Green Views

Why is India protecting the homegrown terrorists

2011-01-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

: Syama Prasad Mookerjee Founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh

Bharat has been stonewalling since 2007. Bharat is trying to clam up on the Indian terrorist who blew up 42 Pakistanis aboard the Samjhota Express.It is now very clear that the RSS was behind the bombing with clear links to the BJP and the Bharati Army. The bombing of innocent civilians by Hindu terrorists is not an isolated incident.

Mr. Jatin Chatterjee (Aseemanand), is part of the Hindu network as defined by the RSS-affiliated Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (VKP) in Gujarat. Mr. Chatterjee has confessed in front of an Indian magistrate that Hindutva terrorists were involved in the Samjhauta blast and the 2007 bombing in Ajmer Sharif in which three people died. Mr. Chatterjee has also confessed to the 2008 Malegaon bombings that killed 37 people and the Hyderabad Mecca Masjid bombing in May 2007.

The RSS is a radical organization that murdered Mohandas Gandhi and has planted bombs at Ajmer Sharif, Malegaon and Mecca Masjid. Karkore was investigating the links of Colonel Prohit to the Bharati Army when he was killed during the siege of Mumbai.

Bharat is stonewalling on Samjhota Express and has been trying to hush up the affair for years. It then acts holier than thou and pontificates to Pakistan on terror.

Islamabad has to take a tough stand on the murderers of the innocent civilians who were aboard the Samjhota Express. The kith and kin of the 42 Pakistanis were not carrots and radish vegetables. They were human beings and they demand their the terrorist be brought to justice.

Vice President Biden should be taken to a memorial that commemorates the victims of Samjhota Express and the victims of the 30,000 Pakistanis who have died because of this senseless war in Afghanistan.

Bharat is claiming that it is "premature" to share the information. Why is it premature? Why can't Bharat be open and honest about it? Does it have something to hide?

It is pedagogical to note that initially Bharat has blamed Pakistan for the train bombing. Irrietable evidence now exists, proving that the RSS and by association the BJP is responsible for the bombing in Panipat in 2007. the bombing killed 68 innocent civilians, fort two of which were Pakistani.

'At this stage we cannot share the probe details as it is too premature. The investigation is still on and is at a preliminary stage. We will take an appropriate decision when the investigations are concluded,' an Indian Home Ministry official has confided in IANS (a Bharati news agency) about the message to the external affairs ministry.

Pakistan has rightly insisted on getting the information on Mr. Jatin Chatterjee's (aka Aseemanand) confession, and the RSS link to the explosion which led to the murder of the Pakistanis. This week Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned India's acting Deputy High Commissioner G.V. Srinivas and demanded that Delhi provide information 'at the earliest' on the progress of the investigation into the terror bombing.

Bharati investigators had earlier blamed the terror acts on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayaba and the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HuJI). Scores of innocent Indian Muslim youth were arrested and brutally tortured by the Bharati establishment. To make things worse, the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabah rioted in Malegaon, Ajmer and Panipat, beat up Mulim youth, set Muslim businesses on fire, and looted the homes of Muslims.

Here is an interesting video clip which shows the deep embarrassment of Bharat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wctjgxEDM-E&feature=player_embedded

If Bharat does not cooperate in the RSS and Hindu Mahasabah investigations, Pakistan should not provide any information to Bharat in the ongoing investigation on the Mumbai culprits.

The silence from Washington is deafening.

Samjhota Exp: Pakistan demands action on Indian Terrorists (rupeenews.net)

Indian RSS terrorists should be handed over to Pakistan (rupeenews.net)

RSS terrorists should be extradited to Pakistan (rupeenews.net)

Bharati bluster in Kabul (rupeenews.net)

Karzai rebuffs India under 'Doctrine of Necessity' (rupeenews.net)

When will Delhi hand over RSS terrorists to Pakistan? (pakistanakhbar.com)

Indians don't understand Darri or Afghans (timesofislamabad.com)

You: RSS chief confesses to Samjhota, other bombings (nation.com.pk)

The reality that is India (timesofislamabad.com)

You: Islamabad asks Delhi not to squander opportunity (nation.com.pk)

Delhi cannot understand an Eviction Notice (pakpunch.com)

Darri and Pushto is alien to Indians (newpakistantimes.com)

Karzai rebuffs India - again (pakistanakhbar.com)

The last Indian in Afghanistan (pakistanakhbar.com)

India's packed Bags (newpakistantimes.com)

Hosting the India flag in Srinagar no acceptable (kashmirpunch.com)

Kashmir and Hyderabad still on UN dispute list (kashmirpunch.com)

Bharat's broken promies (kashmirpunch.com)

Scuttling Bharat's UNSC bid (kashmirpunch.com)

1971: Why the surrender? (kashmirpunch.com)

Stakes in India-Pakistan Dispute: China's Kashmir policy (azadkashmirtimes.com)

China' growing influence in Turkey and Pakistan (azadkashmirtimes.com)

Most India Pakistan disputes still on UN list (azadkashmirtimes.com)

1971: Why the surrender? (azadkashmirtimes.com)

Hindutva terror and the Indian Army (indianmilitarynews.wordpress.com)

Harnessing the Himalayan bounties

2010-12-25T04:05:00.000-05:00

: Image via Wikipedia

Pakistan is at the vortex of three towering and magnificent mountain ranges-- the Grand Himalayas, the majestic Karakorum and the ruthless and bloody Hidukush. This confluence of the highest mountains in the world "creates space for shared economic development and security and stability in the adjacent regions."

"Dams being built in the Himalayan region can produce energy, sustain agriculture, conserve water, promote fisheries, and sustain communities": Ambassador Masood Khan speaking at a seminar titled "Stability and Development of Himalayan Areas" at Southwestern University of Political Science and Law.

The Indus brings water, and silt which is instrumental in crop growth. The Glaciers also bring floods and misery to the people. The Indus joins Pakistan and China in friendship and divides Pakistan ad Bharat in perpetual Hydro Wars.

The Himalyas have been the fountainhead, and the lifeblood of the people of the Indus. World experts gather together periodically to discover the potential and unmask the mysteries. "Ms. Sujata Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Nepal was the Chief Guest on the occasion. Zhang Guolin Secretary General of CPC, Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Professor Li Xiguang, Director Chinese Academy of World Agendas were also present."

Ambassador Masood Khan said that we can use the abundant resources of Himalayas to reduce poverty, adding it is also our collective responsibility to preserve the biodiversity, ethnic richness, and cultural heritage of the Himalayas.

Pakistan has welcomed China's investment in hydropower sector, Khan said adding "with the support of Chinese Government's concessional credit lines as well as credit insurance, we have been able to attract top Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan's hydel sector".

The major Chinese companies, which include CWE, Gezhouba, DEC have been working on small and large projects. Our collaboration on Kohala and Neelam-Jhelum projects has been successful. Now, we are looking at even bigger projects like Bunji, Diamar-Bhasha, and Dasu, said Ambassador Khan.

He said that the "Abode of Snow", as the Himalayas are literally called, are the most glaciated region outside the North and South Poles. The glaciers and waters of the Himalayas are a source of life, livelihoods, and sustenance in our region. Hydro World.

The Himalayas present mountains of opportunities to overcome the loads of issues that are presented to the South Asians. The Himalayas have been the life line for the people of the Indus for thousands of years. Pakistanis five thousand years ago were drinking the water from the Himalayas, using the glacier water for trade, and harnessing the energy in terms of small "pan chakkis" or water dams. Bharat at the peak of the Indus valley was jungle and and Ganges Valley did not have a civilization. That came later--centuries later.

"At least 1.3 billion people are directly and half of humanity is indirectly dependent on them. Such is the importance of the Himalayas

which is the backbone of multiple adjoining regions," Ambassador Khan observed.

He pointed out that 14 of the highest peaks in the world are located

in these diverse mountain ranges spreading from the Karakorum all the way to the Tibetan Plateau. They inspire people and lift their spirits. For many the Himalayas have sacred and religious value.

The Himalayas, he said are truly a global heritage, as they have been over the centuries overseeing the interchange of civilizations from the Indus Valley to the Tibetan Plateau to the Brahmaputra Basin.

"The Himalayas Mountains do not divide but unite South Asia, China and South East Asia. The 2,400-km long arc of the Himalayas thus constitutes a "trans-border", not a border".

The Indus and Sutlej rivers, for instance, originate from the Himalayas, but run through the lands of Pakistan. Similarly, the Mahakali, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra start from the Himalayas, pass through South Asian lands and flow into the oceans and seas.

The Himalayas join at least six countries "Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, and Bhutan" and many regions as common eco-systems with shared geography and topography, he added.

It is therefore our collective responsibility to preserve biodiversity, ethnic richness, and cultural heritage of the Himalayas, he said, adding we can use the abundant resources of the Himalayas to reduce poverty. Hydro World.

Kashmir Life reports that "Pakistan had earlier raised objections over the 240 MW Uri-II project being constructed on Jhelum River in Jammu and Kashmir and the 44 MW Chutak plant being built on Suru, a tributary of Indus River in Kargil district. This was, perhaps for the first time that Pakistan has accepted the designs of power projects at the level of Permanent Indus Commission. Earlier, it took a ministerial meeting to make Pakistan agree to Salal Power Project.".

Through subterfuge and lies, Bharat has been able to get control of water that flows down through Kashmir. While Bharat's Aqua wars continue unabated, Pakistan has to deal with the new realities. Internal consensus and an army of engineers is needed to overcome some of the impediments faced by the nation.

It can also become the most visible and the massive project for environmental protection. We must work together to reduce the impact of climate change on this precious network of ecosystems, Khan noted.

Recently, Ambassador Khan said, Premier Wen Jiabao paid a successful visit to Pakistan.

During the visit, the two sides affirmed that Pakistan-China relations have gone beyond bilateral dimensions and acquired broader regional and international ramifications.

We also said that friendship between Pakistan and China serve the fundamental interests of the two countries and the peoples, and contribute to peace, stability and development in the region and beyond.

Pakistan and China would explore the feasibility of establishing joint programmes on environmental studies, in particular research and exchange of information on shared ecosystems.

"We have decided to set up an Energy Cooperation Mechanism to push forward cooperation in conventional, renewable, and civil nuclear energy" he observed.

South Asia and China are water stressed regions. It is important for us to develop a regional approach on waters, glacier melting, water conservation and watershed management.

We also need to use the Himalayas and the related mountain chains for enhancing connectivity through more road and rail links.

"If centuries ago, Fa Xian and Xuan Zang could cross mountains, we can do so much more easily by using modern technology for the good of humanity" Khan stressed. Hydro World.

Hydro world reports that the water resources are a rich means of hydroelectric energy and described the launching of Institute of Himalyas Studies in Chongqing city.

He expressed the confidence that the Institute of the Himalayas will help us realize this dream by means of precise and well targeted research and deeper understanding of the Himalayan region.

"I am sure the Institute, under the guidance of its leadership and in the supportive environment of Chongqing, will conduct very valuable studies on Himalayan glaciers, judicious use of water resources, climate change, and flora and fauna. But, most importantly, the Institute can emerge as a vehicle for dialogue on the Himalayas to promote stability, security and stability in the region" he said.

China, he said is an active observer of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The Himalayas can become a catalyst for even closer relations between the two regions. Hydro World.

The Indus Water Treaty is a colossal bone of contention between the two South Asian giants. Prime Minister Syed Jammat has finally fired Ali Shah. He had been Indus Water Treaty Commissioner for more than a decade. According to news reports he was unceremoniously removed by Islamabad last week.

Kashmir Life reports that "The development came at a juncture when Pakistan had moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the 330 MW Kishanganga project coming up in Bandipora district in scenic Gurez Valley. Pakistan’s objections are that diversion of waters from Kishanganga rivulet (also called Neelam) would leave almost a 100 km stretch of Neelam Valley across the LoC barren. Pakistani sources say, he was replaced because of “his persistent differences with Assistant Advisor to Prime Minister on Water, Kamal Majidullah on some sensitive issues.".

Commissioner Shah had been the target of intense criticism and was much despised by nationalists who claimed that mr. Shah had not properly represented Pakistan's case in front of the Bharatis. Commissioner Shah was replaced by Sheraz Memon, an official of Sindh Irrigation Department.

The Himalayan Indus still offers opportunity to the people of South Asia. It is up to the people of South Asia who need to harness it for the collective good of the people of the region.

Sources: The Tsinghua International Center for Communication Studies, the Chinese Academy of World Agendas, and Southwest University of Political Science and Law on the inauguration of the Institute of the Himalayas Studies Published by HT Syndication with permission from Right Vision News. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com. Pakistan: Himalyas water resources rich of hydroelectric power generation: Pak envoy. Right Vision News, December 30, 2010

China' growing influence in Turkey and Pakistan (azadkashmirtimes.com)

Bharat's broken promies (kashmirpunch.com)

China: 'Pakistan is our Israel' (rupeenews.com)

The destroyer of roads - US: The re-builder China (newpakistantimes.com)

Bharat's promises are always broken (pakistanakhbar.com)

How many promises has Bharat kept? (newpakistantimes.com)

Why doesn't India keep its promises? (pakistanindependent.com)

Pakistan and China accept Kashmir as disputed (timesofsrinagar.com)

Delhi speaks with forked tongue: Broken promises (azadkashmirtimes.com)

Delhi's broken promises (timesofsrinagar.com)

USAID Study Says Climate Impact on Himalayas Remains Unknown, but Worrisome (nytimes.com)

WikiLeaks: Dalai Lama Told US Officials Saving Himalayas Even More Important than Tibet's Political Future (grantlawrence.blogspot.com)

Pollution in the Himalayas: Time to call the sweep? (economist.com)

China Pakistan to 'deepen strategic cooperation' during PM Jibao's trip in Dec (timesofislamabad.com)

Tit-for-Tat: Chinese PM to visit Pakistan in Dec. (pakistanakhbar.com)

Pakistan to move closer to China during PMs visit in Dec (pakistanindependent.com)

Pakistan counters Obama trip with China PMs trip to Islamabad (viewstimes.com)

China PM to visit Islamabad in Dec to 'deepen strategic cooperation' (pakpunch.com)

Chinese PM Jibao to 'deepen strategic cooperation' during Dec trip to Islamabad (newpakistantimes.com)

When will the occupation of Kashmir end? (pakistanindependent.com)

The Truth about Sonia Gandhi

2010-11-20T10:01:00.001-05:00

: Image via Wikipedia

Sudarshan had called Sonia Gandhi a CIA agent

Sonia Gandi plotted assassinations of her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his mother Indira Gandhi.

The Recent vitril by the former chief of the RSS is not a new thing--the RSS stalwarts in public and private gatherings have express similar sentiments about Mrs. Sonia Gandhi--and these sentiments are responsible for her current position outside the government. When there were rumors of her being presented as the PM of Bharat, it was these forces that sabotaged it, and it the very same forces that do not allow her a position in the government.

Former RSS chief K S Sudarshan was today in the eye of a storm following his derogatory remarks against Sonia Gandhi, provoking the Congress to launch an offensive against the sangh parivar. On its part, the RSS distanced itself from the controversial comments. Reacting angrily to Sudarshan's AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that the reaction of the society should be such that no one dare speak in such language in future.

Branding Sudarshan as a "fossil", he lamented that a person associated with an organisation which boasts of culture and decency should stoop so low by using such a derogatory language and make false charges.

"If someone gets agitated then who is responsible... everybody has a right to oppose such things... if Congressmen and people the country do something (untoward), they (RSS) will be responsible for it," Dwivedi said.

Congress members also rocked Parliament over the issue, with treasury bench members in the Rajya Sabha storming the Well holding copies of a Hindi daily in which Sudarshan's comments appeared.

Hitting out at Sudarshan, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal said the Sangh leader has lost his mental balance and demanded an apology from the BJP.

While interacting with the media in Bhopal yesterday, Sudarshan had called Gandhi a CIA agent and accused her of plotting assassinations of her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his mother Indira Gandhi.

"The BJP, which draws its inspiration from the RSS, should apologise for it," Bansal told reporters outside Parliament.

Seeking to steer clear from the controversy, the BJP distanced itself from Sudershan's statement, saying Gandhi was an elected representative and should be treated with respect.

"As a democratically elected leader she (Gandhi) should be respected. She is the chairperson of a ruling coalition and as a democratically elected Indian leader she deserves our respect. Whatever political differences we have with her must be addressed within an accepted, democratic framework and behaviour," BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said here.

The RSS distanced itself from the issue, saying Sudarshan's views were not that of the organisation.

"The RSS has noted with concern reports in a section of the media attributing it to former Sar Sanghchalak K S Sudarshan. However, those are not the opinions of the RSS," the organisation's spokesperson Ram Madhav told PTI.

Bharatian adds:

Sonia was born in1944 in Luciana in Italy as per her birth certificate submitted to our Government earlier. Her father Stefano Maino a Nazi was in a Russian prison from 1942 to 1945. Sonia’s marriage time it was reported that Rajeev and Sonia were of the same age. Thus Sonia should have been an illegitimate child. So a new birth date of 1946 was created and the place of birth became Orbassano in Italy and the name became Sonia which is uncommon in Italy. In 1966 she was working in London for a [PPPP] operative Salman Thassir (now Governor of Pakistani Punjab).

KGB’s deposit of US $2 billion in a Swiss bank account in 1985 in the “minor” account of Rahul Gandhi managed by his mother Antonia Maino alias Sonia Gandhi as per Schweitzer Illustrierte, a Swiss magazine. Archives of the KGB made public has a letter showing regular payment of commission by KGB to Ms.Sonia Gandhi and the Maino family in Italy. When Sonia came to power, Russia called back its Ambassador and posted an ex KGB chief in New Delhi of 1970s as the new ambassador. India made urgent payment to Russia without price negotiation for our contracts..

Italy wanted India to close case on Quattrocchi in 2003 Sonia marrying Rajiv is not a simple boy meets the girl thing, but could be a planned operation by the Vatican. Sonia was groomed and presented in front of Rajiv Gandhi by KGB, to hook Rajiv which was successful. Subsequently Rajiv marries Sonia. bharatian@oneindia.in. 2010/11/12 at 8:09 pm

RSS accuses Sonia of being CIA agent, murderer of Rajiv, Indira (rupeenews.com)

Sonia Gandhi unmasked (rupeenews.com)

Tiger Elephant play in Islamabad

2010-11-19T11:47:00.001-05:00

: The Cold War or as Humayun Gauya calls it--the 3rd world war Wikipedia

Humayun Gauhar has written a prodigious article on the tempest in a tea-pot in Delhi. There were a lot of statements made for the consumption of the media in Delhi. We would however like to challenge the the hocus-pocus of creating 50,000 jobs is far removed from reality. The jobs mantra is to try to stem the tide of the Anti-Outsourcing legislation that is coming down the pike. In fact $10 Billion doesn't really create that many jobs. Much has been written on how complicated it is to create high level defense jobs.

To put things in perspective The American defense budget is larger than the GDP of India. The US spends $10 billion in a few days in Afghanistan. According to some estimates it has spent more than $3 Trillion in the past decade. Trumpeting $10 billion is funny to say the least.

The Bharati GDP is smaller than the GDP of tine Benelux countries of Europe. The US just signed a $60 billion defense deal with Saudi Arabia, without the hoopla of a state visit or the bad dancing. The Gulf States are in the midst of signing defense deals with the US worth $120 billion. The US president didn't take 3000 people to the Gulf and didn't spend $200 million per day on the trip--or a fraction thereof if the White House is to be believed.

China is now building a lot of Boeing, Airbus parts, and is exporting planes to airlines. Its trade with the US exceeds $5000 billion (mainly exports to the US) dwarfing Bharat's trade (mainly imports from the US) $50 billion. China's trade surplus with the US is no laughing matter--it is a major chunk of the Bharati GDP. Bharati trade with US measures to less than 2% of US trade. Bharat has nothing to sell to the US except Call-Center Services which total only $50 billion per annum--and this industry is now facing a colossal backlash from the businesses in America. Bharat has not been able to produce products or software which Americans want to buy. Mangoes don't count. The influx of 100,000 students to the US has not impacted Bharat's trade balance or its basic infrastructure. The Indians simply buy motels and Subways.

Opening up to the West has impacted India in a negative manner. While it has created a couple of billionaries, the latest slide in HDI indices show that the Bharati general population has not benefited from the money--most of money now hidden in overseas account. The increase in trade has taken corruption to astronomical levels where $1.5 Trillion is sitting in Swiss banks. The Bharati PM is engulfed in theft personally attributed to him worth $29 billion. The opposition BJP holds him personally culpable. The recent CWG games vividly described the sorry state of corruption and incompetence in Delhi. The failed Kevari and LCA (was supposed to be the mainstay of the IAF) defense project are just shining examples of how money can be wasted without any results.

If the US wanted to send a message to China, then we are right on the money--however Obama's support for Delhi runs counter to any logic on the subject. Chinese help is necessary, indeed crucial to expand the UNSC. If the Obama Administration really wanted to help Delhi, it would have worked behind the scenes with Beijing to get India in the UNSC. How silly is it to stand in Delhi, show Bharat as a long term partner, display India as a counter-weight to China, and then announce support for India's UNSC hopes. Wouldn't that kill any chance of China witholding the veto? Why would China allow another US ally to get into the UNSC so that both of them can pass resolutions on Tibet, Taiwan, South China Sea and the disputed islands.

It doesn't really make sense.

Here is how the Indian press would have us believe it sounds "Hey! China--Screw you! The US has a new buddy, that we are building to a challenge you. BTW: will you let our new partner India in the UNSC, so both of us can harass you on Tibet and Taiwan".

In all likelihood, Obama was trying to salvage a failed trip to Delhi and used a carefully crafted line in the parliament to assuage fears of an Anti-US backlash. In all likelihood Beijing already knew about the "we will welcome India--sometime in the future--if India listens to us" statement. Those Neocon PNACers who envisage India as an Anti-China Counterweight are in the minority and are on the wrong path.

President Obama's UNSC announcement has to be taken with a grain of salt--actually it would require a Sahara desert of salt to digest it. The US doesn't hold all the cards in the UN--despite the fact that the UN is billed as a US Club. The waning Superpower wants to push in acolytes which will help it numerically--however the Africans, and the CFC will fight the G4 tooth and nail. The Forbes map of Africa with a Chinese flag on it is the reality of Africa. Beijing's investment in all of Africa is unprecedented and dwarfs American presence on the Black continent. Africa would never go against China. The new world let by China will not allow the status quo to be maintained, and surely it would not allow a Chinese enemy in the UN--at lest not with veto powers.

