,000 before ISIS took over. As many as one-third of the city’s residents fled as ISIS invaded. The options of converting, paying tax, and abandoning to avoid death have specific interpretations in practice. Converting to Islam exposes families to demands from Muslim community to give their daughters to

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Muslim boys as a demonstration to their commitment to Islam. Under pressure from the militants and Muslim society, the converted families would be forced to marry off their daughters against the wishes of the parents and their girl child. The second option of paying Jazia is not easy. The amounts demanded would be huge and in most cases it would be unaffordable for the families. Secondly, the reprieve from paying Jazia would be shortlived and even during this short period, the families would be susceptible to additional harassment. The third option of abandoning everything and leaving is not to be interpreted materialistically. On many occasions, only men are allowed to leave. In other words, men are forced to leave behind not just money and property but the women folk too. The fourth option of death is also not easy to select. When the order of death is issued, male members of the family are killed, women members are either dishonored or abducted to slavery or killed thereafter.

Israeli – Hamas conflict

onflict between Israeli forces and Hamas armed group is continuing in Gaza from early July. More than 81,000 displaced people who are seeking refuge in 61 shelters run by the United Nations. The rocket launches on Israeli cities sustained by Hamas

has been responded by Israel with air strikes on Palestianian territory. Later, the Israeli forces initiated ground offensive with specific objective. Hamas have built tunnels that stretched from Egypt into Gaza. Many of these tunnels have pen-

etrated into Israel. There are tunnels, extended bunkers, weapons storage facilities, in urban areas as well as rural areas. The objective of Israeli attack is to destroy tunnel network. Hamas have smuggled raw materials used for building rockets and other weapons. Israel is not ruling out the toppling of Hamas regime as an objective of the assault. Hamas are politically isolated as Egypt, Syria and Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia are not supporting Hamas. Arab countries are not supporting the militants, crippling them financially. Israeli attack has caused immense damage to Hamas infrastructure. Although, rocket attacks are continuing, the intensity and the numbers are declining. An Israeli airstrike on the home of senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haiya killed his son, daughter-in-law and two children. Israel has opened a field hospital to treat wounded Palestinians.

Child abuse in UK

The aim of the operation was to protect children who were victims of, or might be at risk of, sexual exploitation. “A child is victimised not only when they are abused and an image is taken. They are re-victimised every time that image is viewed by someone. We want those offenders to know that the internet is not a safe, anonymous space for accessing indecent images, that they leave a digital footprint, and that law enforcement will find it,” according to NCA Deputy Director General Phil Gormley. Among few specific details disclosed by the NCA, it’s been revealed that some of the arrested suspects had viewed images of child abuse “for decades,” while others had even travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam to engage in sexual activity with minors. The UK children’s charities have welcomed the operation, saying that the police action sends a “strong message” to child abusers that they will be traced and prosecuted. The most recent data from the NSPCC shows that one in 20 children have been victims of sexual abuse, and that in 2012-13, there were 18,915 incidents of sexual crimes against children recorded in England and Wales. (Based on inputs from National Crime Agency (NCA) dated 16th July 2014)

Quest for ‘Siddhantic’ Watch

ritish police have arrested 660 people in a massive six-month operation against accessing child abuse images online. The operation saw 45 police forces involved, 833 properties searched and nearly 10,000 computer hard drives examined. Teachers, doctors and social care workers were among those arrested, on charges ranging from possessing indecent images of children to serious sexual assault. Of those arrested, 39 had been convicted of sexual offences previously, but most had not attracted attention from the police.

bu Bakr al-Baghdadi, new the Caliph of Islamic State, wears modest $560 “Islamic watch” from Al-Fajr, a Saudi Arabia-based watchmaker. This was revealed during Friday sermon calling on believers to wage “jihad” against God’s enemies in a rare appearance. The de luxe stainless steel WA-10Swatch – the preferred choice of “true Muslims, can be programmed with the correct prayer times for hundreds of cities around the world. The watch can be set to ring before each “azan,” or call to prayer, wherever the wearer happens to be. Five prayer times of the day are based on the movement of the sun, so they can vary in different places within the same city. In addition to the prayer alarms, the Swiss-made watch has a built-in compass to indicate the direction of Mecca, Islam’s holiest site, so believers will know what direction to pray. The bilingual watch displays in English and Arabic and allows you to choose either the Gregorian or