Mr. Gauhar, a seasoned analyst has described the 4th world war and the growth of Chinese power in the news century.

What a silly storm in a small Indian teacup. We should be looking at the Chinese teacup. Obama goes to India to get something, flatters to sell by saying what the Indians wish to hear and the sated go ape. The wretched of the earth could not give a fig. They want food. Flattery is marketing, my dear compatriots, it’s all marketing. Those who fall for it soon come a cropper. There’s no gainsaying that the Indians fell for such crass K&F – kowtowing and flattery.

Obama went to India with two objectives:

1. To get orders for US products to help kick start his economy and create jobs in his country. For this he offered India some lollipops that may not get past the new Congress.

2. To send China the message that the great USA is standing in India’s corner. China has been turning up the heat on India since early last year.

Should Obama have come to Pakistan too? Certainly not. Better this than the disgraceful six-hour Clinton visit, when he closed down our capital, changed the airport-to-city road to the wrong side, refused to be photographed with our president, lectured our chief justice at a luncheon not to hang Nawaz Sharif (no one was going to hang him anyway) and then had the gall to lecture us too. More to the point, we let him do all it.

America has now lumped Pakistan with Afghanistan, Iran and the Central Asian Republics, not South Asia. That’s their business. It’s their way of looking at things. Lumping on the basis of strategic considerations is clearer than lumping according to geographical convenience.

Is China quaking? Obama has climbed the back of an Indian elephant to kill the Chinese tiger. China can appear in many incarnations. It can also become an ant – who is better at guerilla warfare? An ant is like a guerilla that climbs up an elephant’s trunk and drives it crazy, until it is dead. Those who are riding it fall off and are crushed by the elephant or eaten when the ant reincarnates itself as a tiger. America should know this, if nothing else from Vietnam and Korea. If it still doesn’t, sheer need for survival will, hopefully, make it understand. Obama’s India visit should be viewed in this context.

We are in the throes of that rare seminal change that is caused by the collapse of a World Order. The period of transition turns order into disorder. The usual catalyst is acute financial strain caused by military misadventures that throw up internal contradictions long hidden beneath the surface. Stability returns only when a new order has been painfully forged with global and regional power shifting wholly or partially elsewhere, only to go again with the next great flux. Such is the ebb and flow of world power.

Today’s flux is greater than those caused in the aftermath of the two World Wars with the Great Depression thrown in between. The map of Europe changed after both. Power shifted from a tired Europe to a budding United States and the Soviet Union after the Second World War, with the latter drawing down what Churchill called the ‘Iron Curtain’, resulting in the ‘Cold War’. The US became a new kind of superpower, largely without conquest and direct control – colonization without responsibility. We saw the advent of consensual rather than coercive hegemony. Instead of conquering and occupying territory (until Afghanistan and Iraq) like the European colonizers had done and the Soviets were still doing, America won world market shares and influence not only through great international marketing but more via economic domination by making countries indebted to it and its institutions. Countries always faced the threat of being left out in the cold (sanctions) – the redoubtable carrot and stick policy rather than the European Divide and Rule doctrine.

America had learned well the lessons imparted by two of its early presidents. George Washington realized that America had fought its War of Independence against the British with British weapons. This was unacceptable. He set America on the course of producing its own arms and ammunition, and later marketing some often through the old gunrunner turned ‘agent’. No country was sovereign unless it was self-sufficient in defense. Quincy Adams declared that hegemony could be achieved by force or by making countries indebted – that was the advent of consensual hegemony. Loans were given to create a false dawn of growth. Countries forgot the obvious doctrine of self-reliance. Loans became drugs and the countries became completely dependent on them, junkies at the mercy of the drug peddler and his touts. You see the results today. After the demise of the Gold Standard and the illusion of the ‘mighty dollar’ as the benchmark currency of exchange, America’s headiness made it forget this cardinal principle and it became dangerously indebted to China. You see the results of that too today.

The Cold War was the Third World War, with the world largely divided between the US and the Soviet Blocs. And just as WWI became a new kind of war with the first-time use of aerial power and WWII with nuclear bombs, the Cold War was a new kind of war fought neither by conventional nor nuclear weapons but by the threat of the use of them. Like all wars, it too was about the control of world market shares and access to cheap labour, raw materials and markets made captive by economic dependence caused by increasing indebtedness to the US and its instruments. Proof lies in the fact that not one developing country has come out of the pejorative Third World category because of the Bretton Woods institutions. The Cold War ended with the demise of the Soviet Union and the US acquiring the mantle of sole superpower.

From 1990, we saw the dawn of a uni-polar world. It had to be brief. Unable to function outside an adversarial framework, America saw enemies where there were none. Instead, it chose to become the global bully led for eight years by the global village idiot. We then saw the advent of the Fourth World War with the events of 9/11, which is also a new kind of war. America has all but lost it in Afghanistan and is dangerously dependent on Pakistan to pull its chestnuts out of the fire.

Only one country remained outside the two main superpower blocs during the Cold War, its strength coming from its strong ideology. That was China. And it is China and only China that is emerging as the new superpower, to share global power and influence with a diminished United States. Whether it leads to another US-China Cold War remains to be seen, but if it does it will be a war America cannot win. I therefore hope that America realizes that it can extract greater mileage if it works with China. That will require an extraordinary leap of maturity on its part, something that has been lacking since it acquired superpower status. It may be forced to learn now, since I find it difficult to accept that it won’t realize that in an adversarial relationship with China it will be the ultimate loser. Both have a cooperative relationship with one another because right now both are dangerously dependent on one another. Andreas Lorenz calls this new possible relationship ‘The Rise of Chimerica’.

Now with another economic crisis triggered by the Afghan and Iraq wars, the uni-polar world is giving way to a multi-polar world as power shifts from West to East, from the US to China. The new Great Powers will have to again carve out the world into spheres of influence as they did in Yalta after World War II.

To survive, America will have to share global power with China, and with Russia and perhaps Germany too getting some share of the pie. That could happen in Shanghai under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, with perhaps a new global currency, something new as benchmark and a new United Nations. Where does India come into this equation – or for that matter and the so-called ‘Muslim World’? Indian elephant, Chinese tiger, Humayun Gauhar. humayun.gauhar786@gmail.com

Bharat's UNSC seat tied to NPT - despite denials (newpakistantimes.com)

Despite public denials India's UNSC seat tied to NPT signature (pakistanindependent.com)

Joint statement: China thwarts India rhetoric obsessing on Pakistan (timesofislamabad.com)

China supports Pakistan-nixes Indian rhetoric in joint-statement (pakistanledger.com)

Pakistan's national nightmare over: Obama leaves Delhi (rupeenews.com)

Delhi trip: Obama speaks from both sides of his mouth (newpakistantimes.com)

Obama's Delhi trip: Gains, Loss and Risks (timesofislamabad.com)

Obama's Trip: Who was sold down the river? (pakistanakhbar.com)

Obama's trip: The truth and the reality (pakistanindependent.com)

China deletes India's rhetoric on 'terror havens' (pakistanindependent.com)

'Hunooz Dilli door ast': FM Qureshi on Indian UNSC quest (azadkashmirtimes.com)

'Hunooz Dilli door ast': FM Qureshi to India on UNSC quest (newpakistantimes.com)

'Hunooz Dilli door ast': FM Qureshi to India on UNSC quest (timesofislamabad.com)

'Hunooz Dilli door ast': FM Qureshi to India on UNSC quest (pakpunch.com)

'Hunooz Dilli door ast': FM Qureshi to India on UNSC quest (rupeenews.com)

India in UNSC is 'incomprehensible': Delhi shouldn't hold its breath (rupeenews.com)

Knocking Out Bharat's UNSC bid (pakpunch.com)

Bharat faces uphill task on UNSC seat (greenviewsusa.blogspot.com)

Uphill battle for India on UNSC seat (moinansari.blogspot.com)

Kashmir is an international dispute: UN

2010-11-16T22:30:00.001-05:00

: Image via Wikipedia

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations Tuesday set the record straight when it declared that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the UN Security Council’s agenda, while rejecting as “inaccurate” that it has been removed from the list of unresolved issues.

“Some articles today on Kashmir are inaccurate,” UN Spokesman Farhan Haq said, referring to those reports, especially in Indian media.
He said the latest list of matters the Security Council is seized of “continues to include the agenda item under which the Council has taken up Kashmir which, by a decision of the Council, remains on the list for this year,” the spokesman added.

Earlier, a spokesman for the Pakistan Mission clarified that Pakistan’s Acting Ambassador Amjad Hussain Sial, in his speech to the General Assembly on Friday, November 12, had referred to the omission of Jammu and Kashmir dispute in a statement by the President of the Security Council, and not from the Council’s Annual Report - as reported in a section of press.

“The agenda item entitled, ‘India and Pakistan Question’, which covers Jammu and Kashmir dispute, is duly mentioned in the Annual Report of the Security Council and is also present on its agenda,” Spokesman Mian Jehangir Iqbal said in a statement.

In his statement, the 15-member Council’s President for the current month, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, while presenting the Annual Report to the 192-member assembly, did not mention the Kashmir dispute in the context of unresolved long-running situations, despite the fact decades-old issue is included in the Annual Report.

“We understand this was an inadvertent omission, as Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest disputes on agenda of the Security Council,” Ambassador Sial remarked, after Ambassador Grant’s statem-ent.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, who is on a visit to Pakistan, said there was no question of the Kashmir issue being dropped from the Council’s agenda. “The Security Council Report in its annexure is explicit,” he said in a statement.

“The President of the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of the UK, is amply clear on the subject and is cognizant of the matter. I would request all concerned not to speculate unnecessarily upon the subject”.

You: Kashmir still on SC's agenda: UN (nation.com.pk)

You: India should not be given authority on Kashmir: FO (nation.com.pk)

Pakistan objects to UN list of disputes. Wants Kashmir listed (azadkashmirtimes.com)

Nehru's false Commitement to Kashmirs (azadkashmirtimes.com)

India falsified so called Article of Accession (timesofsrinagar.com)

Un-implemented UN resolutions on Indian Occupied Kashmir (kashmirpunch.com)

Article of Accession: India faked it (kashmirpunch.com)

Nehru's Commitement to Kashmirs & un-implemented UN resolutions on Indian Occupied Kashmir (timesofsrinagar.com)

Did the 'Article of Accession' ever exist? (azadkashmirtimes.com)

Massacre of 1 million Non-Bengalis by Mukti Bahani and India

2010-11-14T14:21:00.001-05:00

Excerpts from "Blood and Tears" Book by Qutubuddin Aziz

Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan, was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.

[caption id="attachment_757" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mukti Bahini trained by the Indian Army to conduct terror in Muslim Bengal"][/caption]

I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League militants and their accomplices.

[gallery]

I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts, which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed, immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the secession of East Pakistan.

[caption id="attachment_756" align="alignnone" width="170" caption="Jessore murders of Biharis by Mukti Bahani blamed on Pakistani Army"][/caption]

The sheaves of eye-witness accounts, documented in this book, prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the massacre of West Pakistanis, Biharis and other non-Bengalis in East Pakistan had begun long before the Pakistan Army took punitive action against the rebels late in the night of March 25, 1971. It is also crystal clear that the Awami League's terror machine was the initiator and executor of the genocide against the non-Bengalis which exterminated at least half a million of them in less than two months of horror and trauma. Many witnesses have opined that the federal Government acted a bit too late against the insurgents. The initial success of the federal military action is proved by the fact that in barely 30 days, the Pakistan Army, with a combat strength of 38,717 officers and men in East Pakistan, had squelched the Awami League's March-April, 1971, rebellion all over the province.
Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were tortured before being slain
The hundreds of eye-witnesses from towns and cities of East Pakistan, whose testimonies are documented in this book, are unanimous in reporting that the slaughter of West Pakistanis, Biharis, and other non-Bangalis and of some pro-Pakistan Bengalis had begun in the early days of the murderous month of March 1971.

[caption id="attachment_755" align="alignnone" width="170" caption="Jessore massacre of Biharis by Mukti Bahani. Bihari corpses litter the area while soldiers marhc past in total bewelderment"][/caption]

Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan, was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.

I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League militants and their accomplices.

[caption id="attachment_750" align="alignnone" width="270" caption="A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy."][/caption]

I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts, which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed, immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the secession of East Pakistan.

[caption id="attachment_751" align="alignnone" width="199" caption="Eye gouging and burning the skin of Biharis by Uniformed Mukti Bahani soldier aided and abetted by Indian Army"][/caption]

The 170 eye-witnesses, whose testimonies or interviews are contained in this book in abridged form have been chosen from a universe of more than 5,000 repatriated non-Bengali families. I had identified, after some considerable research, 55 towns and cities in East Pakistan where the abridgement of the non-Bengali population in March and early April 1971 was conspicuously heavy. The collection and compilation of these eye-witness accounts was started in January 1974 and completed in twelve weeks. A team of four reporters, commissioned for interviewing the witnesses from all these 55 towns and cities of East Pakistan, worked with intense devotion to secure their testimony. Many of the interviews were prolonged because the Witnesses broke down in a flurry of sobs and tears as they related the agonising stories of their wrecked lives. I had issued in February 1974 an appeal in the newspapers for such eye-witness accounts, and I am grateful to the many hundreds of witnesses who promptly responded to my call.
A scene of Mukti Bahini mass murder of Biharis in Dacca on December 18, 1971. A rebel soldier lifts his boot to strike a bleeding bayoneted boy who showed signs of life. Dead bodies of other slain non-Bengalis lie in the foreground.

[caption id="attachment_749" align="alignnone" width="265" caption="Mukti-Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari’s chest."][/caption]

“I am the lone survivor of a group of ten Pathans who were employed as Security Guards by the Delta Construction Company in the Mohakhali locality in Dacca; all the others were slaughtered by the Bengali rebels in the night of March 25, 1971”, said 40-year-old Bacha Khan.

“I heard the screams of an Urdu-speaking girl who was being ravished by her Bengali captors but I was so scared that I did not have the courage to emerge from hiding” said a 24-year-old Zahid Abdi, who was employed in a trading firm in Dacca. He escaped the slaughter of the non-Bengalis in the crowded New Market locality of Dacca on March 23, 1971 and was sheltered by a God-fearing Bengali in his shop. The killers raped their non-Bengali teenage victim at the back of the shop and later on slayed her.

[caption id="attachment_753" align="alignnone" width="206" caption="Mukti Bahani massacres of Biharis: Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were tortured before being slain"][/caption]

“My only daughter has been insane since she was forced by her savage tormentors to watch the brutal murder of her husband”, said Mukhtar Ahmed Khan, 43, while giving an account of his suffering during the Ides of March 1971 in Dacca….“In the third week of March 1971, a gang of armed Bengali rebels raided house of my son-in-law and overpowered him. He was a courageous Youngman and he resisted the attackers. My daughter also resisted the attackers but they were far too many and they were well armed. They tied up my son-in-law and my daughter with ropes and they forced her to watch as they slit the throat of her husband and ripped his stomach open in the style of butchers. She fainted and lost consciousness. Since that dreadful day she has been mentally ill."

Shamim Akhtar, 28, whose husband was employed as a clerk in the Railway office in Dacca, lived in a small house in the Mirpur locality there.

She described her tragedy in these words:

“On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23, 1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed that it was now their property.”

Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque, worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account of her travail in 1971:
A copy of the ads and the forms used for soliciting testimony from the victims.

“….On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to a Relief Camp by the Red Cross.”

In Pubail and Tangibari, the Awami League militants and their rebel confederates murdered dozens of affluent Biharis. Shops owned by the Biharis were favourite target of attack.

“Four armed thugs dragged two captive non-Bengali teenage girls into an empty bus and violated their chastity before gunning them to death”, said Gulzar Hussain, 38, who witnessed the massacre of 22 non-Bengali men, women and children on March 21, 1971, close to a bus stand in Narayangang. Repatriated to Karachi in November 1973, Gulzar Hussain reported: "….On March 21, our Dacca-bound bus was stopped on the way, soon after it left the heart of the city. I was seated in the front portion of the bus and I saw that the killer gang had guns, scythes and daggers. The gunmen raised 'Joi Bangla' and anti-Pakistan slogans. The bus driver obeyed their signal to stop and the thugs motioned to the passengers to get down. A jingo barked out the order that Bengalis and non-Bengalis should fall into separate lines. As I spoke Bengali with a perfect Dacca accent and could easily pass for a Bengali, I joined the Bengali group of passengers. The killer gang asked us to utter a few sentences in Bengali which we did. I passed the test and our tormentors instructed the Bengalis to scatter. The thugs then gunned all the male non-Bengalis. It was a horrible scene. Four of the gunmen took for their loot two young non-Bengali women and raped them inside the empty bus. After they had ravished the girls, the killers shot them and half a dozen other women and children.”

She described her tragedy in these words:

As the victim did not die in a single bayonet strike, another Mukti-Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari’s chest. Dead bodies of Bihari and Bengali victims lie strewn over the execution ground as Mukti-Bahini killers and their accomplices watch the butchery with sadist pleasure.

“On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23, 1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed that it was now their property.”

Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque, worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account of her travail in 1971: “….On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to a Relief Camp by the Red Cross.”

Nasima Khatoon, 25, lived in a rented house in the Pancho Boti locality in Narayanganj. Her husband, Mohammad Qamrul Hasan, was employed in a Vegetable Oil manufacturing factory. Repatriated to Karachi in January 1974, along with her 4-year-old orphaned daughter, from a Red Cross Camp in Dacca, Nasima gave this hair-raising account of her travail in 1971:
A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy.

“At gun point, our captors made us leave our house and marched us to an open square where more than 500 non –Bengali old men, women and children were detained. Some 50 Bengali gunmen led us through swampy ground towards a deserted school building. On the way, the 3-year-old child of a hapless captive woman died in her arms. She asked her captors to allow her to dig a small grave and bury the child. The tough man in the lead snorted a sharp ‘NO’, snatched the body of the dead child from her wailing mother and tossed it into the river”

The Awami League's rebellion of March 1971 took the heaviest toll of non-Bengali lives in the populous port city of Chittagong. Although the Government of Pakistan's White Paper of August 1971 on the East Pakistan crisis estimated the non-Bengali death toll in Chittagong and its neighbouring townships during the Awami League's insurrection to be a little under 15,000, the testimony of hundreds of eye-witnesses interviewed for this book gives the impression that more than 50,000 non-Bengalis perished in the March 1971 carnage. Thousands of dead bodies were flung into the Karnaphuli river and the Bay of Bengal.

Savage killings also took place in the Halishahar, Kalurghat and Pahartali localities where the Bengali rebel soldiers poured petrol and kerosine oil around entire blocks, igniting them with flame-throwers and petrol-soaked jute balls, then mowed down the non-Bengali innocents trying to escape the cordons of fire. In the wanton slaughter in the last week of March and early April, 1971, some 40,000 non-Bengalis perished in Chittagong and its neighbourhood. The exact death toll, which could possibly be much more will never be known because of the practice of burning dead bodies or dumping them in the river and the sea.

The uniformed killer puffing the cigarette to singe the eyes of the terrified prey. Eye gouging and burning the skin of victims was a favourite torture method of the rebels.

Sarmila Bose redefines 1971 history: Dead Reckoning (rupeenews.com)

Sarmila Bose: The courageous Pakistan army stand on the eastern front (rupeenews.com)

Sarmila Bose rewrites the history of 1971 (rupeenews.com)

Sarmila Bose debunks 1971 Mass rape allegations (pakistanledger.com)

Indian, Mukti Bahani terrorism: Massacres of Biharis at Jessore, Panchabibi (rupeenews.com)

Host of new analysts like Bose bring out the truth of 1971 (timesofislamabad.com)

Pakistan Army shined in 1971: Sarmila Bose (newpakistantimes.com)

Truth about 1971 (pakistanindependent.com)

'Dead Reckoning' redefines history of 1971 (viewstimes.com)

1971: Pakistan soldiers could not have raped so many women (thedawn.com.pk)

Dead Reckoning defines the 1971 truth: There were no mass rapes (timesofislamabad.com)

Sarmila Bose thinks Pakistan Army was profesisonal in 1971 (pakistanindependent.com)

US trained Osama Bin Laden: Hillary Clinton admits

2010-11-12T22:26:00.000-05:00

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hillary Clinton admits US trained Osama Bin Laden Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Mrs. Hillary Clinton has officially admitted that the US trained Osama Bin Laden. In the ABC show she was saying that Pakistan supported the Taliban, and had changed its mind since 2001.

“That is changing... Now, I cannot sit here and tell you that it has changed, but that is changing,” she told ABC News in an interview, the transcripts of which was released by the State Department.

Ms. Clinton accepted that the U.S. had created certain radical outfits and supported terrorists like Osama bin Laden to fight against the erstwhile Soviet Union, but that backing has boomeranged. “Part of what we are fighting against right now, the United States created. We created the Mujahidin force against the Soviet Union (in Afghanistan). We trained them, we equipped them, we funded them, including somebody named Osama bin Laden. And it didn’t work out so well for us,” she said.

The Secretary of the State also said Pakistan is paying a “big price” for supporting U.S. war against terror groups in their own national interest. “But I think it is important to note that as they have made these adjustments in their own assessment of their national interests, they’re paying a big price for it,” Ms. Clinton said.

“And it’s not an easy calculation for them to make. But we are making progress (in Afghanistan). We have a long way to go and we can’t be impatient...Well, the headlines are bad. We’re going home. We cannot do that,” she said.

Appearing on the same ABC show, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said Pakistan has withdrawn an equivalent of about six divisions of its army from the Indian border and moved them.

“And they are attacking the Taliban. They’re attacking the Taliban — Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, and safe havens that are a problem for us,” Mr. Gates said.

“But the other piece of this, we face in both countries what they call a trust deficit, and it is because they believe we have walked away from them in the past at the toughest moments of their history.

“You can’t recreate that (trust) in a heartbeat. You can’t recreate that in a year or two. They both worry that once we solve the problem in Afghanistan, or if we don’t solve it, that either way, we will leave and leave whatever remains in their hands to deal with,” he added.

Keywords: U.S.-Pakistan relations, India-Pakistan relations, terrorist organisations

India is trying to create Anti-Pakistan Afghanistan (pakistanledger.com)

President Bush on Afghanistan: 'I badly wanted to bring bin Laden to justice' (guardian.co.uk)

BiPartisan panel recommends end to Afghan war

2010-11-12T14:09:00.000-05:00

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The independent panels brought under the umbrella of CFR has recommended that the US withdraw from Afghanistan--if the current policy fails, and it recommends that the US withdraw if the current policy succeeds.

We have always maintained that the US will begin its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011. We have also maintained that as the withdrawal begins, the 150,000 or so mercenaries will be the first to flee. Their funds cut off the Balckwater/Xe and others will simply disappear rapidly. Then as the US begins its withdrawal, it will reach a tipping point rapidly. It will be impossible to sustained operations with 100,000 troops. Once the tipping point is reached, the withdrawal will not wati for the magical date of 2014--the end date will be moved up. The occupation of Afghanistan could end as early as 2012 or 2013.

US experts have called for President Barack Obama to consider narrowing the mission in Afghanistan unless there is progress, and warn that success is impossible without a shift by Pakistan.

An independent task force at the Council on Foreign Relations said on Friday the Obama administration will need to take hard decisions after it conducts its own review of war strategy next month.

"If progress is being made, the United States should be able to draw down its forces starting in July 2011, based on conditions on the ground," it said, supporting the timeline set last year by Obama.
Advertisement: Story continues below .

"However, if US efforts are not working, a more significant drawdown to a narrower mission that emphasises counterterror objectives with fewer US forces will be warranted," it said.

Under such a plan, some 10,000 to 20,000 US troops led by Special Operations Forces would fight militants - a sharp drop from the 100,000 now deployed. But it warned of major risks, including a greater chance Afghanistan would plunge into civil war. AFP

VoA News: An independent panel is urging U.S. President Barack Obama to sharply curtail the military’s mission in Afghanistan if there are no signs of progress.

A task force created by the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based research group, issued a report Friday saying that the current approach to Afghanistan is at a critical point.

The report says the outcome of the 9-year Afghan war remains “uncertain” and that militants present a direct threat to the U.S. and its allies.

The 25-member panel is urging Mr. Obama to consider the high costs of the mission as it determines whether its efforts have been successful.

The Obama administration will conduct a thorough review of its Afghan war strategy next month. The independent panel says if progress is being made, the administration can proceed with its stated goal of withdrawing forces beginning in July 2011. But panel members say if U.S. efforts are not working, a more significant drawdown will be warranted.

But Armitage emphasized that Obama needs to have a "very deep, clear-eyed review of the situation," and that if "real progress is not deemed to have been made, a majority of us suggest that we change the mission to a much different mission, one of counterterror and continued training of the Afghan National Security Forces." more by Richard Armitage

Mr. Obama decided last year to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 [short of the General's Request] 100,000 to battle Taliban and al-Qaida forces, while training Afghan security forces.

The administration has begun to suggest it is backing away from the July 2011 withdrawal date, instead stressing the goal of fully handing over control to Afghan security forces by 2014.

The task force also gave recommendations on Pakistan, suggesting the U.S. expand military ties and deepen economic cooperation following the devastating July floods. The report says the U.S. should continue to warn Pakistan that bilateral relations hinge on the government’s action against internal militant groups.

The study warned that frontline partner Pakistan "has not made a decisive break with all militants", with some security elements backing extremists that target Afghanistan and historic rival India.

"One of the benefits of (a smaller mission in Afghanistan) is that we would actually be less dependent on Pakistan because our logistics needs would be smaller," Armitage said as he presented the report.

"To be clear, we cannot be successful in Afghanistan if we can't get a changed attitude in Pakistan," said Armitage, a key US interlocutor with Pakistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Any conversation with Richard Armitage on Pakistan always comes with threats. The CFR reports also comes with the usual vintage Armitage bluster that doesn't hold water--and he knows it. The consequences of these threats are colossal and no one can contemplate the worst case scenario.

2014: What happens in Afghanistan afterwards? (rupeenews.com)

Task force warns Obama over high cost of Aghan war (capitolhillblue.com)

Warm boiled Kashmir eggs

2010-11-10T21:46:00.001-05:00

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Boeing has blood on its hands. The lure of a few billion Dollars lets President Obama to ignore the suffering of millions of Kashmiris. This criminal negligence will not be forgotten by the world. All that talk about "Change that we can believe in" and his campaign promises have been dumped, ostensibly for business contracts. Actually that too is not true. The Saudis recently signed a $60 billion contact to buy US planes. The Gulf states are purchasing $120 billion of American arms. But Obama ignores them and hundreds of thousands of jobs the Arabs create for America. He does remind the world that the $10 billion will create this that and the other. It is pedagogical to note that the US spend $10 billion in a few days in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan would save the US $1 Trillion by allowing it a face saving exit from Afghanistan. However that would be eulogizing the wrong country. By Obama's calculations, that would create millions of US jobs.

The Kerry Lugar Bill forces the US government to spend half of the $7.5 billion on US contractors. That we suppose would create about 25,000 jobs. 25% of the 7.5 billion is spent on US Administrative expenses. How many jobs does that create? All that is hidden under the cloak of US Aid, very little of which actually reaches the victims of the drone bombings--30,000 Pakistanis dead. What is the price on their heads?

There are few in today's Bharat that can remind Obama that his disastrous blunders in Delhi will have long term repercussions on millions of incarcerated Kashmiris--100,000 of whom have given their lives for freedom--freedom to get away from Bharat---and freedom to live in Pakistan. More than a million troops hold the Kashmiris hostage to the concepts of Greater Bharat (Akhand Bharat).

A few confused Kashmiris want to convert Kashmir into another Sikkim to be taken over by Delhi at a later date. Most Kashmiris want freedom.

Arundhati Roy is Bharat's (aka India's ) conscience. She is a good human being and a fantastic human rights activists. The Bajrang Dal and the BJP are after her blood. She has written another brilliant article about Bharat's illegal occupation of Kashmir, which was published in the New York Times today. It is poignant, sharp and prodigious in its insight and its descriptions. We are scared for the life of Arundhati Roy. The Hinduists extremists are after here. Those who ignore her advice and those who contemplate violence against her are the worst of the worst. May God give us a long and prosperous life.

A WEEK before he was elected in 2008, President Obama said that solving the dispute over Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination — which has led to three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 — would be among his “critical tasks.” His remarks were greeted with consternation in India, and he has said almost nothing about Kashmir since then.

But on Monday, during his visit here, he pleased his hosts immensely by saying the United States would not intervene in Kashmir and announcing his support for India’s seat on the United Nations Security Council. While he spoke eloquently about threats of terrorism, he kept quiet about human rights abuses in Kashmir.

Whether Mr. Obama decides to change his position on Kashmir again depends on several factors: how the war in Afghanistan is going, how much help the United States needs from Pakistan and whether the government of India goes aircraft shopping this winter. (An order for 10 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, worth $5.8 billion, among other huge business deals in the pipeline, may ensure the president’s silence.) But neither Mr. Obama’s silence nor his intervention is likely to make the people in Kashmir drop the stones in their hands.

I was in Kashmir 10 days ago, in that beautiful valley on the Pakistani border, home to three great civilizations — Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist. It’s a valley of myth and history. Some believe that Jesus died there; others that Moses went there to find the lost tribe. Millions worship at the Hazratbal shrine, where a few days a year a hair of the Prophet Muhammad is displayed to believers.

Now Kashmir, caught between the influence of militant Islam from Pakistan and Afghanistan, America’s interests in the region and Indian nationalism (which is becoming increasingly aggressive and “Hinduized”), is considered a nuclear flash point. It is patrolled by more than half a million soldiers and has become the most highly militarized zone in the world.

The atmosphere on the highway between Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar, and my destination, the little apple town of Shopian in the south, was tense. Groups of soldiers were deployed along the highway, in the orchards, in the fields, on the rooftops and outside shops in the little market squares. Despite months of curfew, the “stone pelters” calling for “azadi” (freedom), inspired by the Palestinian intifada, were out again. Some stretches of the highway were covered with so many of these stones that you needed an S.U.V. to drive over them.

Fortunately the friends I was with knew alternative routes down the back lanes and village roads. The “longcut” gave me the time to listen to their stories of this year’s uprising. The youngest, still a boy, told us that when three of his friends were arrested for throwing stones, the police pulled out their fingernails — every nail, on both hands.

For three years in a row now, Kashmiris have been in the streets, protesting what they see as India’s violent occupation. But the militant uprising against the Indian government that began with the support of Pakistan 20 years ago is in retreat. The Indian Army estimates that there are fewer than 500 militants operating in the Kashmir Valley today. The war has left 70,000 dead and tens of thousands debilitated by torture. Many, many thousands have “disappeared.” More than 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus have fled the valley. Though the number of militants has come down, the number of Indian soldiers deployed remains undiminished.

But India’s military domination ought not to be confused with a political victory. Ordinary people armed with nothing but their fury have risen up against the Indian security forces. A whole generation of young people who have grown up in a grid of checkpoints, bunkers, army camps and interrogation centers, whose childhood was spent witnessing “catch and kill” operations, whose imaginations are imbued with spies, informers, “unidentified gunmen,” intelligence operatives and rigged elections, has lost its patience as well as its fear. With an almost mad courage, Kashmir’s young have faced down armed soldiers and taken back their streets.

Since April, when the army killed three civilians and then passed them off as “terrorists,” masked stone throwers, most of them students, have brought life in Kashmir to a grinding halt. The Indian government has retaliated with bullets, curfew and censorship. Just in the last few months, 111 people have been killed, most of them teenagers; more than 3,000 have been wounded and 1,000 arrested.

But still they come out, the young, and throw stones. They don’t seem to have leaders or belong to a political party. They represent themselves. And suddenly the second-largest standing army in the world doesn’t quite know what to do. The Indian government doesn’t know whom to negotiate with. And many Indians are slowly realizing they have been lied to for decades. The once solid consensus on Kashmir suddenly seems a little fragile.

I WAS in a bit of trouble the morning we drove to Shopian. A few days earlier, at a public meeting in Delhi, I said that Kashmir was disputed territory and, contrary to the Indian government’s claims, it couldn’t be called an “integral” part of India. Outraged politicians and news anchors demanded that I be arrested for sedition. The government, terrified of being seen as “soft,” issued threatening statements, and the situation escalated. Day after day, on prime-time news, I was being called a traitor, a white-collar terrorist and several other names reserved for insubordinate women. But sitting in that car on the road to Shopian, listening to my friends, I could not bring myself to regret what I had said in Delhi.

We were on our way to visit a man called Shakeel Ahmed Ahangar. The previous day he had come all the way to Srinagar, where I had been staying, to press me, with an urgency that was hard to ignore, to visit Shopian.

I first met Shakeel in June 2009, only a few weeks after the bodies of Nilofar, his 22-year-old wife, and Asiya, his 17-year-old sister, were found lying a thousand yards apart in a shallow stream in a high-security zone — a floodlit area between army and state police camps. The first postmortem report confirmed rape and murder. But then the system kicked in. New autopsy reports overturned the initial findings and, after the ugly business of exhuming the bodies, rape was ruled out. It was declared that in both cases the cause of death was drowning. Protests shut Shopian down for 47 days, and the valley was convulsed with anger for months. Eventually it looked as though the Indian government had managed to defuse the crisis. But the anger over the killings has magnified the intensity of this year’s uprising.

Shakeel wanted us to visit him in Shopian because he was being threatened by the police for speaking out, and hoped our visit would demonstrate that people even outside of Kashmir were looking out for him, that he was not alone.

It was apple season in Kashmir and as we approached Shopian we could see families in their orchards, busily packing apples into wooden crates in the slanting afternoon light. I worried that a couple of the little red-cheeked children who looked so much like apples themselves might be crated by mistake. The news of our visit had preceded us, and a small knot of people were waiting on the road.

Shakeel’s house is on the edge of the graveyard where his wife and sister are buried. It was dark by the time we arrived, and there was a power failure. We sat in a semicircle around a lantern and listened to him tell the story we all knew so well. Other people entered the room. Other terrible stories poured out, ones that are not in human rights reports, stories about what happens to women who live in remote villages where there are more soldiers than civilians. Shakeel’s young son tumbled around in the darkness, moving from lap to lap. “Soon he’ll be old enough to understand what happened to his mother,” Shakeel said more than once.

Just when we rose to leave, a messenger arrived to say that Shakeel’s father-in-law — Nilofar’s father — was expecting us at his home. We sent our regrets; it was late and if we stayed longer it would be unsafe for us to drive back.

Minutes after we said goodbye and crammed ourselves into the car, a friend’s phone rang. It was a journalist colleague of his with news for me: “The police are typing up the warrant. She’s going to be arrested tonight.” We drove in silence for a while, past truck after truck being loaded with apples. “It’s unlikely,” my friend said finally. “It’s just psy-ops.”

But then, as we picked up speed on the highway, we were overtaken by a car full of men waving us down. Two men on a motorcycle asked our driver to pull over. I steeled myself for what was coming. A man appeared at the car window. He had slanting emerald eyes and a salt-and-pepper beard that went halfway down his chest. He introduced himself as Abdul Hai, father of the murdered Nilofar.

“How could I let you go without your apples?” he said. The bikers started loading two crates of apples into the back of our car. Then Abdul Hai reached into the pockets of his worn brown cloak, and brought out an egg. He placed it in my palm and folded my fingers over it. And then he placed another in my other hand. The eggs were still warm. “God bless and keep you,” he said, and walked away into the dark. What greater reward could a writer want?

I wasn’t arrested that night. Instead, in what is becoming a common political strategy, officials outsourced their displeasure to the mob. A few days after I returned home, the women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (the right-wing Hindu nationalist opposition) staged a demonstration outside my house, calling for my arrest. Television vans arrived in advance to broadcast the event live. The murderous Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu group that, in 2002, spearheaded attacks against Muslims in Gujarat in which more than a thousand people were killed, have announced that they are going to “fix” me with all the means at their disposal, including by filing criminal charges against me in different courts across the country.

Indian nationalists and the government seem to believe that they can fortify their idea of a resurgent India with a combination of bullying and Boeing airplanes. But they don’t understand the subversive strength of warm, boiled eggs. Kashmir’s Fruits of Discord By ARUNDHATI ROY New Delhi

Arundhati Roy is the author of the novel “The God of Small Things” and, most recently, the essay collection “Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers.”

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (pakistanledger.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (rupeenews.com)

Parachinar Pyromania (rupeenews.com)

Roy hurt by Kashmiri slogan: 'bhooka nanga Hindustan, jaan se pyara Pakistan' (rupeenews.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (pakistanakhbar.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (timesofislamabad.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (newpakistantimes.com)

Roy hurt by Kashmiri slogan: 'bhooka nanga Hindustan, jaan se pyara Pakistan' (newpakistantimes.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (pakistanindependent.com)

Kashmir's Fruits of Discord (nytimes.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (thedawn.com.pk)

Delhi interlocutors mention the 'A' word for Kashmir (rupeenews.com)

Bharat faces uphill task on UNSC seat

2010-11-10T17:42:00.001-05:00

: Image via Wikipedia

Sanguine and wise analysts in Bharat and the world know that the "Lollipop" given to Bharat on the 3rd day day of the trip--was to salvage an otherwise failed trip. It was inevitable that the ephemeral promise would draw Pakistan and China together and pitch Beijing versus Delhi.

DNA India has put forth the thesis that Mr. Zardari will ask China to stop Bharat's entry into the UNSC. Actually that logic is flawed and sets up false expectations for Pakistanis. China has a mature leadership and understands its profit and loss statement. Italy is a fellow member of the EU with Germany, yet it opposes the Germany candidacy. China would not want its neighbor to the South to become a UNSC member because that would run contrary to its interests.

Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari is expected to persuade his Chinese counterpart to oppose India’s bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) during his visit to Beijing.

Zardari will be in China to attend the opening ceremony of the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, besides meeting Chinese president Hu Jintao.

On the surface, Pakistani and Chinese leaders will discuss the plan for a fifth Chinese-built nuclear reactor in Pakistan. However, the emphasis will be on new moves on the chessboard of South Asia, especially the Indian bid for UN Security Council membership.DNA India.

Reverberations from Obama's announcement have reached the four corners of the globe. Japan, Germany, and Brazil who were supposedly partners with Bharat have reacted sharply to the Obama Administration's support for Bharat for the UNSC seat. Pakistan had just completed the Strategic dialogue with the US in Washington. None of this was brought up. Before the Obama trip he had informed the press that the UNSC seat "was complicated". Then on the last day, President Obama announced to the Bharati parliament that he would support Bharat's candidacy to the UNSC provided Bharat resolve its problems with the neighbors (read Kashmir).

The promise was called "Probation" the Bharat's leading daily called the "Hindu".

NEW DELHI: With India having got the US's coveted backing for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, two major aspirants to the high table are fuming. Both Germany and Japan went public with their annoyance at their claims being overlooked and made their displeasure known to the US.

In an interview to a TV channel, US ambassador to India Tim Roemer admitted as much. He said the two nations had asked why India had been accorded special treatment and the reasons US saw it as a valued partner. The ambassador indicated that the resistance pointed to the distance that needed to be travelled for UN reform to become a reality.

He also suggested that US backing for India's case showed Washington's determination to pursue its ties with India that president Barack Obama outlined during his visit.

While India has managed to wrest an important pledge from president Obama that may take some time to be realized, it is still crucial. So far, Washington had only supported Japan for a permanent seat at the UNSC even though it opposed the G4 (a group that included Japan, Germany, Brazil and India).

With Obamas announcement on Monday, the US has shifted its own stance to accommodate India. But that doesn't mean the G4 to which India has tacked its own aspirations is in the clear yet.

Security Council reform is not only about putting India into the body. The issues at stake are what should be the ideal size of a new UNSC; whether the new members would have veto rights, the number of permanent and non-permanent members, its relations with the UN General Assembly, whether there should be regional representation.

Officials said the UN's body debating the inter-governmental negotiations will restart their deliberations soon. The US show of support will make a difference to India and Japan. Not to Germany, which is opposed by Italy and by many other countries who say giving a permanent seat to Germany would put a third seat in Europe (fourth, if you count Russia as a European power), at a time when European power is in decline. Besides, EU was asking for a separate status for itself in the UNGA, they argue.

Africa is a problem too. There is general consensus that Africa should have two seats in the UNSC, but which two countries? Even the African Union is divided on that. There can't be UNSC reform without the Africans because then the world runs the risk of all 53 African countries boycotting.

Then there is China. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Tuesday, when questioned, said, China values India's status in international affairs and understands India's aspirations to play a greater role in the United Nations and is ready to keep contact and consultations with India and other member states on the issues of Security Council reform.

But even if China can be made to digest an Indian membership, as at the NSG, its not going to be so easy for Japan, which even has South Korea opposing it. Brazil is opposed by Mexico and Argentina (since its the only Portuguese-speaking country in a Spanish-speaking continent), and of course, Pakistan opposes India. These countries had formed the Coffee Club, later renamed United for Consensus, and will most likely be resurrected again, perhaps with tacit Chinese support.

How many permanent members should the new UNSC have? The US wants around 19 members (in both categories). The G4 position is more sensible that's India, Brazil, Japan and Germany, two African countries and three added to the non-permanent list. There are other ideas floating around UK, France and Liechtenstein proposed an interim arrangement for 10 years and a review thereafter. The Chinese are more non-specific and have just said they want more seats for developing countries.

Veto? India will fight to the end for the veto. But many countries say they can live without it, because the veto is not used anymore and lobbying for support is the way to go in the Council. But veto, like nuclear weapons, is a currency of power. That battle, therefore, will continue.

Justice and Fair Play: UNSC seat for Pakistan (pakistanledger.com)

Pakistanis want their right to UNSC seat (thedawn.com.pk)

Pakistan must get UNSC seat in Non-Muslim Club (rupeenews.com)

Obama should not have supported India for UNSC seat (pakistanindependent.com)

Obama ignored Kashmir suffering while supporting UNSC seat for India (timesofislamabad.com)

Can India digest bitter pill on Kashmir to get UNSC seat (pakistanledger.com)

Obama ties UNSC seat to Kashmir solution without using 'K' word (rupeenews.com)

What Obama realy said about the UNSC seat (thedawn.com.pk)

In supportin UNSC seat Obama ignored Kashmir suffering (pakistanakhbar.com)

India on probation: UNSC bait used to get Delhi in line (pakistanledger.com)

UNSC seat for Pakistan is a fair and just demand (timesofislamabad.com)

Pakistanis want to claim thier right to UNSC seat (newpakistantimes.com)

Damanding the UNSC seat: Its Pakistan's right (pakistanakhbar.com)

Pakistanis want to claim UNSC seat (pakistanindependent.com)

UNSC bait puts India on probation: Toe US line (rupeenews.com)

India in UNSC is 'incomprehensible': Delhi shouldn't hold its breath (rupeenews.com)

Pakistan must get UNSC seat in Non-Muslim Club (rupeenews.com)

Pakistan slams US 'politics of expediency' on UNSC (rupeenews.com)

'US support for India's UNSC seat is AntiPakistan move': PML-N (rupeenews.com)

India in UNSC is 'incomprehensible': Delhi shouldn't hold its breath (rupeenews.com)

How does Obama get Indian elephant out of Afghanistan

2010-11-08T01:06:00.000-05:00

: Image via Wikipedia

President Obama's trip to India offers a crucial, and counterintuitive, opportunity missing in all the talk about Afghanistan: how to accommodate Pakistan's interests in that country. Unless we find a way to do that, Pakistan will not stop its tolerance of or support for the Afghan Taliban or other extremists on its border with Afghanistan - nor will it let us eradicate them. While serious analysts agree that such a shift is necessary for any U.S. success in Afghanistan, many fail to follow this logic to its conclusion: that we must persuade Pakistan it can crack down on Afghan extremists without jeopardizing its cross-border interests.

What are those interests? First and foremost, to minimize the presence and influence in Afghanistan of Pakistan's own archrival, India. Yet somehow this point is absent from most American debates about these issues, probably because of our narrow focus on terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. In fact, the United States has stoked Pakistani paranoia by encouraging India to become the region's major economic player in Afghanistan, to train Afghan officials, and exercise other influence on the Afghan government and people.

To Pakistani perceptions, this raises the threat of foreign influence in Afghanistan, and increases Pakistani determination to hang on to the Taliban, the Haqqani group and other insurgent networks to both counter Indian influence and protect Pakistani interests in Afghanistan. This in turn makes it impossible for the United States to succeed in its declared goals of stabilizing Afghanistan and securing it against violent extremism while safely reducing the American military presence.

India, of course, is an increasingly important regional and global partner for U.S. foreign policy. But it is in India's self-interest to contain extremist pressures in Afghanistan and Pakistan - and one paradoxically clever way to do that is to lower India's profile in Afghanistan. During his visit, Obama should drive home the point that such self-restraint would best serve our common interest in stabilizing the region.