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Hijra calendar, which is “based on the astronomical moon sighting at Mecca The watch maker has 30 branches, 11 in Arab countries and many in EU countries. None of them in Iraq. Muslims pray five times a day, and prayer times are based on the movement of the sun, so they can vary in different places within the same city. The deluxe model also has a Quran bookmark feature that enables you to record the last Sura and Verse number so you can pick up where you left off later. Hindus were the first civilization who had mastered the time keeping. Hindu Panchanga includes advanced calculations and matured calendars. Hindus are following the calendars based on Suryasiddhanta even today. But, why no one has created a watch similar to the above one for Hindus? India has emerged as one of the software talents in the world? What are the Indian engineers doing? Are they incapable of creating such a watch? (inputs from media.syndicate)

It gives legal recognition to the performance of an exorcism, and was a cause for joy – according to the head of the association. Although the membership of this association is restricted and exclusive, by 2000 there were over two hundred members. A priest must have permission of his bishop to join and they meet bi-annually in Rome. The association sends out a quarterly newsletter where members can tell of particularly difficult or interesting cases. More than many of his predecessors, Pope Francis likes to encourage the personification of Satan and speaks frequently about the Devil’s work. Last year he was captured in astonishing footage placing his hands on the head of a boy in a wheelchair, reciting an intense prayer until the boy slumped down exhaling sharply. In India, the practice of Exorcism is expected to support proselytization, increase blind faith among masses, and affect social harmony among Indian communities.

Exorcism Gets Pope’s Consent

xorcists now have the official recognition from the pope. Pope Francis has provided support to the work of exorcists in the Catholic Church. A group of clergy who claim to save people from demons have been officially recognised under canon law. The International Association of Exorcists is a group of 250 priests who fight against the evil forces in 30 countries. They now have their statutes approved by the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy. International Association of Exorcists is a Roman Catholic organization that was founded in 1990 by six priests including the world-famous exorcist of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth and Father Jeremy Davies.

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Pallavi Purkayastha’s Murderer Convicted sessions court has convicted Sajjad Mogul, a security guard in the murder of 25-year-old lawyer PallaviPurkayastha after a failed rape attempt in her flat at suburban Wadala in Mumbai in August, 2012. Mogul – a native of Jammu and Kashmir had an eye on Pallavi. On 7th July the court announced life sentence to the 22 year old Sajjad Mogul. Pallavi was also serving as an advisor to filmmaker Farhan Akhtar’s firm Excel Entertainment. She was a national level swimmer. She was murdered in the early hours of August 9, 2012. Mogul was working as a watchman at the ‘Himalayan Heights’ building. The court found him guilty of murder, molestation and criminal trespass. Moghul had tripped her flat’s electricity meter deliberately. When she later called an electrician, he

accompanied the electrician to Pallavi’s residence and stealthily took the house keys. Later he entered her house using the keys and tried to force himself on her. When she resisted, Mogul stabbed her to death before fleeing. He was apprehended before he could escape to his home state. Mogul had refuted the allegations and his lawyer Wahab Khan had argued that it was AvikSengupta, friend of Pahlavi, as the killer. Pallavi’s parents were happy that Mogul was convicted but were disappointed by the life sentence. They had demanded death sentence to the Mogul.

Solution for woman safety

egradation of social values is the cause for rising rape and molestation cases in the country. Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti was analyzing the rising trend of increased reports of violence against women. She believes that the prob-

lem can be overcome through social pressure and compulsions. Ms. Bharati was advocating promotion of Indian social heritage to help overcome them. Ms Uma Bharati expressed these views on 21st July 2014 while releasing two books at Bundelkhand University at Jhansi. The Union Minister said on the pretext of attacking “varnvyavastha” (system of four fold Varna), some people have attacked our religious literature which is not in national interest.

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