Pakistan's other major interest is to promote a friendly regime in Kabul. This is hardly as simple as it sounds. Afghans are famously proud and prickly about their independence, and some are still not fully reconciled to Pakistani rule over some 30 million Pashtuns across the border. In fact, Afghanistan has never recognized that border along the Durand Line, drawn by the British raj in 1893 to mark the limits of Afghan rule.

Recently, however, and entirely apart from, or even against American advice, the Afghan and Pakistan governments have moved to resolve some of their differences. Afghan President Hamid Karzai abruptly removed the chief of his National Security Directorate, Amrullah Saleh, who was widely viewed as anti-corruption but also anti-Pakistan (a point that received much less attention in the U.S. media). In return, Islamabad stopped blocking Afghan trucks from using Pakistani roads and negotiated an Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement allowing Afghan traffic all the way to India.

There is much the United States should do to capitalize on this momentum. Most urgent is to start working closely with Pakistan on our Afghan reconciliation and reintegration policies, instead of ignoring Pakistan's expressions of interest in these plans. We should also tell Islamabad that we are encouraging Kabul to send security personnel for Pakistani (rather than Indian) training - and then do so. We should encourage Kabul to pursue reasonable confidence-building measures, such as letting Pakistan know about pending Afghan government appointments in the border provinces. We should advise Pakistan that the United States recognizes the Durand Line and will work with the Afghan government to lay this ancient issue to rest.

All these small steps will help convince Pakistan that it can work more confidently with us and with the Afghan government, without playing the old double game of keeping insurgents and extremists in reserve. While we cannot buy or bully Pakistanis into abandoning their interests in Afghanistan, we can show them new ways to secure those interests. Properly understood, this is no longer a zero-sum "great game" in the region.

Adjusting our policies to accommodate Pakistani interests is essential to U.S. national interests in Afghanistan. And contrary to conventional wisdom, it is consistent with the long-term interests of our friends in the Afghan and Indian governments in countering the violent extremists who threaten us all.

David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was a senior State Department adviser for the broader Middle East from 2002 to 2007 and served on the secretary's policy planning staff from 1996 to 1999 and again in 2001.WP. Our Indian problem in Afghanistan By David Pollock, Monday, November 8, 2010;

Revise or Revoke bad APTTA (pakistanledger.com)

APTTA remains a Bad deal for Pakistan (pakistanakhbar.com)

APTTA trade remains a Bad deal for Pakistan (pakistanindependent.com)

Revoke or Revise APTTA: Bad for Pakistan (rupeenews.com)

Islamabad to Washington: 'Its not our war' (pakistanindependent.com)

US-Taliban talks vindicates Pakistani position (pakistanledger.com)

Why build a $500 Million Embassy in Kabul? (rupeenews.com)

The $500 million US Embassy: An exercise in futility (timesofislamabad.com)

Obama doesn't mention any political role for Delhi in Afghanistan (rupeenews.com)

Why build a $500 million embassy if the US is withdrawing (greenviewsusa.blogspot.com)

US-Taliban talks vindicates Pakistani position (teabreak.pk)

Insight Kabul: No peace without Pakistan (rupeenews.com)

Lost US Nuclear Codes

2010-11-07T13:31:00.001-05:00

While the US pontificates about Nuclear Proliferation and wants to control the nukes of Iran and Pakistan, ignores Israel and encourages India, there is irrefutable evidence that US nukes are under an accident prone system of controls which could have disastrous consequences for the planet.

American hypocrisy on its broken arrows (lost nukes) is a matter of much deliberation and discussion.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Early on in my days as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we had small, weekly White House breakfasts in National Security Advisor Sandy Berger's office that included me, Sandy, Bill Cohen (Secretary of Defense), Madeleine Albright (Secretary of State), George Tenet (head of the CIA), Leon Firth (VP chief of staff for security), Bill Richardson (ambassador to the U.N.), and a few other senior administration officials. These were informal sessions where we would gather around Berger's table and talk about concerns over coffee and breakfast served by the White House dining facility. It was a comfortable setting that encouraged brainstorming of potential options on a variety of issues of the day.

During that time we had U-2 aircraft on reconnaissance sorties over Iraq. These planes were designed to fly at extremely high speeds and altitudes (over seventy thousand feet) both for pilot safety and to avoid detection. At one of my very first breakfasts, while Berger and Cohen were engaged in a sidebar discussion down at one end of the table and Tenet and Richardson were preoccupied in another, one of the Cabinet members present leaned over to me and said, "Hugh, I know I shouldn't even be asking you this, but what we really need in order to go in and take out Saddam is a precipitous event—something that would make us look good in the eyes of the world. Could you have one of our U-2s fly low enough— and slow enough—so as to guarantee that Saddam could shoot it down?"

The hair on the back of my neck bristled, my teeth clenched, and my fists tightened. I was so mad I was about to explode. I looked across the table, thinking about the pilot in the U-2 and responded, "Of course we can . . ." which prompted a big smile on the offi cial's face.

"You can?" was the excited reply.

"Why, of course we can," I countered. "Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go."

The official reeled back and immediately the smile disappeared. "I knew I should not have asked that. . . ."

"No, you should not have," I strongly agreed, still shocked at the disrespect and sheer audacity of the question. "Remember, there is one of our great Americans flying that U-2, and you are asking me to intentionally send him or her to their death for an opportunity to kick Saddam. The last time I checked, we don't operate like that here in America."

I left the room that day but I never forgot it. I went back and I shared it with the Joint Chiefs—not revealing who the official was—but nonetheless getting into how it had played out. "You may not think those types of things still happen in Washington, but trust me—they do, and I've just been exposed to it. Keep your antennas up and do not ever fall into it."

Looking back on the thirty-four years of my career that led up to my appointment as Chairman, I felt comfortable with the man I saw in the mirror. I had earned a solid reputation as an honest, straightforward role model for integrity, ethics, and selflessness—a leader whose moral character was beyond reproach. Now, as I proudly stepped into my position as highest-ranking military officer in all of the United States Armed Forces— the principal military adviser to the President and the National Security Council—I was excited to serve as a living example to the three million-plus men and women of our armed forces that it really is possible to rise to the top of one's profession through character-based leadership and without its being at the expense of others.

But what was I stepping into behind the heavily fortified walls of the Pentagon's inner circle? Would subsequent White House gatherings attempt to drag me into more revolting conspiracies? I'd had bosses who asked me to steal for them, others to access and falsify their records. I'd seen my share of cowards and relieved them of duty. But never in those thirty-four years had I seen—or even imagined—anything that came close to a senior Cabinet member suggesting I be party to killing one of our great airmen in hopes of starting a war. Was this typical of what really went on at the highest levels of the United States government, the country I had passionately devoted my life to serve?

If my first few weeks as Chairman were any indication of the challenges the next four years would bring, I would have countless opportunities to call upon those principles deeply ingrained within me as a young boy in a small North Carolina town called Speed.

From "Without Hesitation" by General (Ret.) Hugh Shelton, 14th Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, with Ronald Levinson and Malcolm McConnell. Copyright © 2010 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, LLC.

General Hug Shelton's book is only is a series of writings about the incompetence of the Clinton Administration about nukes.

Why build a $500 million embassy if the US is withdrawing

2010-11-07T11:10:00.001-05:00

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Site of the former US Embassy, Saigon, now used as a spot for parking and recreation Wikipedia"][/caption]

President Obama's public announcements and private actions contradict each other. One the one hand, we had the surge, on the other had there is a withdrawal date. One the one had the US is talking to the Taliban, on the other hand, Washington is pressuring Islamabad to continue the war on the same Afghans. One the one hand Washington calls the US an ally, asking for help in a safe exit, on the other hand, the US is bombing Pakistani cities. On the one hand the US is giving military aid to Pakistan, on the other hand, it has a 3000 strong "CIA Army" causing murder and mayhem in Pakistan

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry recently briefed the press about the new building that the US is constructing in Kabul.

The United States has announced it would spend $511 million to expand its embassy in Kabul.

Speaking at the construction site, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said the work would enable the United States "to carry out its pledge to maintain into the future its very significant security, government, economic, and civil society programs."

He said the project, which is to be completed by 2014, started earlier this year and currently employs about 500 Afghans.

If the US is beginning the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan, and the withdrawal is to be completed by 2014, the purpose of building the colossal fort in the heart of Kabul is a clear indication of American goals in the region.

The US had similar plans for Vietnam, but the huge Embassy complex in Saigon was run over by events and Saigon became Ho chi Minh City.

Analysts believe that once the withdrawal begins, the US will be unable to support this white elephant.

One wonders about he scenes? Will it be just like Saigon, or slightly different. The USSR did not allow any pictures of its withdrawal--will the US be able to hide them.

TEHRAN (FNA)- An Afghan academic figure dismissed the justifications cited by the US for expanding and enlarging its embassy in Kabul, and disclosed that Washington is setting up the largest espionage center in the occupied country.

"The new US embassy complex in Kabul would become CIA's (the Central Intelligence Agency) major base in Afghanistan and Central Asia," Deputy Head of Afghanistan's Science Academy Mohammad Sharif Pakrai told FNA in Kabul on Saturday.

He pointed out that the United States' claims that it intends to spend $550mln to expand the Kabul embassy for diplomatic objectives is a sheer lie since no common sense can accept that such a large budget is spent on such "an unnecessary move".

"Given the current economic, security, military and cultural conditions of Afghanistan, the expansion of the US embassy has no diplomatic justification," Pakrai stressed.

"The move is a complementary part of the six US military bases that are under construction and the center is due to command and control espionage and cultural activities in the region in future," the Afghan figure cautioned.

The comments by Pakrai came after the United States announced on Wednesday that is bolstering its presence in Afghanistan with a 500 million dollar expansion of its Kabul embassy and the construction of two consulates.

Washington's Kabul embassy is already its biggest in the world, with about 1,100 employees, projected to rise to 1,200 by the end of the year, officials said.

The United States and NATO have 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, following a military surge ordered by President Barack Obama.

The embassy expansion contract was worth 511 million dollars and had been awarded under US law to an American company, Caddell Construction Inc., ambassador Karl Eikenberry said.

Another two contracts, worth 20 million dollars each, have been awarded for the construction of consulates in Herat, the main city in Western Afghanistan, and Mazar-I-Sharif in the North, he said.

Hurdles in Indo-US relationship

2010-11-06T11:43:00.001-04:00

: Image via Wikipedia

President Obama's Asia trip timed right after the elections was planned to take care of the domestic bad news. There are several major sales issues that have cropped up in the Indo-US relationship. Let us review these and see if the relationship can overcome the hurdles.

In actual Dollars, Bharat is overestimating the leverage it has with the US. The recent Saudi deal is over $60 billion. The Gulf deal is worth $120 billion. Indonesia is also signing a deal with the US which is larger than any arms deal that Delhi can come up with.

The relationship will have to navigate some of the traps that are in the way. Bharat sees itself as a major player. The US sees it as a customer whose ego has to be massaged. After a devastating defeat President Obama wants to show something to his supporters so that the can change the news cycle in his favor.

1) In the MMRC bid Bharat is leaning towards the Euro Fighter. This means that Delhi's 126 fighters will be European. As a consolation prize, Delhi is holding out the promise of purchasing F-18s or F-35s from the USA. One test of the Indo-U.S. “strategic partnership” will be if it is able to survive an Indian refusal to spend billions of dollars on American military hardware.

2) Bharat is very reluctant to sign the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA). The LSA and CISMOA aim to boost interoperability between the Indian and American militaries. The US sees these agreements as routine, while Bharat new to deals with America is still bewildered at the amount of paperwork required to get things moving.

3) Delhi is reluctant to sign the Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA). Confronted with the Indian refusal to sign on the dotted line, American officials say the LSA and CISMOA texts on offer are identical to what dozens of countries have had no problem signing. They are also upset with India's reluctance to sign “foundational” defence agreements like the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) and the Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA).

India, on the other hand, is reluctant to sign CISMOA and LSA agreements because it is wary of the wider strategic implications.

4) The 123 Civilian Nuclear Deal signed under the Bush Administration has been moving along slower than molasses. With the japanese refusal to sign a similar deal with Delhi, the 123 is pretty much dead. GE and other Nuclear companies are heavily dependent on Japanese part manufacturers.

Having done the heavy lifting at the Nuclear Suppliers Group to win an exemption for India from the cartels' export ban in 2008, the U.S. fears its own companies may not be able to benefit from the multi-billion dollar Indian nuclear market. Westinghouse and GE are squeamish about selling their reactors because the new Indian law opens a door for them to be held liable in the event of an accident caused by defective equipment. The executive branch may have wanted a more lenient law but Parliament thought otherwise. Despite this, the American side is looking for ways to undo the legislation.

5) In the countdown to President Barack Obama's visit to India, American officials have expressed their frustration over the new nuclear liability law.

If the Indian liability law goes beyond the international norm in insisting that suppliers too shoulder a part of the risk involved in the nuclear power generation business, this is because India is the first democracy to go in for a massive expansion of nuclear capacity in recent years. If the U.S. administration is unable to appreciate the sensitivity of the question in a country which experienced the Bhopal disaster, it could at least look at how the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has forced a rethink of liability limits in the United States. Instead, suggestions are being made that the Indian nuclear operator contractually take on the entire liability burden of its supplier even when an accident is traced back to faulty equipment. The end result of this pressure, of course, is that Parliament is likely to demand the right to scrutinise any reference to liability in the commercial contracts the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) signs with American vendors.

6) The U.S. has been an expeditionary and even belligerent power in Asia and though the Indian government supports the American war in Afghanistan, the 2003 invasion of Iraq had disastrous consequences throughout the region. With many in Washington speaking of a looming confrontation with Iran over the nuclear issue — a confrontation that would make the Iraq war look like a tea party — why should India do anything to facilitate American military deployment in the region? The Hindu, Agencies, TOI, Indian Express, Rupee News etc.

Keywords: India's global rise, arms deal, nuclear liabity law

Pakistan forces US to pressure India to disavow 'Cold Start' (rupeenews.com)

Running to India for a $12 billion sale? (pakistanindependent.com)

Pakistan exposes India's 'Cold Start' diabolical plans (timesofislamabad.com)

Why is India hiding its 'Cold Start' intentions? (newpakistantimes.com)

Exposed: India is hiding its 'Cold Start' intentions (pakistanindependent.com)

Exposing and destroying India's hidden 'Cold Start' Strategy (pakistanakhbar.com)

India sees itself as a Republican 'Red state' nostalgic for Bush era (rupeenews.com)

A tepid reception for Obama in Delhi spells failure (rupeenews.com)

Obama to get a friendly but subdued welcome in Delhi (thedawn.com.pk)

Obama's Delhi trip: More style than substance (rupeenews.com)

Indo-US Nuclear deal jeopardised by failed Indo-Japan deal (rupeenews.com)

Brief stop-over in Rawalpindi: Theatrics in Delhi (newpakistantimes.com)

Outsource Obama if he takes more jobs to India (viewstimes.com)

When Fuel stops may be more significant than State visits (pakistanindependent.com)

So Obama can boost US economy with $12 billion in sales? (pakistanledger.com)

Obama's will take tough stand on outsourcing (pakistanledger.com)

Mentioning 'K' during Obama's Kashmir trip to India (pakistanledger.com)

Why Godse murdered Gandhi?

2010-01-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

Fifty-two years ago, on Jan. 30, 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. Godse and his friend Narayan Apte were hanged. His brother Gopal and two others were sentenced to life imprisonment for their part in the conspiracy.

Gopal Godse remained in jail for 18 years and now, at 80, lives with his wife in a small apartment in Pune. He is still proud of his role in the murder. Although Godse is largely ignored in India and rarely talks to journalists, he agreed to speak with TIME Delhi correspondent Meenakshi Ganguly.

TIME: What happened in January 1948?
Godse: On Jan. 20, Madanlal Pahwa exploded a bomb at Gandhi's prayer meeting in Delhi. It was 50 m away from Gandhi. [The other conspirators] all ran away from the place. Madanlal was caught there. Then there was a tension in our minds that we had to finish the task before the police caught us. Then Nathuram [Gopal's brother] took it on himself to do the thing. We only wanted destiny to help us -- meaning we should not be caught on the spot before he acted.

TIME: Why did you want to kill Gandhi?
Godse: Gandhi was a hypocrite. Even after the massacre of the Hindus by the Muslims, he was happy. The more the massacres of the Hindus, the taller his flag of secularism.

TIME: Did you ever see Gandhi?
Godse: Yes.

TIME: Did you attend his meetings?
Godse: Yes.

TIME: Can you explain how he created his mass following?
Godse: The credit goes to him for maneuvering the media. He captured the press. That was essential. How Gandhi walked, when he smiled, how he waved -- all these minor details that the people did not require were imposed upon them to create an atmosphere around Gandhi. And the more ignorant the masses, the more popular was Gandhi. So they always tried to keep the masses ignorant.

TIME: But surely it takes more than good publicity to create a Gandhi?
Godse: There is another thing. Generally in the Indian masses, people are attracted toward saintism. Gandhi was shrewd to use his saintdom for politics. After his death the government used him. The government knew that he was an enemy of Hindus, but they wanted to show that he was a staunch Hindu. So the first act they did was to put "Hey Ram" into Gandhi's dead mouth.

TIME: You mean that he did not say "Hey Ram" as he died?
Godse: No, he did not say it. You see, it was an automatic pistol. It had a magazine for nine bullets but there were actually seven at that time. And once you pull the trigger, within a second, all the seven bullets had passed. When these bullets pass through crucial points like the heart, consciousness is finished. You have no strength.

When Nathuram saw Gandhi was coming, he took out the pistol and folded his hands with the pistol inside it. There was one girl very close to Gandhi. He feared that he would hurt the girl. So he went forward and with his left hand pushed her aside and shot. It happened within one second. You see, there was a film and some Kingsley fellow had acted as Gandhi. Someone asked me whether Gandhi said, "Hey Ram." I said Kingsley did say it. But Gandhi did not. Because that was not a drama.

TIME: Many people think Gandhi deserved to be nominated TIME's Person of the Century. [He was one of two runners-up, after Albert Einstein.]
Godse: I name him the most cruel person for Hindus in India. The most cruel person! That is how I term him.

TIME: Is there anything that you admire about Gandhi?
Godse: Firstly, the mass awakening that Gandhi did. In our school days Gandhi was our idol. Secondly, he removed the fear of prison. He said it is different to go into prison for a theft and different to go in for satyagraha (civil disobedience). As youngsters, we had our enthusiasm, but we needed some channel. We took Gandhi to be our channel. We don't repent for that.

TIME: Did you not admire his principles of non-violence?
Godse: Non-violence is not a principle at all. He did not follow it. In politics you cannot follow non-violence. You cannot follow honesty. Every moment, you have to give a lie. Every moment you have to take a bullet in hand and kill someone. Why was he proved to be a hypocrite? Because he was in politics with his so-called principles. Is his non-violence followed anywhere? Not in the least. Nowhere.

TIME: What was the most difficult thing about killing Gandhi?
Godse: The greatest hurdle before us was not that of giving up our lives or going to the gallows. It was that we would be condemned both by the government and by the public. Because the public had been kept in the dark about what harm Gandhi had done to the nation. How he had fooled them!

TIME: Did the people condemn you?
Godse: Yes. People in general did. Because they had been kept ignorant.

TIME (FEBRUARY 14, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 6)

W E B - O N L Y I N T E R V I E W
"His Principle of Peace Was Bogus"
Gopal Godse, co-conspirator in Gandhi's assassination and brother of the assassin, looks back in anger--and without regret

The snapshot of this interview has been taken from the TIME Magazine's Website

The Rediff Interview/ Gopal Godse

'Gandhi used to systematically fool people. So we killed him'

The lights go off as you reach the dilapidated building in Santa Cruz, in Bombay's western suburbs. With great difficulty you navigate the stairs and knock on a first-floor door.

"What do you want," asks the lady who opened the door.

You tell her you have come to meet Gopal Godse.

"Yes, I'm here," a voice comes from a corner of the dark room. The lady brings a lighted candle and you see the 76-year-old man who underwent 18 years imprisonment for conspiring in Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

"I'm sorry the lights are off," Nathuram Godse's brother says, "You know, this is India and even after 50 years of Independence we have not improved.

"Since Independence our people are accustomed to forget history. Today no one is bothered about the Partition. And no one wants to reunite India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"Gandhi systematically fooled the people by saying, 'I'll accept the Partition of the country over my dead body.' But still he partitioned India. So we killed him..."

Godse, in an exclusive interview with Firdaus Syed Ashraf:

Do you ever regret Mahatma Gandhi's killing?

No, never. Gandhi used to claim the Partition would be over his dead body. So after Partition when he didn't die, we killed him. Usually an assassination of a leader is either for personal benefit or to acquire power. We killed Gandhi because he was harmful to India. And it was a selfless act. No one paid us a single penny for it. Our love for the motherland made us do it. We are not ashamed of it. Gandhi should have been honest to admit that his life was a failure.

You see, right from Pakistan and Bangladesh every Muslim is a converted Hindu. Gandhi's appeasement attitude (towards the Muslims) went far too much. That was why we killed him. Two hundred and fifty thousand Hindus were killed in Noakhali in October 1946. Hindu women were forced to remove their sindhoor and do Muslim rituals. And Gandhi said, 'Hindus must bow their heads if Muslims want to kill them. We should follow the principle of ahimsa (non-violence).' How can any sensible person tolerate this? Our action was not for a handful of people -- it was for all the refugees who came from Pakistan.

So, till this day, I have never regreted being one of the conspirators in Gandhi's assassination. In fact, many of Nathuram's friends told me after my release, 'Nathuram ni gadhav pana kela, tyani majha chance ghalavla' (Nathuram did you an injustice. He made you miss your chance to kill Gandhi).

Did your family undergo any social pressure after the assassination?

Yes, very much. No one used to be ready to marry girls from my family. So we decided that the first thing we should put across to the bridegroom was that we are related to Nathuram Godse. It is only now that people appreciate our honesty. Now they are ready for marriage (into my family).

If the Muslim League could influence the Muslims in 1947, why was it that the Hindu Mahasabha could not influence Hindus?

(That was) because I don't have any leadership quality. My talent is to write. And I have convinced my readers with my writing.

Unfortunately, the so-called secular Hindu leaders from the Congress have been ruling the masses since 1885. And they have ruled the country for another 50 years. It is only now that Hindus have become conscious (about the Congress). They have thrown the party out from Maharashtra and all over India.

You cannot gauge a nation in merely five decades. It took 500 years for the Christians to drive away Muslims from Europe. Muslims ruled right up to Spain and Portugal. I don't know how many years it will take for Hindus to rule the entire Bharat. It may be a decade, or it may be a century.

Did you ever contest elections?

Yes, I contested from Ranchi in Bihar. People asked me why I was contesting there. I said my slogan is 'Ab ke bar Ranchi se agli bar Karachi se'. (This election I will contest from Ranchi and the next from Karachi). I was able to secure only 7,000 votes because I did not have any mass support.

According to Nathuram the Sindhu was the only river which was pure as Gandhi's ashes were not immersed there'

What is the national mainstream?

I can give you an example: There was some inauguration of a dam in Kerala. A Muslim minister was asked to light the lamp. He refused, saying his religion does not permit him to do that! That's hypocrisy. Whenever you find benefits you keep your Islam away. And when you are asked to light a lamp you say it's against your religion! That's why I say Muslims in a mob are not in the mainstream.

Veer Savarkar once said, "If a Vithal is worshipped by a Harijan and you say that he is polluted, then he is no Vithal at all."

How can there be a mainstream in India when there are so many castes? A Maharashtrian has a different caste and culture from that of his counterpart in West Bengal.

Britishers created this caste system. Even in Maharashtra they wanted to create a split between the brahmins and the others. Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav are from the same caste. But still they quarrel. Why? Because they are hungry for power. What has tied them and every Indian together is the common culture. That is what we call Hindutva. For example, a marriage between a Mahar in Maharashtra and a brahmin in West Bengal. They come from the same mantras. That is what we call culture and Hindutva.

The most essential thing is why we are together. Because of language? No. Because of our common culture. And that is why from north to south people are going to attend the Amarnath Yatra. Once you forget your culture, the mere existence of the geographical boundary which is termed India will be of no use.

What were your experiences in jail?

When we took the step, we were sure of the consequences. We took it because we loved our nation. Bhagat Singh did not want to liberate his ancestral land. He wanted to liberate Lahore, Pune and the entire nation. So he sacrificed his life. Revolution is integrated with its leader. A man who sacrifices his life is not bothered about petty things. We knew Gandhi's leadership was not good for the nation. Someone had to jump in the fire. So we did it.

Veer Savarkar was made to do the work which bullocks did in an oil mill. And he did it. Why? Because he was dedicated to the nation. All revolutionaries have to make personal sacrifice. Luckily for us, all the jailers knew we were simple men. They knew our cause. So they never troubled us. And I never violated the prison rules. I studied about life imprisonment and wrote about it.

Can you tell me about your last meeting with Nathuram Godse?

I met him on November 13, 1948 in Ambala jail. It was the day before his execution and there were 20 others with me. Both he and Narayan Apte were jolly.

Nathuram told us that his ashes must not be immersed in any river in India -- it must be scattered only in the Sindhu in Pakistan. His explanation was that Gandhi's ashes have been immersed in all the rivers of the world -- even in the Nile, Volga and Thames. But the Pakistan government refused to immerse his ashes in the Sindhu, saying they didn't want to pollute it with the ashes of a kafir. According to Nathuram the Sindhu was the only river which was pure as Gandhi's ashes were not immersed there.

How do you see India's future?

(Laughs) You make me the prime minister and half the problem of this country will be solved. But I think we will improve only if our leaders adopt a selfless attitude. Take for example the education policy. We must set up a target: in 15 years we will educate so many people. And only those people who can read and write will be allowed to vote. In such an eventuality, politicians will get busy educating the masses in order to get votes.

Another problem is the large number of candidates. And many of them are uneducated. We must make some norms to prevent this. Only then we will improve. To date, nobody has any thought of the nation. Otherwise you would never have heard of recovering more than Rs 30 million from a politician's flat. They don't have any integration with the nation. They are only integrated with their family and sons-in-law.

What is your opinion about secularism in India?

All these 50 years we practised a mockery of secularism. The magistrate has to ask about the religion of a person before giving a judgment. If a man is a Hindu he gets one kind of justice and if he is a Muslim he gets another. Can you call this secularism? This is what is happening in our country. Even in the Property Act you have different rules for Muslims.

What about poverty in India?

Poverty has increased because resources have not increased. On one side you want to increase the life of a person. On the other, you don't want to increase the resources. If you have noticed, during the advertisement of family planning on television you never see a Muslim woman saying 'Hum do Hamare do' (We are two, ours two). And these secularists say that family planning is applicable to all of us! I don't understand why former prime minister Narasimha Rao says 'If there is a Common Civil Code riots will start all over the country'.

Which do you prefer -- the BJP or Shiv Sena?

The Shiv Sena. The BJP is more hesitant to stand by Hinduism. The Shiv Sena supports the killing of Gandhi. People accept them as a Hindu party. When I was honoured, the BJP kept away from it. In Maharashtra the Sena has more respect than the BJP.

Mumbai: The reason why Raj Thackeray admires both Adolf Hitler and Mahatma Gandhi is "the way they shook up societies and created uproar," according to the official website of MNS.

However, on Monday, it was the admiration for the Fuehrer which was on display in the Maharashtra Assembly as MNS MLAs bashed up another Legislator in the House. The MNS website has an interesting conversation with the enfant terrible of Maharashtra politics. Excerpts:

"Question: You say you admire Gandhi, who preached non-violence. Then why do your followers heed to violence? The answer: You need to communicate with your opponent in a language they understand, a language they can comprehend."

Beating up SP MLA Abu Asim Azmi for not taking oath in Marathi as he could only understand the language of violence was the message given by Raj and his men, who were mute spectators when some other MLAs did not take oath in the language and instead opted for English.

Hitler's stormtroopers persecuted Jews and people who opposed the Fuehrer. Raj and Azmi have been at loggerheads since the MNS chief launched his anti-north Indian stir.

Raj told PTI in 2005, "When it comes to organisational skills, there are few who can rival Hitler. Leave aside his negative aspects like the barbaric annihilation of millions of Jews. There are several other things about Hitler, which any leader would. http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_raj-thackeray-admires-hitler-mahatma-gandhi-mns-website_1310381

Raj Thackeray admires Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi: MNS website

A word of caution: Don’t use the “P” word

2010-01-19T09:46:00.001-05:00

Many Pakistani Americans do not know the negative connotations of the “P” word. I was astonished to see many youngsters in New York proudly calling themselves Paki—during the Pakistan Day Parade. The 2nd and third generation Pakistanis in America who have not lived in Britain see no harm in suing the short form of Pakistani. While the word equates to the “N” word in England—it has no significance in the USA. Stupid Bigoted Bharatis (aka Indians) don’t know that the “P” word refers to all South Asians including the Indians. Many Bharatis on the internet use the word in front of unsuspecting Pakistanis—and think that they have gotten away with murder. In fact when one minority denigrates another, all minorities suffer. While Indians are facing severe problems in Australia, they continue to use the “P” word to denigrate Pakistanis. As one Australian said same sh**, different bucket. For the racist bigot, there is no difference between on brown man or another.

Earlier this year, a homemade video of Prince Harry, the impish grandson of the British Queen whose colourful exploits have earned him tabloid darling status, was leaked to a delighted UK press. Training to be a soldier in Her Majesty’s Army, Prince Harry is shown referring to a British Pakistani Muslim colleague as ‘our little Paki friend,’ amongst other questionable remarks. Headlines exploded, the Pakistani community went on the offensive, and race relations experts came out of the woodwork in force to attack the prince.

Prince Harry unreservedly apologised for his comments, and Clarence House, the prince’s representatives, issued a statement explaining that he had used the term without malice. Still, columnists across the political spectrum criticised the prince and even the Daily Mail, the usually contrary voice of conservative Middle England, said the prince ‘had shown incredible crassness… and he can expect no more chances.’

Within the British blogosphere and on newspaper website comment sections, the row blazed on for weeks. Some commentators dismissed the criticism against the prince, claiming it was symptomatic of the prevailing political correctness in society. Others downplayed the prince’s comments and simply equated ‘Paki’ with other jocular terms denoting British regional identities, such as ‘Scot’ (someone from Scotland) or ‘Geordie’ (someone from Newcastle). Former army officers boldly said Prince Harry was just following the grand military tradition of endowing his colleagues with nicknames so that his colleague, Lieutenant Ahmad Khan, was simply ‘Paki,’ just as Sir Henry Havelock, who recaptured Kanpur during the Indian rebellion in 1857 was ‘Gravedigger’ and Philip Chetwode, the Commander in Chief in India in the 1930s, was nicknamed ‘The Bart.’

What the episode outlined – apart from Prince Harry having inherited the gaffe-prone gene of the Windsor dynasty (grandfather Prince Phillip to British students in China during a state visit in 1986: ‘If you stay here for much longer, you’ll go slitty eyed.’) – was that the contention surrounding the word ‘Paki’ was very much alive. Its connotations, context, and usage remain unclear even to desis themselves. The question is, why does the word continue to cause such offense?

For the Pakistani ensconced back home or visiting the UK, the word seems no more than a jovial contraction. Of course, it’s more than that. The word ‘Paki’ is loaded with the UK’s precarious and somewhat violent record of race relations in the late 1960s and 1970s, when immigration from the Indian subcontinent reached its apogee.
The first sensationalist and press-endorsed flogging of Pakistanis came in the early 1960s, during a reported smallpox outbreak in Bradford, where many Pakistanis had settled. A few unvaccinated Pakistanis did fall ill, but, according to Dr. Derrick Tovey, a practicing physician at the time, the press exaggerated the situation. Reportage was ‘often irresponsible,’ with headlines such as ‘City in Fear’ or ‘Keep Out Pakistanis.’ The public response reasserted essentialist – though disproved – colonial ideas about the ‘non-white’ embedded in the national psyche by Victorian science during the height of the British Empire.

Resistance to South Asian immigration materialised more coherently in the 1970s with the rise of nationalist parties and militant outfits like the British National Party and the National Front. These groups pamphleteered in white communities where immigrants had settled, urging Britons to support policies on repatriation and even accusing South Asian communities of stealing jobs and state-funded housing.

While the 1965 Race Relations Act made racial discrimination illegal in public on ‘grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins,’ the Conservative MP Enoch Powell compared such legislation to ‘throwing a match on to gunpowder.’ He actively encouraged the repatriation of settled immigrants, even if they were UK citizens, inflaming national sentiment even further.

Despite race legislation supporting immigrants, many Pakistanis in the UK at the time, will recall the term ‘Paki-bashing,’ used to describe the sordid pastime of working-class white youths, or ‘skinheads,’ who would attack unsuspecting individuals from South Asian communities.

These racial tensions came to a head in 1979, when a teacher died of head injuries during a confrontation with the police in a protest by thousands of anti-racist campaigners. The protestors had assembled against a National Front meeting, which controversially took place in a town hall in Southall, a suburb in south-west London with one of the UK’s largest Asian communities.

Over the years, though, British Asians have moved into the mainstream. They are well represented in professional fields and in the media, and no doubt pleased by a declaration in 2001 by Robin Cook, the erstwhile Foreign Secretary under Tony Blair, that chicken tikka masala is the national dish of the UK. Such developments make it apparent that desis are here to stay and indeed add significant cultural and material value to British society.

Still, the usage of the word ‘Paki’ is as offensive as ever. Last year, on a rather staid UK reality show, Strictly Come Ballroom, where couples contest in ballroom dancing, slick-haired contestant Anton du Beke was accused of racism for dropping the P word. He said that his fellow dance partner, the actress Laila Rouass, who is herself of Indian and Moroccan extraction, ‘looked like a Paki.’ Heavily criticised by the press, Du Beke’s comments were shocking and reprehensible in twenty-first century multicultural Britain. And in July last year, white supremacist Neil Lewington was convicted of preparing for acts of terrorism, and was widely quoted as saying, ‘the only good Paki is a dead Paki.’

But we shouldn’t forget that the use of ‘Paki’ was once fair game on mainstream British television in the 1970s and early 1980s. Take a 1981 episode of Only Fools and Horses, which some critics say was among the best UK television comedies shows ever made. In the offending episode, a white, working class, and slightly befuddled character Uncle Albert says, ‘The Paki shop won't let us have nothing on tick (credit)! Says it’s part of his culture!’ His nephew Rodney replies, ‘Don't think it's got anything to do with the 46 quid we already owe 'em, do you?’

Some may argue that Rodney’s response illustrated the burgeoning resistance to racist syntax prevalent in the 1980s by demystifying Uncle Albert’s flawed assumptions of ‘Paki’ culture. Yet in a period of difficult race relations, in which the use of Paki was commonplace, it is hard to discern an altruistic purpose in the scriptwriter’s decision to use the word ‘Paki,’ whether comically or not.

It’s obvious to say that ‘Paki’ is an offensive, catch-all racist term that seeks to attack, offend, and alienate those of South Asian extraction in the UK. Yet in a post-9/11 – or post-7/7 world with regards to the UK – the term is beginning to connote a new prejudice in which Islamophobia takes centre-stage.

In November 2009, The Guardian reported the launch of a police investigation into a series of attacks on Muslim students at City University in London. According to the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, the gang responsible for the attacks comprised about 30 white and black youths and shouted ‘get those Muslims’ and ‘Pakis.’ Meanwhile, a BBC Panorama documentary aired in November followed two South Asian reporters who had gone undercover being abused in terms such as ‘Paki’ and ‘Taliban’ by the residents of an estate in Bristol.

It is clear that ‘Paki’ in these instances is interchangeable with derogatory anti-Muslim jibes and encompasses religious affiliation as well as ethnic origin. This will be increasingly true in a society facing down Islamist terrorism and inundated with examples of fanatic, semtex-clad British Pakistanis. Shakespeare asked, ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.’ Change a few things around and you have the Bard hitting it on the nail.

Of course, this isn’t to say its all doom and gloom. Attempts to reclaim and appropriate ‘Paki’ as a positive, even fashionable term have gained ground amongst South Asian youths in the UK, in the same way ‘nigger’ was reclaimed by black hip hop artists and filmmakers in the US. At cricket matches featuring Pakistan, one can regularly see banners by Pakistani youths proclaiming ‘Paki-Power.’ Indeed, ‘Paki’ now encompasses a range of meanings, though that doesn’t lessen the offense the word can still cause

That said, there are few examples within the cultural output of British Asians to suggest a consensus has been reached as to what Paki could mean. In 2005, British Asian artist Aki Nawaz, of the band Fun-da-Mental, agreed to be interviewed for a BBC documentary titled British, Paki and Proud. Once the film was completed, he said, ‘I'm disappointed with the title. I was told [about it] last week. If I had known the title in advance I would have said, 'I will not do it under that title.' The term being endorsed I have a real problem with, it is absolutely unacceptable.’

When it comes down to it, the legitimate use of Paki really depends on who says it or not. It may be acceptable for one South Asian to call another a ‘Paki.’ But change the colour of the speaker and you have racism, it seems. The UK has arrived at the point where there is a sufficient understanding of how ‘Paki’ could be offensive and few are oblivious enough to use the term without an awareness of the ensuing impact.

It’s also worth noting that the term ‘Paki’ is part of a mix of more subtle and sinister forms of racial prejudice that are prevalent in the UK today. Take the race scandal in which Jade Goody, the late contestant on British reality show Big Brother, referred to Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty as ‘Shilpa Poppadom.’ Though not outwardly racist, the culinary reference (a popular appetizer for the British at curry houses) was intended to highlight Shetty’s ethnic origin and, in the malicious context of Goody’s bullying campaign, was no doubt racist.

Of course, as keen as some may be to highlight racist attitudes in the West, our native shores are hardly unfamiliar with prejudice that peppers everyday behaviour and language. They say that charity begins at home and we should look to the mirror for how we view the world. It’s a two-way road. The P Word By Khuroum Ali Bukhari Sunday, 17 Jan, 2010

Haiti Earthquake: Why isn’t Pakistani ERRA there?

2010-01-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

When ERRA was created by President Pervez Musharraf, tall claims were made about developing indigenous expertise for disasters. Claims were also made that ERRA would help other nations in distress. There have been several disasters in countries—in China, Turkey, Iran and now in Haiti—and ERRA is absent.

ERRA should send Sniffing dogs, and a band of men and women who can help the people of Haiti. Where is the OIC—they should be funding a disaster relief effort anywhere and everywhere. Edhi is always one of the first to reach disasters—he was there in the USA during Hurricane Katrina and in Bangladesh and Lanka etc.

Whats wrong with this picture? ERRA the government agency with literally billions under its disposal is absent—and Edhi a private enterprise send volunteers and goods to disaster affected areas of the world.

Pakistan also has a huge database of volunteers—good natured students who want to help. Here is a cause—help the people of Haiti. Haiti has a sizable “Indian” population. There are many Muslims there also.

Mr. Zardari has more than $1.5 billion to his name. How about a donation to assist Haiti. Mr. Bilawal Bhutto is prancing around Oxford. How about taking up a cause and assisting human beings that need our help today

Senator McCain is wrong again: Illegal Drone attacks only create more militants

2010-01-07T11:51:00.001-05:00

The drones attacks are illegal, a total violation of the UN Charter. As such they are a war crime. The murder of civilians in a sovereign country is barbaric which does not conform to the high ideals on which this great country was formed.

The is what Senator McCain said.

The use of drone strikes against suspected Islamist militants in Pakistan is an effective part of US strategy and should continue, Republican Senator John McCain said Thursday.

His comments came after Al-Qaeda reportedly said an attack on a US base in eastern Afghanistan which killed seven CIA agents was to avenge drone strikes that have killed prominent militants.

"The drone strikes are part of an overall set of tactics which make up the strategy for victory and they have been very effective," McCain told reporters during a brief trip to Afghanistan.

Drones had "knocked Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups off balance and they have been successful, and we are working more closely with the Afghan government as well as the Pakistan government to make those operations more efficient and less damaging to the civilian population," McCain said.

"I think it should continue, I think it's an important tool in our overall strategy and we can claim measurable success in carrying out those operations."

The US is a nation of laws, not men. The illegal operations have caused more than a 1000 civilian deaths, five time that number of casualties, and affected a hundred times that number. Drones only create more Anti-Americanism. Terrorists can be nabbed by means other than drones.

Fareed Zakaria’s “Shining ‘India’ “

2010-01-05T10:35:00.001-05:00

What most of the world today perceives through the lens of the Indian and western media about Hindustan (Republic of India) is indeed very disturbing. The west befooled by the Indian opinion-makers, like Fareed Zakaria, refers to India as "the emerging powerhouse of the 21st century." In his recent treatise, The Post American World, Fareed Zakaria (true to his Indian roots) has described the great story of our times as 'Rise of the Rest' - the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Kenya...and we in Pakistan (courtesy some of our own media channels) think that India is the biggest democracy and the star of South Asia. The media of the West and India, which is being referred as Windia, has become the spin-doctor trying to convince the rest of the world that India should be included in countries that can save the world from the current global economic mess and scourge of terrorism. But the million dollar question is, how is it possible for a country to save the world when it has a population of a billion plus of which 400 to 500 million live below poverty line, when it has more than 100 active insurgencies, when its hundreds of thousands die due to pollution and starvation annually, and when it has militarily intervened directly or indirectly in almost every country in its neighbourhood?

Nevertheless, it is important to mention here that there is a huge difference between poverty in an average country like Pakistan and India. India's poor live in subhuman conditions. Whether it is food or basic shelter, the Indian poor don't have that; almost an estimated one million die due to starvation and malnutrition every year. The people in the poor neighbourhoods of Mumbai and Delhi sleep on footpaths. Moreover, there are timings for this facility; you have to share the footpath space as per the prescribed timings. That is the reason why the poor in India live and die on the roads and footpaths; if in doubt, watch Slum Dog Millionaire. In the same vein, there is severe shortage of basic public facilities (toilets).

Furthermore, the Dalits or untouchables in India were and are treated like animals. The Hindu stratification enshrined in The Dharma is turning the poor in India against its own state. Undoubtedly, the world's biggest insurgencies are active in India. Here, I am mainly referring to the Naxal Republic, the three Ks of Khalistan, Kerala and Kashmir, Gurkhaland and the seven sisters adjacent to and including Assam. Other than Kashmir, the most effective insurgency is the Naxalite movement. As per Wikipedia: "Naxalite or Naxalvadis (name from the village of Naxalbari in the Indian State of West Bengal where the movement originated), are a group of far-left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology. In recent years, they have spread into less developed areas of rural central and eastern India, such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh through the activities of underground groups like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

"As of 2009, Naxalites are active across approximately 220 districts in 20 states of India accounting for about 40 percent of India's geographical area, they are especially concentrated in an area known as the 'Red Corridor', where they control 92,000 square kilometres. According to India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, 20,000 armed cadre Naxalites were operating apart from 50,000 regular cadres working in their various mass organisations and millions of sympathisers, and their growing influence prompted Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare them as the most serious internal threat to India's national security ".

At the same time, India treats its minorities ruthlessly by violating religious and human rights. Kashmir, Babri Mosque, Golden Temple and burning of churches in Orissa by extremist Hindus are a few examples. The non-Hindus are being forced to accept pagan traditions in the name of their practicality and logic. Mysterious rituals, where people are forced to marry frogs and dogs to remove evil curses, are common. In a number of Indian cities there are thousands of monkeys allowed to freely roam and pollute streets, causing solid waste problems and harm to the citizens, all in the name of divinity of Hanuman. Drinking cow urine was religiously followed in the country side, it is now becoming fashionable in Indian elite and their night clubs, a re birth of novo Morar Ji Desaies in the name of Pavitarta and divinity of the holy cow.
Then again, India has another problem of managing its water resources. Indian rivers are the most acidic rivers in the world. As per Lifestyle india.com: "Water pollution is a serious problem in India as almost 70 percent of surface water resources have serious pollution problem and a growing number of ground water resources are already contaminated by various pollutants. Though River Ganga's water has not polluted totally, its pollution has reached a critical point since its water is not fit for bathing or drinking. Over the years, of the 3000 aqua creatures found in the Ganga, only 205 have survived." Surely, the basic reason is their belief of throwing ashes of the dead in the river Ganges.

The major deception being played in projecting Shining India is through the media - Windia. This media projects India as the 'Golden State' and ultimate redeemer of the world. Channels like Zee, Star Plus, BBC, National Geographic, Discovery and Bollywood project the themes of milk and honey flowing through the Ganges River. Some of our Pakistani channels (with the big slogan of 'live and let live'), are dying to project India as the ultimate success story of South Asia, despite all of what happens in India, 80 percent of the news about India appears to be from Bollywood or Indian Cricket. They need to be more objective on India.

Windia's India is like a city with its walls painted with pictures of heaven, but once you enter its gates you realise that you have entered hell. Three cheers for Incredible India, the boggy of Windia. UMAR WAQAR. Not so 'Shining India', Published: January 5, 2010, The writer is a freelance columnist.

Ruling “India” by breaking it up into more pieces

2010-01-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

In mid-October 1952, an acolyte of Mahatma Gandhi named Potti Sriramulu invoked the tactics of his teacher and went on a hunger strike. The nation of India — at the time just five years old — was still finding shape after centuries of division and colonial rule, with many of its diverse regions clamoring for greater political recognition. Sriramulu's fast came on behalf of tens of millions who, like him, spoke Telugu, a prominent south Indian language, and wanted their own state within the country.

Yet his protest went unheeded for weeks by New Delhi and, 58 days after it began, Sriramulu died, a sacrifice that triggered widespread rioting and eventually forced the government into forming the Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh in 1953, as well as other new states organized on linguistic lines. No small irony then, that, almost 60 years later, another hunger strike threatens to dismember the state Sriramulu first won, and revive a fierce debate about the nature of the federal Indian nation-state.(See a pictorial history of the tempestuous Nehru dynasty of India.)

Late Wednesday, the Indian government announced it would approve the carving out of a separate state known as Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. The movement for Telangana secession is virtually as old as the Indian republic itself, but it gained traction this month after its main political leader, K. Chandrashekar Rao, commenced a week-long fast. Rao's deteriorating health as well as coordinated protests — some violent — across the 10 districts of Andhra Pradhesh's 23 that comprise Telangana, including the influential high-tech capital of Hyderabad, seemed to force New Delhi's hand. But it could open a whole series of controversies for the Indian government as many other regional movements have now stepped up their own demands for statehood.(See a story about the death that may have precipitated the Andhra Pradesh controversy.)

Though Telugu-speaking as well, Telangana had once been part of a separate kingdom ruled from Hyderabad, which recognized British suzerainty during the colonial period but was not administratively part of British India. It was subsumed into the territory of Andhra Pradesh only in 1956, after a further dismemberment of the once independent Hyderabad kingdom. Though the city of Hyderabad was made the capital of the united Andhra Pradesh state, calls for greater autonomy have lingered, with many in Telangana complaining of marginalization at the hands of the coastal Andhra population.

But if New Delhi imagined it would calm tensions with its nod toward accepting a new state, the move backfired. Dozens of local legislators in Andhra Pradesh have resigned their posts and strikes by those opposing Telangana's secession have paralyzed much of the state. Trains have been blocked, businesses shut down. According to news reports on Saturday, two activists in favor of a "united Andhra" took their lives in protest of the state's splitting. The turmoil has also plunged Hyderabad, a booming, cosmopolitan I.T. hub, into panic as politicians and business leaders fret over the costs of the current instability. "This will be a total flop as investors will flee," says Amruthraj Padmanabhundi, a 27-year-old I.T. professional in Hyderabad. "I am very worried [about] my prospects slipping."

The prospect of Telangana's creation has buoyed similar causes elsewhere as calls for secession echo in nearly a dozen states in India. A four-day strike is under way among the picturesque hills and tea estates of Darjeeling, in northern West Bengal, with protesters intensifying demands for a new state of Gorkhaland that would better address the needs of the area's ethnic Nepalese population. More than 100 activists have begun what they call a "fast-unto-death." On the other side of the country, in the vast desert state of Rajasthan, a caravan of some 5,000 demonstrators and 500 camels paraded into the capital of Jaipur on Friday, agitating for the formation of Maru Pradesh, a state that would be carved out of some of Rajasthan's poorest districts. "Rajasthan is huge. It is not easy to keep track of all the villages, of the development or the lack of it," says Jaiveer Godara, the leading voice of the movement. "The person who lives in the last village of Maru Pradesh has to wait for three days to get supply of water from outside ... [And] there are no roads that lead to his village."(See a story about the 1937 silver jubilee of the ruler of Hyderabad, reputedly the world's richest man, from TIME's archives.)

At the root of this looming crisis lies the still unresolved question of how the world's largest democracy ought best to govern itself. Independent India was at first a patchwork of former British provinces and princely states threaded together into a federal republic. Some of its states remain huge and unwieldy — for example, the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, with its estimated 190 million people, would be virtually tied with Brazil as the fifth most populous country on earth but it would also possess 8% of the world's population under the global poverty line. With a country of India's size and diversity — as well as poverty — there is logic in having smaller states. "It will in fact strengthen [governance] through economic and administrative convenience," says Delhi-based political analyst Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. "India can survive and prosper by breaking up."

The Indian government last fashioned new states in 2000, when three largely remote and impoverished regions were elevated in status. At least two of them — Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand — have shown marked progress since their inception. Small states like Kerala in the south and Haryana in the north, both with populations under 30 million, boast some of India's highest development indicators. Backers of further decentralization even point to the original, idealistic Gandhian vision for India — of a republic brought together not by a strong central government, but an "ocean" of egalitarian and self-sufficient villages.

Of course, that sort of utopianism has little place in the current hurly-burly of Indian politics. Experts worry that new states may simply mean more jockeying for power and expanded bureaucracy in a country already notorious for its spools of red tape as well as its perpetual political horse-trading. "Ultimately, fragmentation is not a substitute for good governance," says C.V. Madhukar, director of PRS Legislative Research, a Delhi nonprofit which advises the government.

Hoping to dampen a few of calls for new and smaller states ignited by the Andhra controversy, New Delhi has dialed back its support for Telangana, insisting that the matter now find a resolution through a vote in the Andhra Pradesh legislature. Given the current tumult, it's unclear when or how such a motion may go through. The political party headed by Rao, the Telangana separatist leader, was trounced both in recent state and national polls. His hunger strike — now ended — and the disturbances organized around it were likely an act of desperation of a movement shorn of much of its real political capital. "Having the government buckle to this kind moral blackmail is not a healthy way to go about things," says Madhukar. "There shouldn't be this sword of Damocles hanging over peoples' heads." A young India may have come of age through such dramatic acts of Gandhian sacrifice, but a more mature nation needs more measured habits. —With reporting by Nilanjana Bhowmick/New Delhi. How to Rule India: Break It Into More Pieces? By Ishaan Tharoor Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009

See a pictorial timeline of events that shaped modern India.

Read "The Insurgency Threatening India's Schools."

“India can survive and prosper by breaking up." Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

2009-12-30T18:48:00.000-05:00

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is a journalist with over 20 years experience in print, radio and television, the last two years of which have been with Television Eighteen. Paranjoy anchors the India Talks discussion and interview show on ABNi. The show has been on air since ABNi was launched on November 27, 1995, and completed 400 episodes on 17 June 1997.

During his career, Paranjoy has been employed by a number of leading publications including Business India, Business World, The Telegraph, India Today and The Pioneer. He has contributed to many other Indian publications.

He has also worked in documentary films and produced radio programmes.

Paranjoy has studied at La Martiniere School, Calcutta, St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the Delhi School of Economics.

http://www.asianage.com/presentation/columnisthome/paranjoy-guha-thakurta.aspx

India is coming apart at the seams. The patchwork of states hobbled together by threats, force, police action, armed intervention, fake articles of accession, instigated revolts, assault, brute force and propaganda of imminent collapse---"Indian Union", is now coming apart at the seams. Lest we forget, it is a "union" of many different states which have now decided that the contract with Delhi isn't working and they want out. “Hum Pakistani hain”: Syed Ali Gilani Kashmir Hurriyat leader

[caption id="attachment_20149" align="alignleft" width="376" caption=""India" was never one country. For hundreds of years it has remained many small states--that is the natural state of "India"--about 570 states--Extent of British control in India. Yellow areas represent territories under the indirect rule of the British while the pink areas denote direct rule. "][/caption]

The conglomeration of more then 114 different linguistic groups, literally hundreds of castes, scores of nationalities, various races, religions and ethnecities-- is imploding. Telangana splitting up India: Back to the future: —Return to 560 independent states that existed during Company Raj, British Rule, Mughal era & before

[caption id="attachment_2203" align="alignleft" width="367" caption="'India is no more a country than the Equator'.Winston Churchill "][/caption]

Bharat (to use its constitutional name) is Balkanizing like Yugoslavia and exploding like the USSR. Those who didn't see it coming, may have been living in a cave or not reading Rupee News!

[caption id="attachment_4205" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="Naxalite insurgency spreading like wildfire in Bharat. Hindustan's Maoist insurgency map. There are secessionist movements in almost every state in "India" encompasisng more than 200 districts. The Naxals have been supported by the Maoists in Nepal. With the Maoist victory in Nepal the Naxals and Maoists of Bharat are increasingly more assertive. There were a 1,591 incidents of Maoist violence resulting in 721 killings; this year until August there had been 1,405 incidents, resulting in 580 deaths spread over 11 states. The situation in the northeastern parts of the country, the prime minister warned, was far from comfortable. "In two of the states, Manipur and Assam, current levels of violence give us cause for concern. According to home minister P Chidambaram, they had presence in 17 states and were responsible for 90 percent of the violence in the country. Bharat Verma says New Delhi and the state capitals have almost ceded the governmental control over 40 % of the Union’s territory to the Naxalites. CNN-IBN reported on Nov 26th 2009 that at least 7000 armed Maoists have spread out across the West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura district in West Bengal along with East Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Naxals collude with north-east insurgents. Clearly, the Maoists are preparing for a new surge. This time their target is West Bengal and their increased alliances with north-east insurgent groups of India will make it more difficult for the security forces to fight the Red terror. In Bengal, they are being assisted by hard-core rebels from Manipur's insurgent group, People Liberation Army, who are training tribal villagers living inside these forests. "][/caption]

40% of Bharati territory is not in control of the Central Government--the Naxalite Maoists own it. It is ironic that Hyderbad, and other states that were forced into the "Indian Union" now are most vocal in their demand for autonomy. But of course like Yugoslavia, its not just about autonomy, and perks from the central government. Many of the demands for "statehood" are actual demands for complete independence from "the Indian Union". Assam, Kashmir and a vast swathe of territory from Nepal to Andhara Pradesh is pretty much independent.

[caption id="attachment_5183" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The militancy is spreading through the Indian Union and engulfs more than 20 states now"][/caption]

This cobbled group of countries is now headed towards it inevitable decentralization. Before the British came, there were more than 570 independent states in South Asia. After independence 560 were forcibly taken over by Delhi.

India's 29th state

could lead to many more

The central government decides to give in to demands to create the state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh after a hunger strike by a regional politician. Activists in other regions are piping up.

Anti-Telangana and pro-Telangana advocates quarrel as police try to stop them on the premises of Andhra Pradesh High Court. (EPA)

Reporting from New Delhi - The surprise announcement this week that India would create a new state has sparked what advocates of the status quo have long feared: a host of other regions clamoring for statehood.

The catalyst for the decision to create the new state of Telangana out of southern Andhra Pradesh state was an 11-day fast by a struggling regional politician who had vowed to starve himself to death if India didn't redraw the map.

[caption id="attachment_2229" align="alignleft" width="468" caption="Pre Independence map of British "India". This is the political map of South Asia. The Muslims always saw South Asia as a conglomeration of 570 states--they never saw it as one country. "Akhand Bharat" never existed except in the minds of the Hindu mhasabah bigots. There was no partition. The states on the banks of the Indus decided to continue to live together. "][/caption]

The all but desperate move by K. Chandrasekhar Rao was meant to evoke the strategic fasts of the last century by Mohandas Gandhi, father of modern India, to protest British colonial oppression and contain religious violence.

Rao's fast quickly hit a chord, sparking clashes between authorities and college students and a general strike that crippled Hyderabad, the state capital and one of India's high-tech centers. Then in a surprise to almost everyone, probably even Rao, the ruling Congress Party in New Delhi acceded to his demand to create India's 29th state.

[caption id="attachment_4200" align="alignleft" width="117" caption="Lord Clives 1760 British Empire map of India. CLice controlled a very small part of South Asia. Most of the territory was in the hands of small states"][/caption]

"The government panicked," said Kuldip Nayar, a political commentator. "Gandhi fasted for long periods and seldom threatened death, but this man was dramatizing with all this. Now people will think all you have to do is fast and you can get your own state."

On Friday, the Gorkha community, ethnic Nepalis, called for an indefinite strike in West Bengal state demanding a "Gorkhaland" to safeguard their heritage.

Activists in Bundelkhand quickly followed suit, threatening a 180-mile march to highlight their demands for their region. This is one of India's most backward areas, straddling the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the central state of Madhya Pradesh.

In Maharashtra, the western state that includes the business hub Mumbai, advocates demonstrated Friday for a new state for Vidarbha, another impoverished area.

And on it went, with similar calls from those in favor of a "Harit Pradesh" state carved out of western Uttar Pradesh, Rayalaseema state out of Andhra Pradesh as well as a proposed division into Upper and Lower Andhra Pradesh.

[caption id="attachment_4208" align="alignleft" width="468" caption="India map shepherd 1923. Before independence British Raj was limited to about 40% of the territory. About 60% was never under direct control of the Crown--they states enjoyed various degrees of sovreignty with the biggest states like Hyderabad were pretty much sovreign like Canada and Australia is today. Kashmir, Bhopal, and even some smaller states like Rampur, JUnagarh, Manvadar were pretty much independent"][/caption]

Since independence in 1947, India has walked a tightrope between central control and the drive for greater recognition by its diverse regions, castes, tribes and ethnic communities.

Statehood offers several benefits, including more direct funding from the capital, more high-prestige political and bureaucratic positions for bigwigs, recognition of local identity and an ability to steer economic policy more effectively.

[caption id="attachment_19646" align="alignleft" width="468" caption="The fire of secession is engulfing the failed state called "India""][/caption]

After Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were formed in the late 1960s and early '70s out of a much larger Punjab state, they prospered and now are among India's richest states.

The unexpected announcement that Telangana might soon be strutting its independent stuff after a nearly 40-year quest struck some analysts as less a result of a well-thought out policy than a desire to avoid political turmoil.

But the decision angered opponents of the idea. More than one-third of the lawmakers in the 294-member Andhra Pradesh state assembly resigned in protest Thursday and Friday. The resignations have not yet been formally accepted by the speaker.

The standoff then spilled into the streets Friday as thousands of people, both for an and against, marched across Andhra Pradesh, leading to the shutdown of businesses and public transportation.

Rao's regional Telangana Rashtra Samithi party, which had campaigned on the statehood demand during spring elections, was trounced at the polls and his career and the issue seemed dead.

[caption id="attachment_13775" align="alignleft" width="467" caption="The Sikhs want their own country called Khalistan. The dream is alive. http://khalistannews.com/"][/caption]

The Telangana initiative may be part of a trend, observers said. In the first few decades after independence, Indian states were formed largely along linguistic lines, said Swapan Dasgupta, a political analyst. But with the creation of Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states in 2000 and now continuing with Telangana, the focus has shifted to a redrawing along economic lines.

"Sooner or later we could see a new round of state creation as power becomes more decentralized," Dasgupta said. "The socially explosive part, however, is if ethnicity or religion and backward economics combine."

Rao's success could embolden agitators, Dasgupta said. "You could see a sort of bargain basement statehood," he said. "It sounds a bit cruel, but they should have force-fed him a bit."

[caption id="attachment_3979" align="alignleft" width="386" caption="Ladakh has a Muslim majority map. Kashmir valley map shows the Muslim majority areas. Kashmiris want to be part of Pakistan. they share the same culutre, language, religion, history as the rest of Pakistan--they share very little with Bharat"][/caption]

But statehood for Telangana is far from a done deal. Its creation would require the approval of the Andhra Pradesh assembly and India's Parliament. Moves to create states have been delayed for years amid political wrangling.

It is still unclear whether Hyderabad, home to the Indian headquarters of Microsoft and Google, would be part of the new state.

"This has opened a hornet's nest," said Nayar, the journalist. "At the same time, we must thank the nation's founders. While it may seem like the country is coming apart at the seams, at least no one is thinking about tanks on the street. That's a positive aspect." By Mark Magnier December 12, 2009

mark.magnier@latimes.com

General McChrystal’s Command (JSOC) runs Blackwater/Xe etc. Murder & bombing in Pakistan-- Jeremy Scahill reports

2009-12-22T00:18:00.001-05:00

ISLAMABAD – The heated debate regarding the misadventures of notorious Blackwater in Pakistan have rightly questioned the credibility and integrity of the covert organisation. Blackwater or Xe Worldwide, being an expansionist organisation, works on the agenda and directives of CIA, whether it is involved in the recent wave of bloodbath in Pakistan is yet to be determined, but the writing on the wall is too visible to be comprehended what lies underneath, and all this is happening with the active involvement of ‘local Americans.’
Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist whose recent article about Blackwater titled “Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan” had given light to some of the darkest aspects of Blackwater, disclosed in an interview that a Pakistani company Kestral owned by Liaquat Ali Baig, was working with Blackwater to assist it in Pakistan with the collusion of Interior Ministry and Frontier Constabulary (FC). “I talked to a former Blackwater executive that is familiar with Blackwater’s operations in the region. And when I asked them to confirm for me what the military intelligence sources said, namely that the Blackwater guys are not doing the actual killing in Pakistan, he told, “That is not entirely accurate,” then proceeded to tell me about an arrangement that Blackwater had made with a Pakistani company called Kestral, that is headed by a man named Ali Bagg. The Blackwater executive told me, that Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, is close with the owner of this Pakistan firm that is sort of like a Blackwater and logistical firm wrapped up into one. This is a company the works for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and Pakistan the government and does a very robust business in war contracting and servicing the war in Afghanistan as well. And my understanding is that Blackwater is working for this company on a subcontract in a configuration that has Blackwater operatives going out technically as advisers with these paramilitary style forces from this company, and that they are doing as you said in the intro, border interdictions in the Northwest frontier province and elsewhere and the former Blackwater executive told me the line often gets blurred and that you do have Blackwater guys and other westerners that act the participate in operations that are the portrayed in the international media as Pakistan forces carrying them out. And the agency that Blackwater forces are supporting is a federal paramilitary force in Pakistan that’s under the Ministry of the Interior there, called the Frontier Corp. The military intelligence official confirmed the Blackwater executives account, or at least the specific allegation that Blackwater is working with the Frontier Corps. The benefit of this is it allows the Pakistani government to say, “We’re not using any Western forces to do these things,” because the technicality is that there subcontracted by a Pakistani firm that is working with the official Pakistan forces.”

Regarding the killings of Pakistanis in drone attacks, the journalist minced no words to state that CIA sponsored drones were taking precious innocent lives. “The CIA of course has been running a drone campaign in Pakistan going back years into the Bush administration. When President Obama took office on January 23, he ordered his first drone strike inside of Pakistan. There were two strikes in North and South Waziristan, and has bombed Pakistan regularly ever since. In fact, Vice-President Joe Biden, part of his strategy reportedly is calling for escalation of these drone strikes. This has caused some controversy because of a large numbers of civilian deaths as a result of these bombings - and technically, the operations of the CIA need to be reported to Senator Dianne Feinstein and others on the intelligence committee, and there was a controversy this summer because Leon Panetta ran up the hill and said he had cancelled the CIA assassination programme and that put the drones in an intense focus on the hill. What I am told now though, is that there is actually and has been for some time, a parallel drone strike programme that is being run by the Joint Special Operations Command and that these JSOC drone strikes are sometimes done with very little regard for how many civilians may die in the pursuit of one quote unquote “Bad guy” - In fact, my military intelligence source said to me if there’s one guy we’re trying to hit and there are 34 other people in the building, 35 people are going to die that day.”

When asked whether Blackwater employees were posing as US AID workers, Jeremy did not rule out the possibility that they might be posing as aid workers in Pakistan. “I said they may be posing as aid workers, I didn’t specify any organization. I think that we have a situation right now in Pakistan where it is very dangerous for people that actually are there to aid in humanitarian projects, and this has long been a history. When you have non-civilian forces that pose in any way as aid workers of any kind, I think you create a dangerous situation for the well-meaning individuals that go to very difficult and dangerous countries in an effort to help local populations that are suffering tremendously as a result of war and poverty. My understanding from the military intelligence source is Blackwater personnel have at times posed as aid workers.”
Jeremy Scahill in the same interview categorically implied that Pakistan was bleeding because of what was going on in Afghanistan, “Of great concern to everyone in that region is that Pakistan is increasingly, the war in Afghanistan is increasingly bleeding over into Pakistan. And, now with the revelation that the U.S. has actual covert operations there, these operations could be viewed in the words of my military intelligence source, as a, “Lilly pad,” a jump-off point. He called it the Jamestown of the new millennium, in Pakistan and predicted there’s going to be more intense involvement of U.S. military within the borders of a country that we have not declared war against.”
In his article, the investigative journalist quoted a source who said, “This is a parallel operation to the CIA - They are two separate beasts.” The programme puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war—knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country.”
He reveals the active involvement of US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and writes, “Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA’s counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a “media-scouring/open-source network,” according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive. “They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them,” he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.”
As many as thirteen American and five British websites are currently describing Blackwater as a preacher and propagator of Christian supremacy and crusade ideology. The data available on these websites mentions that Blackwater inducts retired army personnel from different countries across the world in addition to former US army officials while majority of senior office-bearers of this organisation are former CIA spies. “Blackwater has its own armored personnel carriers, its own naval vessels, its own airways and its own fighter aircrafts. Its own Presidential Airways had a contract from US Departmental Defense for air transportation in Afghanistan and Pakistan - Blackwater created such a terror and hatred in Iraq that on March 31, 2004 “On March 31, 2004, four Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) employees were ambushed and killed in Fallujah, and their bodies were hung on bridges”. There were hundreds of incidents of Blackwater killing innocent citizens in Iraq as well as getting into fights with the Iraqi Police and Security Forces. Some victims of Blackwater killings have filed law suites in the United States against the Company,” says a website exposing the evil game of target killings Blackwater has played in Iraq over the years. Blackwater in Iraq allegedly killed around 1300 innocent masses in the last seven years.

Pakistan’s Journey from a Nation to a Nation-State

2009-12-21T23:30:00.001-05:00

Pakistan’s Journey from a Nation to a Nation-State

Colonel Jaffery narrating the migrations of 1947 writes, “A mutilated old man reached Pakistan on a train and asked him, has Pakistan come? When told it had, he closed his eyes and died’. His destination: The Dreamland of Pakistan.

In an emotional and controversial address to his constituency, the President of Pakistan, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari referred to the country as Sindhu Desh. In his fiery and reactive speech, this was perhaps the only silver lining. Deliberately or otherwise, he had touched a very sensitive issue of nationhood.

The politicians of Sindh unlike the Unionists of Punjab have been more Pakistani in many ways than they are accredited. Jinnah, the Syeds, Qazis, Soomros and Bhuttos are but to name a few.

Reviewing the annals of history, we are pleasantry reminded that Pakistan was never the realization of one ethnicity, sect or mindset. It was a struggle based on the aspirations of diverse groups and still remains so.

The Baloch voted for the creation with an overwhelming majority. At a crucial time the princely states of Balochistan were advised by Maulana Azad to join Pakistan. Nawab Akbar Bugti valiantly stood by the concept of Pakistan. Can we forget the roles of the Khosas, Jamalis, Qazi Issa, Achakzais, Mandokhels, Jogehezais?

Similarly, the people of NWFP rejected the Congress friendly approach of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and rallied to the beck and call of Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan. Many tribal leaders preferred to join Pakistan rather than live under the Afghan-Indian intrigue.

Let us also not forget the people of Bengal and their leaders including Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman, a young firebrand Muslim Leaguer. These were all sons of the soil who organised the Muslim Education Conference to Muslim League. They lived comfortably within their own majorities least affected by the Congress-Muslim League (Hindu-Muslim) divide. Yet they chose to be Pakistan.

Christians of Punjab and Sindh voted unanimously in favour of Pakistan. Leaders such as S P Singha, Joshua Fazal Din, Chandu Lal and Gibbons remained Quaid e Azam’s most trusted allies in difficult and treacherous times. So did both factions of the Ahmediya Jamaat. They were Pakistanis by choice and never the conquered people. They were also the torch bearers of Pakistan Movement that ran the last but one lap. Men like S M Burke made remarkable contributions in articulating Pakistan’s foreign policy.

Those who ran the last lap sacrificed the most. They had faced the brunt of socio economic injustices and struggled valiantly within their enclaves and ghettos for Pakistan. They migrated from far afar on carts, trains and foot. Very few would know that these hapless caravans also comprised Christians from as far away as South India and Delhi. Most as events proved tragically, left one ghetto, to create another. They still ask, ‘Has Pakistan come?’

Within the premise of the Two Nation Theory and Lahore Resolution, the State that Quaid e Azam promised was an Inclusive Country with Muslim majority; A modern nation-state where people from all walks, ethnicities and beliefs were equal citizens. But as events proved, these die-hard supporters were condemned. Patriotism and nationalism became an exclusive domain of few. Calls for devolution were construed as sub nationalism and separatism. Traitors became a term to define dissent and men such as Faiz and Mian Ifthikhar, the architects of the Kashmir resistance were quickly dubbed as traitors.

My father Lal Din Sharaf, then a young and firebrand revolutionary poet attended the gathering at Manto Park Lahore on 23-24 March 1940. He noted these words of Quaid e Azam in his diary, "Pakistan is a Nation and now must have defined Boundaries".

For this and many other reasons, I have always opined that PAKISTANIAT is distinct in its evolution. It took birth much before the geography of Pakistan was drawn. If we accept Quaid’s logic of Nation before a Boundary, Pakistaniat existed in the hearts and minds of millions of people who subsequently migrated to East and West Pakistan as also those states that joined Pakistan by choice. Unfortunately, the concept of a Pakistani nationhood has since deteriorated.

The ownership has gradually shifted to those who never made a choice.

There is another dimension to the geographical notion of Pakistan. Historically, the people of Indus were called Sindhu. The term Hindu is a derivative of both Sindhu and Schinde. The little discovered Nara Civilisation that existed along and astride the banks of this river system pre-dates Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Mehr Garh. Over ten thousand years old the region had been the world centre at least thrice; the Nara (Sarasvati) Age, Mohenjo-Daro and the Great Mauryan Empire. It ruled the world as far away as Greece and Egypt. It had a river system of which Indus was just a part. This Great Nara River entered what is now Pakistan near Fort Abbas and debouched at a place Nagar Par Kar (cross the river). This is the land of world’s highest mountains, largest river systems and oldest deserts. This was the wonderland imbedded in the innate memories of us people.

Indeed, if both the spirit of Pakistaniat that predated its boundaries and innate memories of dreamland morphed into the Pakistani construct of nationhood articulately enunciated by Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, what went wrong?

The quest of inventing a nation that already existed, repeated military interventions, misuse of religion for expediencies and political violence has all but obscured the Pakistan that Jinnah created. The bureaucracy, trained to rule fared no better. The two combined with the political rats jumping ships to create a ruling elite. The thesis to emerge was the indispensability of an individual in the backdrop of extreme national vulnerability. Those who challenged the drift or showed imagination were singled out as non conformists, ambitious, pseudo, alarmist and traitors.

These distortions to the national fabric were pronounced during the Zia era and snowballed thereafter. Unfortunately, the last three decades (1977-2008) comprise 19 years of exclusive military dictatorships. If we add the troika factor that continued to remove successive elected regimes, then the past 30 years are patrolled by a praetorian mindset.

The latest round of democracy has landed through a very bloody route. Pakistan’s highlands are burning and economy sinking. The process of nation building has to begin now. It is time to act! President Zardari has to build a spirit of national reconciliation and reconstruction. He has to be accountable to emotions and reflections that highlighted his own speech. This is no time to complain and mourn the past nor any space left for political stratagems.

Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, please get out of your paranoia, self pity and persecution complex. You are the all powerful President of a democratic dispensation that ever was. The Bhutto Legacy inasmuch as it is yours is also ours. You are the head of an empowered democratic regime with a friendly opposition in place.

Your challenges are not opinion makers but the people for whom you have to deliver. Your challenge lies in answering with actions and not rhetoric, the many questions you raised about Pakistan’s identity.

Despite any dilemmas and daemons you confront, your challenge is to take the bull by the horns; Come on, pick the baton and lead the way for Jinnah’s Pakistan! This would forever cleanse you of all malignancies that haunt you and your party.

The Parliament has to take a new guard and play out a long resolute innings without loosing wickets. If they do, the people of Pakistan will see hope and coalesce the way they did as recently as the earthquake of 2005 and against militancy.

Our Destination inevitably is, ‘The Wonderland of Pakistan’. Even if we die doing it, the spirit must keep marching on. This is what Benazir Bhutto did.

HAS PAKISTAN COME? 02, Dec, 2009, Brig Samson Sharaf

Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf is a retired officer of Pakistan Army and a Political Economist. He writes regularly for the English Dailies.

Sagacious Virtuosity: Dump the elite--Pakistanis are not going to take it anymore

2009-12-21T23:24:00.001-05:00

First of all, let me clearly explain the title of this article: the dictionary meaning of the word “sagacious” is “having practical wisdom, showing wisdom of a plan, acute-minded, shrewd.” The other word in the title is “virtuosity,” which has its origins in Italian, literally meaning “learned, skilful.” This expression is used specifically in reference to “a person highly skilled in the technique of a fine art, especially music – displaying the skills of a virtuoso.”

Hence, the title of this article is using these two words metaphorically and symbolically calling to the attention of Pakistani political decision-makers and managers the need to show practical wisdom and skilful political techniques, as well as insightfulness – to an extent of a practical level of an artist’s proficiency, competence and finesse (savoir-faire) – in dealing with the vestiges and fallouts of the ongoing so-called “war on terror” and its fundamental covert links to the US-Western-geo-political-economic-military agenda in this region, involving a destructive “war on its own people” in Pakistan.

It is about time that the Pakistani leadership, in and out of actual governance, undertake the ultimate acts of sagacious virtuosity to save this country and its kind, honest, gracious, hospitable, warm, poetic, gentle and God-fearing people from impending total destruction and their present abominable sufferings.

Has the entire Pakistani leadership (save for Imran Khan, a few political analysts and the electronic media) gone blind not to notice that the proxy war (the so-called “war on terror”) on behalf of the US is being unleashed on its own people, its own citizens, on its own soil, against its own kith and kin? Why has the word “kill” become part of the establishment’s daily vocabulary and a common usage in our ruling elite’s regular political discourse? Why are we bombing our own villages and human dwellings? Why are we not pursuing peace negotiations? Why are we engaging our military at such a level of war footing?

The present ruling elite in Pakistan cannot turn this country into a “Hira Mundi” – the “Brothel House” where the highest “bidder” gets the rights of the rules of engagement.

Nor will this nation now allow the political ruling pundits to bring this country to a political abyss where “begging” becomes the national modus-operandi for survival. Let it be understood, this nation is not for sale, nor will it compromise its dignity and self-respect. This warning is equally directed at the ruling class in Pakistan as well as at their patrons, the US and the Western Europe’s political establishments.

First, let us be absolutely clear on this one: the insurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a direct result of US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan.

Second, the fundamental question that needs to be asked and responded to with absolute clarity by the US-NATO is: why are they in Afghanistan? Why are drone attacks being carried out in Pakistani territory?

Third, we need to separate fiction from reality: not a single Afghani, Pakistani, Pathan, Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, or for that matter Muslim political outfit, was involved in the 9/11 attack on New York. Then why are Afghani and Pakistani people militarily and politically targeted by the US-NATO alliance?

Fourth, 9/11 was an inside job disguised as a pretext to attack Iraq and Afghanistan. George W. Bush had planned a military invasion of Iraq months ahead of 9/11.

Fifth, the US lied (along with Western collaboration) to the entire international community (Gen. Powell’s speech in the UN) about Iraq’s WMDs prior to its military invasion. We must also be mindful that it was not the first time that the US lied to invade a foreign country. US foreign policy history offers plenty of evidence elucidating disinformation campaigns, covert political-military actions, demonizing other nations, media manipulations and outright lying to invade other countries for its neo-imperialist agendas.

Sixth, the entire US-Western perspective that the so-called “terrorists” in Afghanistan and Pakistan can or will manage terrorist attacks against their countries is pure myth. It has been deliberately created, planned and planted to extend the US-NATO military occupation of other countries for the purpose of its neo-con imperialist plans for capitalistic expansion – that makes the US-NATO nations rich.

Seventh, Osama Bin Laden is also a myth, kept alive as a symbolic slogan to make the American people remain on war footing and hate the entire Muslim world. Every Muslim is a terrorist; this script is reinforced everyday and plays regularly in the ignorant minds of the American public.

Eighth, Barack Obama is a warmonger and will continue to be so. His “peace credentials” are also a myth – a contradiction to the fundamentals of American foreign policy goals of neo-con imperialism and dreams (that won’t come true) of an “American 21^st Century.”

Ninth, the American-Western political establishments are full of hopeless contradictions, hypocrisy, self-justifications and self-aggrandizements in their inter-state political discourse with non-white nations in global politics.

Tenth, the US-Western leadership is hopelessly irrational, unfair, deceptive and decisively selfish and ego-centric in its geo-political relationships with the Third World in general and the Muslim world in particular. The superiority patronizing complex has a devious and decisive impact on their political behaviour and global conduct.

It is about time that the Pakistani leadership wakes up to the grim realities in which it, in itself, haspushed the nation. It is not possible (or even fair) to blame the external actors exclusively for the state of affairs for which our existence and survival are at stake. Indeed, our own leadership, for the last five decades, has been responsible for the conditions in which we find ourselves today.

Ironically, the present democratic dispensation in the country has failed the nation as much as the past dictatorships and by a fair estimation, even more so.

Now it is time that we recognize that we have arrived at a crucial crossroads: now is the time for us to undertake the ultimate acts of sagacious virtuosity to pull this nation out of its dismal past experience and its present “ha lat-e nazza” (to be in the throes of death.)

This will only be possible if Pakistani leadership understands that our enemies are vicious, uncompromising, determined, violent, powerful and above all, blindly selfish and self-serving.

We will have to confront them, oppose them, expose them, refuse their interference and interventions, yet act with dignity, offer them sound alternatives in global political conduct and show them humanitarian strategies in inter-state political engagements.

The Pakistani leadership will have to learn to deal with the political behaviour of its adversaries with long-range planning rather than to react to political events randomly.

Pakistan will have to undergo a revolutionary change in the nature of its alliance with the US-West, India, and Iran, the rest of the Islamic world and with the emerging progressive political movements all over the global spectrum. We will also have to further strengthen our global partnership in diplomacy, trade and politics with China and Russia. Pakistan will have to alter the totality of its rules of engagement in international diplomacy and its strategic priorities. We will have to redefine and re-invent our entire foreign policy and strategic dimensions of our domestic politics as well.

The Pakistani leadership needs to do the following urgently:

An unequivocal demand to end the US-NATO-India occupation of Afghanistan. Once the occupation ends, the insurgency will end.
An end to the present status-quo of Pakistan-US-Western political-economic-military alliance including the fundamentals of military engagement on the so-called “war on terrorism.”
An urgent need to give “peace a chance” – peace dialogue with estranged groups in Swat and the rest of the country.

But foremost and above all, the ultimate acts of sagacious virtuosity to save the nation will come only by a serious, deep, concentrated, selfless and in-depth reflection of their own political behaviour by the Pakistani ruling elite and making necessary changes in their narcotic opiate mindsets!

They have no other choice: the Pakistani people are not going to take it anymore. Period. The Ultimate Acts of Sagacious Virtuosity! 01, Nov, 2009, Dr Haider Mehdi

India entrapped the US in Afghanistan

2009-12-21T22:58:00.001-05:00

OBAMA DO NOT PLAY IN THE HANDS OF OTHERS: TRUST YOUR PEOPLE

Although the US President Obama has announced that he will send an extra 30,000 US troops to fight the war in Afghanistan, yet his revised strategy also includes exit strategy as he has indicated that withdrawal of forces will start in July 2011. In this context, on November 15, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had already revealed, “We’re not interested in staying in Afghanistan” for a long time, and set a start date for military withdrawal.

Frustrated in achieving their goals, the US-led NATO countries have seriously been considering withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan in future owing to growing domestic pressure coupled with daily casualties of their personal and rising cost of war.

Particularly, America has been bearing huge losses, amounting seven trillion dollars in the total cost of war against terrorism, increase in defence budget and acute financial crisis inside the US homeland.

On the other side, India wants to entrap the US permanently in Afghanistan in order to achieve its secret designs against Pakistan and China—in the Indian-held Kashmir by damaging American global and regional interests.

It is basis of Indian shrewd diplomacy to engage the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan for unlimited period. In this regard, prior to his visit to the US for getting sophisticated technology including American support for a permanent seat for New Delhi in the UN Security Council, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh already exposed his cunning diplomacy by showing his illogical approach during his interview to the Washington Post and Newsweek. He remarked that India “wants to resolve all outstanding issues with Pakistan”, while accusing the latter of “sponsoring terrorism…planning another Mumbai-type attack in India.” He called for the US pressure on Islamabad to rein in extremists. He also said that he would encourage the American leadership to stay in Afghanistan. Besides, Singh warned that Afghanistan could fall into a civil war if the US exited, while saying: “It is very important that both the US and the global community stay engaged in Afghanistan.”

During his trip, Singh who was warmly welcomed by the American president and other high officials left no stone unturned in convincing Washington raising alleged concerns regarding Pakistan and Afghanistan in connection with militancy, while emphasing a strategic partnership and common values of democracy. Under the pretext of common goals, his insistence was that both US and India which can collectively resolve global and regional issues like hunger, security and nuclear disarmament in wake of a common menace of terrorism—a sustained commitment to continue assisting Afghanistan.

Indian PM Singh was frustrated when on November 25, 2009, President Obama in the joint press conference made it clear that Washington wanted “encouraging ways in which both India and Pakistan can feel secure and focus on the development of their own countries and their own people…our core goal is to achieve peace and security for all the peoples in the region, not just one country or the other.” Obama also praised Pakistan’s military operations in Swat and South Waziristan by explaining that Islamabad had made progress in fighting terrorists—hoping for anti-terrorism cooperation between all regional parties for the benefit of the people of Pakistan and India.

However, Manmohan Singh who repeatedly indicated that Pakistan has nothing to fear from India created a sense of fear for Americans in order to ensure presence of their troops in Afghanistan. In this context, confused in his objectives, in his meetings at Washington, DC, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Woodrow Wilson Centre, he re-iterated, if insurgency “succeeds in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it shall be catastrophic” not only for India and the US but also for whole the region. He again urged the needs of greater American pressure on Pakistan to curb terrorism.

Nevertheless, by setting aside Islamabad’s perennial offers for resumption of dialogue, the major aim of Singh’s American trip was to indoctrinate the US high officials through Indian false propaganda that Pakistan has been sponsoring terrorism in both Afghanistan and India. In fact, India wants to entrap America permanently in Afghanistan which has become a most conducive place for Indians to fulfill their covert aims.

Under the pretext of Talibinisation of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Indian secret agency, RAW with the support of Israeli Mossad has well-established its networks. Particularly, India has been running secret operations against Pakistan from its consulates in Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandhar and other sensitive parts of the Pak-Afghan border. It has spent millions of dollars in Afghanistan to strengthen its grip. And from there, Indian RAW has been sending well-trained militants along with arms to Pakistan in order to attack the security personnel including western nationals. New Delhi which wants to get strategic depth against Pakistan has not only increased its military troops in the counry, but has also decided to set up cantonments. In this respect, puppet regeme of Hamid Karzai encouraged India in using the Border Roads Organisation in constructing the ring roads by employing Indo-Tibeten police force for security.

Regarding Indian activities in Afghanistan, on September 20, NATO commander, Gen. McChrystal in his report on the Afghan war admitted: “Indian political and economic influence is increasing in Afghanistan including significant development efforts…is likely to exacerbate regional tensions.”

Worried about withdrawal of the US-led allies from Afghanistan, India with the cladestine support of Indo-Israeli lobbies has already started a propaganda campaign in the West to implicate Islamabad. Even in an interview with the CNN, Singh remarked “Pakistan’s objectives in Afghanistan are not necessarily in harmony with the American objectives…the Pakistan government and the Army are not moving to remove the Afghan Taliban” and that “Pakistan has not done enough with regard to pursuing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks,” while, he presumed that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal could fall into the wrong hands.

While showing realistic approach by rejecting Indian blame game against Pakistan, the US, UK and some other western countries have already refused official involvement of Islamabad in the Mumbai carnage of last year. Besides, in the recent past, a team of Indian intelligence officials left the US disappointed after a week-long stay as they were not allowed interrogating a Pakistan-born American national David Coleman Headley, arrested by the FBI on charges of plotting a major terror attack in India.

Now, American officials and media have started focusing on Hindu fundamentalism in face of recent leakage of the Justice Liberation Commission, admitting the official involvement of the BJP leadership in the destruction of the Babri Masjid (Mosque)—and over other developments like human violations in the Indian-held Kashmir including violence against the Muslim and the Christian communities.

However, if US-led NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan, Karzai regime will fall like a palace of cards due to the growing Taliban militancy. Even New Delhi will not be in a position to maintain its network in wake of the successful guerrilla warfare of the Taliban. Therefore, India is doing its utmost to convince Washington to have a long stay in Afghanistan. Failed in this objevtive, it can even act upon dirty ticks to get the foreign forces entangled in Afghanistan.

In this context, first, with help of some so-called Indian Muslims, Indian RAW will increase attacks inside Afghanistan, targeting especially American soldiers with the sole aim to revive old blame game of the west against Islamabad for cross-border-terrorism. Second, RAW is likely to arrange another Mumbai type terror-carnage in India to get the sympathies of America and Europe, and to further distort the image of Islamabad.

Third, with the help of Indian army officers and RAW, Hindu terrorists can overcome the obstacles in the acquisition of the weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). As regards the acquisition of WMDs, some Indian army officers and RAW could already be in cooperation with the Hindu fundamentalist organizations. They could also get or produce dirty nuclear bombs. While, western apprehensions are still found that some extremist Muslim militant, based in Pakistan’s tribal areas are in pursuit of WMDs to use them in America and any European country. India has intensified its propaganda campaign regarding the insecurity of Pakistan’s atomic assets. In this context, as a last option, India could use these fatal devices in the West, especially the US homeland not only to ensure NATO troops in Afghanistan, but also to incite them to attack Pakistan. Indians could also implement this most dangerous scheme so that the major western powers could demand Islamabad to roll back its nuclear programme.

AFGHAN WAR: India Entraps the US in Afghanistan, 02, Dec, 2009, Sajjad Shaukat

Sajjad Shaukat is a regular writer for Opinion Maker. He writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

RAW operates against Pakistan using Mukti Bahni model

2009-12-21T22:28:00.001-05:00

India today is trying to blindly follow the policies of her military Guru Chankiya, where she is frantically driving for fulfillment of her eventual trance of Greater India and emergence of a sole regional power of South East Asia. India has long-standing policies and strategies to make and keep Pakistan as a lame duck and now taking advantage of the current situation she wants to destabilize a sole nuke Muslim power. Perception is there that India in collaborations with USA and Israel is imposing pressure and polices on Pakistan. Manomohan Singh is visiting USA now. Thus, Obama if serious in fighting war against terror has to chain his Asian watchdog (India). He should ask Indian Prime Minister to stop interfering in Pakistan’s domestic affairs.

Following the same motive of “Greater India” RAW has gone all out in destabilizing Pakistan. A Multi pronged strategy is executed through planned combination of overt and covert inventiveness thus shifting the battlefield to Pakistan from Afghanistan. RAW is operating both from Afghanistan and Iran to encircle Pakistan.

A major objective of India in Afghanistan is to use Afghanistan as launching pad to attack Pakistanis by sponsoring dissident / militants. It is on record that India has spent immense amounts over the years to make the Northern Alliance into its stooges. There is the Indian strategy of the encirclement of Pakistan by making Afghanistan into a vocal anti-Pakistan client state, with five very active Indian consulates there. Unfortunately the crooked Afghan government has also fallen pray to RAW policies by providing shelter to Brahamdag Bugti and allowing RAW to operate in Balochistan in collaboration with newly established Afghan intelligence agency RAAM (earlier name KHAD). RAW has organized a network of training schools/ Centres throughout Afghanistan. Some of these training centres are operating in Kabul, Jalalabad, Khawaja Ghar (Takhar Province), Khost, Paktia, Urgun, Khandar, Spin Boldak and Dranj (Badakhshan Province).

All these training centres are being used for indoctrinating minds of innocent people of FATA and Balochistan to work against Pakistan. Refugee camps for Balochistan dissidents have been established in bordering towns of Kandahar, Spin, Bodlak, Helmond and Nirmoz where RAW has been given free access to interact for spotting / cultivating them. Raw with the help of local Officials is providing financial support to Brahamdagh Bughti for undertaking terrorist’s activities in Balochistan. Some weeks ago Barahamdag reportedly met Amarullah Saleh and asked for additional money to undertake sabotage activities in Pakistan. He was promised a handsome amount and Commander Raziq Achakzai of Spin Boldak was made instrumental. Funds and explosives have been supplied by a man namely Abdul Sattar. The money is even transferred to such elements in Pakistan through Afghan based militant leaders/”Hawala Business. A number of Afghan officials are facilitating Indian agents in crossing the border. Earlier this year, two border police personnel and one political figure were arrested while crossing the border without documents. Spin Boldak is said to be the main hub of anti-Pakistan activities and the town is being used as a launching pad. RAW-RAAM used to providing weapons via Bajaur, Dir, Pewchar (ex-headquarters for Fazlullah). In order to subvert loyalties of Young Generation, Young Baloch Students are spotted / cultivated through senior Balochistan Student Orginastion (BSO) hardliners, taken to Kabul for indoctrination, issued with Afghan passports and selected individuals then dispatched to training centres in various countries.

According to resources, financial assistance is provided by RAW for publication of propaganda material against Pakistan in Balochi Language, which is later distributed in Quetta, Khuzdar, Turbat, Gawader and Dera Bugti.

In this context, Premier Gillani handed over these proofs to his Indian counterpart in Sharm el-Sheikh and provided pictures of Brahamdag and other terrorists showing them meeting with Indian agents in Afghanistan as well as in India. This was the proof of Indian involvement in recruiting, training, financing and arming terrorists being infiltrated into Pakistan.

It is worth mentioning here that Indians are also operating in Iran through their embassy at Tehran and two consulates at Zahidan and Bandar Abbas. The interesting point to note is the establishment of Indian consulate at Zahidan where Indian population is limited to only few houses (21 x Sikh families).Obviously it is the proximity of Zahidan to Pak-Iran border that is of interest to the Indians. The consulate is a special RAW outpost and is always headed by a RAW officer and is operating freely against Pakistan. RAW is using every possible means to gain her objectives by exploiting Pakistan- Iran border population ethnic, cultural and sectarian bond.

Indian propaganda which has a connected strategy of stating, again and again, that Pakistan is a terrorist state and needs to be rebuked by USA rather than promoting it . India’s clients in Afghanistan and some in Pakistan, USA and elsewhere also echo these “sentiments”. Moreover, New Delhi while staying all along eastern and western border is almost controlling the terror activities in Pakistan. New Delhi must realize this fact that there are a lot of ethnic, linguistic, religious and territorial separatist movements inside India, instead of destabilizing her neighbouring countries. She must focus her attention in resolving her internal turbulence. By terrorizing the neighboring country neither she can hide her weakness nor can she gain any advantages. So my advice to Indian’s top brass is to refrain from using terrorism as a state tool and come on the table and work for establishing permanent regional peace. Obama must convince Manomohan Singh to stop Indian terrorism in Pakistan. it is the only way that the world can be successful in war against terrorism.

Obama to Chain Asian Watchdog –India. 23, Nov, 2009, Zain Syed

Target Pakistan: India RAWs subsidiary Afghan RAMA spread terror in Pakistan

2009-12-21T22:09:00.001-05:00

On November 2, 2009 Suicidal bomber entered in National Bank building in Rawalpindi and blasted him. According to the media reports 35 individuals died and many injured. Reportedly, most of the individuals present in the banks to draw their monthly salaries .It may be mentioned here that during last few weeks suspected foreign sponsored militants have struck Pakistan several times , killing about 250 people. In the evening again near Babu Saboo Interchange two suicidal bombers came in the car and blasted them once they were stopped by the police personals on duty located In this blast 15 police personals have sustained injuries. The current blasts reveal that foreign hand have hijacked the Pakistani Taliban militant movement and speeded up their intrigues against Pakistan. An army offensive in a Taliban stronghold area is progressing well and determined security forces under the government direction have decided to continue with the operation to defeat foreign sponsored terrorism. The recent terrorists’ attacks in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Islamabad and on GHQ are the continuation of series of planned commandos’ actions against security forces and innocent people. These commandos are also known as Indian Black Cats and American Black Water terrorists’ organization.

The Taliban fighting in Afghanistan have already refused to help militants operating in Pakistan. It is worth mentioning here that nation is fully supporting army in elimination of terrorism. Anti Pakistan forces are not digesting security forces success, since win over militants would bring stability in the country which is against their set design. There are reports that recently established “Indio Israeli Intelligence Agency “(Triple IIIA) has infiltrated their agents through RAAM (Afghan Intelligence Organization) in Pakistan, Iran and China. The agency has hired Afghan citizen and local criminal elements for launching sabotage acts in the said countries.

There is a general perception here in Pakistan that USA is not serious in elimination of terrorism in the region. Pakistan time and again asked American to pressurize Indian for storming terrorism but unfortunately Washington’s government deliberately closing her eyes over Indian interference. According to media reports, on October 31, 2009 Sectary of State Hillary Clinton has said that USA does not have any evidence of Indian involvement in Balochistan. Mrs. Clinton without going into details said that she has not seen any evidence from Pakistan about India’s involvement in Balochistan. She has probably forgotten her General McChrystal argues. The General said that growing Indian political and economic influence in Afghanistan is likely to “exacerbate regional tensions”, and accuses Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, and Iran of helping the Taliban. His view would appear to be that Pakistan and Iran can counter India’s growing influence in Afghanistan only by assisting those Afghans who are not favourably inclined towards India, and this potpourri is making his job difficult. Gen Stanley McChrystal suggests that Indian influence is “jeopardising US efforts to defeat the Taliban and al Qa’eda extremists.

In fact India is funding and providing support to so called Baloch leaders to foment terrorism in Balochistan and rest of the country. Some Baloch leaders on their master’s directive are asking government to stop operation and are against the establishment of cantonments in the province. Actually there is no military operation is going on. The purpose of opposing the presence of own army in establishing the posts in own country could be, (1) to carry out sabotage activities in the country with our adversary help freely (2) stopping government in developing Gawadar Port (3) leveling grounds for USA and Indian interference in the region (4) obstructing in development programmes in Balochistan since progress might lose sardars’ hold over the general public.

The fact of Indian involvement in Balochistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas is no longer a covert plot. The prevailing security environment has provided a chance to our adversary to carry out clandestine operations covertly and openly with a view to create instability our country. Pakistan Army has deployed over 50,000 troops to South Waziristan to take on an estimated 12,000 militants, including up to 1,500 foreign fighters, among them Uzbeks and Arabs. The soldiers captured the hometown of the country's Taliban chief on November 01, 2009. Pakistan Air Chief is also ensuring determined air support to the ground forces too. Pakistan army Spokes man Major General Athar Abbas also very rightly claimed that Taliban are in disarray due to their continue depletion in the current operation. He also said that our enemy country is directly involved in spreading terrorism and ongoing blasts wave. Pakistan Information also mentioned in a joint press conference that Nation will keep on supporting her forces in elimination of terrorism form the country. On November 2, 2009 Major General Athar Abbas also said huge quantity of Indian made ammunition and medical equipment has been recovered during on going operation. At this moment Pakistan Information minister stated that matter would be taken with India on diplomatic front too.

Moreover it is also a known fact that India has a desire to keep world community away from her Maoist’s movement and prevailing communal violence in so called secular country. The investigations of Mumbai Drama and Samjhota Express and blasts at Margao in Gao has reveled that wife of state transport minister has a link with Sanatan Sanstha, a right –wing Hindu Group is involved in the blast. Reportedly Lt col Prohit nominated accused of Samhjota Express has also illicit relations with wife of the minister too. The relationship forced wife of the minister to join Hindu terrorist organization. Triple III Agency Targeting Pakistan, 03, Nov, 2009, Zaheerul Hassan

Rebuild Gaza Now: Jimmy Carter

2009-12-21T21:41:00.001-05:00

It is generally recognised that the Middle East peace process is in the doldrums, almost moribund. Israeli settlement expansion within Palestine continues, and PLO leaders refuse to join in renewed peace talks without a settlement freeze, knowing that no Arab or Islamic nation will accept any comprehensive agreement while Israel retains control of East Jerusalem.

US objections have impeded Egyptian efforts to resolve differences between Hamas and Fatah that could lead to 2010 elections. With this stalemate, PLO leaders have decided that President Mahmoud Abbas will continue in power until elections can be held - a decision condemned by many Palestinians.

Even though Syria and Israel under the Olmert government had almost reached an agreement with Turkey's help, the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects Turkey as a mediator on the Golan Heights. No apparent alternative is in the offing.

The UN general assembly approved a report issued by its human rights council that called on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate charges of war crimes during the recent Gaza war, but positive responses seem unlikely.

In summary: UN resolutions, Geneva conventions, previous agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, the Arab peace initiative, and official policies of the US and other nations are all being ignored. In the meantime, the demolition of Arab houses, expansion of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Palestinian recalcitrance threaten any real prospect for peace.

Of more immediate concern, those under siege in Gaza face another winter of intense personal suffering. I visited Gaza after the devastating January war and observed homeless people huddling in makeshift tents, under plastic sheets, or in caves dug into the debris of their former homes. Despite offers by Palestinian leaders and international agencies to guarantee no use of imported materials for even defensive military purposes, cement, lumber, and panes of glass are not being permitted to pass entry points into Gaza. The US and other nations have accepted this abhorrent situation without forceful corrective action.

I have discussed ways to assist the citizens of Gaza with a number of Arab and European leaders and their common response is that the Israeli blockade makes any assistance impossible. Donors point out that they have provided enormous aid funds to build schools, hospitals and factories, only to see them destroyed in a few hours by precision bombs and missiles. Without international guarantees, why risk similar losses in the future?

It is time to face the fact that, for the past 30 years, no one nation has been able or willing to break the impasse and induce the disputing parties to comply with international law. We cannot wait any longer. Israel has long argued that it cannot negotiate with terrorists, yet has had an entire year without terrorism and still could not negotiate. President Obama has promised active involvement of the US government, but no formal peace talks have begun and no comprehensive framework for peace has been proposed. Individually and collectively, the world powers must act.

One recent glimmer of life has been the 8 December decision of EU foreign ministers to restate the long-standing basic requirements for peace commonly accepted within the international community, including that Israel's pre-1967 boundaries will prevail unless modified by a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians. A week later the new EU foreign policy chief, Baroness Catherine Ashton, reiterated this statement in even stronger terms and called for the international Quartet to be "reinvigorated". This is a promising prospect.

President Obama was right to insist on a two-state solution and a complete settlement freeze as the basis for negotiations. Since Israel has rejected the freeze and the Palestinians won't negotiate without it, a logical step is for all Quartet members (the US, EU, Russia and UN) to support the Obama proposal by declaring any further expansion of settlements illegal and refusing to veto UN security council decisions to condemn such settlements. This might restrain Israel and also bring Palestinians to the negotiating table.

At the same time, the Quartet should join with Turkey and invite Syria and Israel to negotiate a solution to the Golan Heights dispute.

Without ascribing blame to any of the disputing parties, the Quartet also should begin rebuilding Gaza by organising relief efforts under the supervision of an active special envoy, overseeing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and mediating an opening of the crossings. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand immediate relief.

Gaza Must Be Rebuilt Now, By Jimmy Carter, 21 December, 2009, The Guardian

This is a time for bold action, and the season for forgiveness, reconciliation and peace. News and Media Limited 2009

Failed Warrior “diplomacy” of India

2009-12-21T21:02:00.000-05:00

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent state visit to Washington represented another milestone in India's growing cooperation with the sole super power. However, in the absence of a major breakthrough in their multi-dimensional relationship, attention quickly shifted to Indo-US divergences on various facets of their cooperation. The visit also became Pakistan-centric because of Indian pressure on US hosts to lean on Pakistan for curbing militancy targeting India. President Obama and his aides, politely listened to Indian lament but counseled recognition of Pakistan's on-going operations to defeat the terrorists. As if feeling somewhat irritated by India's one-point agenda, the American side did not hesitate to publicly acknowledge Pakistan's vital role in regional peace and stability.

We, in Pakistan know full well that the India of the 21st century has come a long way from the Nehruvian era of nationalism, state enterprise and non-alignment. The United States now occupies the premier place in India's calculus of economic and strategic partnerships. Conversely, the US, which was closely linked to Pakistan, feels free to enhance her cooperation with India to a level where it would count as a factor in the power structure. It was, therefore, disconcerting to see a big country like India indulging in propaganda against her smaller neighbour during a bilateral visit.

Pakistan had to accept the growing Indo-US partnership as a fact of life in the post-cold war period. But two parallel developments after 9/11 came to have a profound impact on the triangular character of the relations linking the US with India and Pakistan. America's pressing need to get Pakistan's maximum cooperation in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban had visibly upset India, and her friends in the administration supported by the Indian-American lobby and the US industry. It succeeded in promoting an extraordinary package of strategic cooperation for India that included the ambitious plan for civil nuclear cooperation. Criticism by the non-proliferation lobby and Pakistan's protest were cast aside as the Bush administration proceeded to develop "a unique relationship with a unique country."

The Bush team further justified the India package as a way of helping India to become a great power in the 21st century as a counter-weight to China. However, this imaginary plank of the strategic partnership with India has crumbled with President Obama embarking on building a close partnership with China as a major determinant of global power play. To put it candidly, the unique relationship carved for India is now passing through turbulent waters and nobody seems to be sure about its future.

Pakistan meanwhile has to cope with the multiplier effect of Indo-US calls for removing terrorist safe havens from its soil. It is hard to imagine that the world's two major democracies are unaware of the genesis of […] militancy. Or that they are unmindful of the difficulties in achieving that objective. Soon after 9/11, Argentina's veteran statesman and one-time foreign minister, Guido di Tella had compared terrorism to organised crime, concluding that the goal of its eradication would be as daunting as that of eliminating drug trafficking. Expecting Pakistan to eradicate quickly and effectively the militant groups who are determined to create chaos and warfare borders somewhere between wishful thinking and naivete.

In the months that followed 9/11, it was not unusual to hear politicians and scholars linking the rise of jihadist organisations to the oppression of people in Palestine and Kashmir. Today, any such argument would be dismissed in the name of zero tolerance to terrorism as if it was a ghastly phenomenon occurring on its own. We are facing a situation where India takes offence to Barack Obama's suggestion to resolve the Kashmir dispute. More recently, India showed knee-jerk annoyance over the US seeking China's cooperation in helping peace and security in South Asia.

There is no direct link between the situation in Palestine and Kashmir but it so happens that Israel too is unhappy over Obama's initiatives to kick-start the Middle East peace process. Yet, the Nobel Peace Committee had the vision to recognise the merit of a leader who brings hope to the dispossessed that have become second-rate citizens in their own homelands. Pakistan can only regret the Indian riposte to a perfectly reasonable US-China interest in helping India and Pakistan resolve their outstanding disputes in the interest of regional and global peace. New Delhi went on the offensive first by ruling out any third-party role in contentious issues with Pakistan, and secondly by making relations with Pakistan contingent upon prosecution of Mumbai suspects.

The hard-line stance adopted by Mr Singh was followed by threats of limited war if another attack like Mumbai takes place. India's self-professed coercive diplomacy has now metamorphosed into warrior diplomacy used as a hand-maiden of militarist designs. As a result, diplomacy is conducted like war, using propaganda as its main weapon. The adversary is pursued relentlessly and efforts made to cut off its supplies. Threats of war are used as manoeuvres to convince the other side of its vulnerability. The offer of peace is made at the cost of capitulation. No effort is spared to corner enemy. In warrior diplomacy, the preparations for a visit to the US are undertaken along the lines of planning for another war operation.

The warrior brand of diplomacy has become a convenient vehicle for India to rule out resumption of the composite dialogue process, which India feels has run its course. It is inclined to use the option of a limited dialogue as it suits her domestic considerations. Alongside, New Delhi has unleashed a propaganda campaign through public diplomacy at the highest levels. This desire to become both the prosecutor and the judge should not be lost on the outside world.

Pakistan has reasons to be frustrated with India's demands for tough action against the militants while putting off the dialogue. Surprisingly, the Pakistani media which gives generous coverage to Indian accusations, seems to have forgotten that action against the perpetrators of the Samjhota carnage is pending in India. The leadership here thinks that by suspending the dialogue, India is not countering the militants' design of heightening mistrust between the two neighbours.
The prevailing Indian stance mirrors views in certain circles, contending that the security establishment has not abandoned its optic of good and bad Taliban. They argue that by exerting pressure on Pakistan through the US, Islamabad may take some decisive action against the movements targeting India. Washington is not in a position to persuade India to revive the dialogue because it has no carrot to offer in return.

While India's propaganda receives coverage in the international media, including our own, Pakistan's calls for resuming the talks does not receive proper coverage in India and elsewhere. Even if Pakistan goes an extra mile to placate Indian concerns, the most likely outcome would be: do more. Time has come for a major review of ways of countering the warrior diplomacy being pursued by India. This does not mean that we should not consider taking steps that may be conducive to blunt the charge that India could be targeted by some jihadi attack, which in turn could be used as a pretext for retaliation. India too should recognise that she can gain Pakistan's confidence and cooperation by returning to a framework of negotiations rather than continuing public diplomacy with all guns blazing.
The writer is Pakistan's former ambassador to the European Union.

Pakistan should scrap transit deal with Afghanistan

2009-12-21T20:11:00.001-05:00

The US is forcing and chaperoning the transit trade deal with Afghanistan. According to the deal Tata trucks will rumble from Delhi through Kabul and then on to Central Asia. At its best, Indian goods will compete with Pakistani goods in Kabul, Dushambe, Ferghana and beyond. At its worst, Delhi will be able to send arms and equipment to the mercenaries that cause murder and mayhem in Pakistan.

All around, the transit trade deal is a bad deal for Pakistan, and Islamabad should never have agreed to it. The old agreement has worked for the past six decades. Let it stay in place.

Military vehicles are seen standing in gridlock along the Chaman Pakistan-Afghanistan border. -Reuters File Photo

KABUL: The final round of technical level talks between Pakistan-Afghanistan for new transit trade agreement were attempted as Pakistan wants assurance that the new agreement would not be misused for terror financing, drug trafficking and arms trade.

The two sides couldn’t reach on an agreement in the three day round and decided to hold another session in early January.
It was the final round of technical level talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan to finalize the modalities of the Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement.

But the US monitored talks hit snags after Islamabad’s proposal of attaching tough security related strings.

Afghanistan wants Pakistan to allow Afghan trucks to transport goods through Pakistan’s territory from Chaman and Torkhum border to Wagha border and Karachi and Gawadar port without being unloaded and checked.

Whereas Pakistan wants authority to inspect the trucks so that any illegal goods couldn’t be transport.

Pakistan also wants to know that whether the trucks would return empty from Wagha border or would have something load in them. -DawnNews

This transit trade agreement is a backhanded attempt to give access to Bharat. It will allow Bharati goods to flood Kabul. This transit deal is bad for business, bad for trade, and bad for Pakistani foreign policy.

Pakistanis blame the current bloody wave of bombings in their nation on U.S. mercenaries from Xe and old foe India

2009-12-21T20:04:00.001-05:00

On my office wall hang photos of yours truly with Pakistan's last four leaders. Two -- Zia ul Haq and Benazir Bhutto -- were murdered. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted in a military coup led by photo number four, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who was deposed by Pakistan's military in a slow-motion coup.

Either I'm a jinx, or leading Pakistan is a job with poor career prospects.

Now, Washington is finally getting the democracy it has been calling for in Pakistan -- and it's the mother of all backfires.

I've not met Pakistan's current president, Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto. But I've written for decades about corruption charges that relentlessly follow him. Zardari, known as "Mr. 10%" from when he was in his wife's government, was in charge of approving government contracts.

In 2008, Washington sought to rescue Musharraf's foundering dictatorship by convincing the popular but exiled Benazir Bhutto to front as democratic window-dressing for continued military rule. Her price: Amnesty for a long list of corruption charges against her and her husband.

The U.S. and Britain quietly arranged the amnesty for the Bhuttos and thousands of their indicted supporters (and other political figures).

But just before Benazir's assassination, she told me jealous associates of Musharraf were gunning for her.

Asif Zardari then inherited Benazir's People's Party, Pakistan's largest. He became president, thanks to strong U.S. political and financial support.

In return, Zardari supported the U.S. war in Afghanistan and allowed the Pentagon to keep using Pakistan's bases and military personnel. Washington promised at least $8 billion.

That sleazy deal has now come unstuck as Pakistan's newest, rather improbable democratic hero, Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, enforced the law by reinstating the corruption charges.

Zardari has presidential immunity against criminal charges. But his chief lieutenants face prosecution, notably regime strongman, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, and Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar. Both are key supporters and facilitators of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, America's use of Pakistani bases and Pakistan's war against its Pashtun tribesmen.

Opposition parties are demanding Zardari and senior aides resign. Islamabad is in an uproar just when Washington needs Pakistan's government to intensify the war against the so-called Pakistani Taliban and support growing U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and intensifying drone attacks inside Pakistan.

Skeletons are dancing out of Zardari's closets: $63 million in illegal kickbacks and commissions allegedly hidden in Swiss bank accounts by the Bhuttos; Zardari's estimated personal fortune of $2 billion; luxurious properties in the U.S., France, Spain and Britain, and on it goes. Zardari spent 11 years in jail in Pakistan on corruption charges -- which Benazir claimed were politically motivated. He avoided trial in Switzerland by claiming mental illness.

The Bhuttos remain one of the largest feudal landowners in a desperately poor nation where annual income is $1,027 US and illiteracy is over 50%. Pakistan has been ruled since its creation in 1947 by either callous feudal landlords, who bought and sold politicians like bags of basmati rice, or by generals.

The Zardari's days as Washington's man in Islamabad are numbered. Anti-American fury is surging with popular claims that Pakistan has been "occupied" by the U.S., treated like a third-rate banana republic and is run by corrupt, U.S.-installed stooges.

Many Pakistanis blame the current bloody wave of bombings in their nation on U.S. mercenaries from Xe (formerly Blackwater) and old foe India staging revenge attacks.

Most Pakistanis believe Washington is bent on tearing apart their unstable nation to seize its nuclear weapons.

Washington is almost back to square one in turbulent Pakistan. […]

As we enter 2010, the ugly acronym, "Afpak," will bedevil, befuddle and consume the Obama White House that so unwisely and rashly ignored Gen. Douglas MacArthur's wise warning to avoid land wars in Asia. US Turbulence Buffets Pakistan, Corruption and anti-American fury unravels troubled country, by Eric Margolis

Nepal’s just struggle against Indian hegemony: Maoists lead charge against Delhi puppets

2009-12-21T18:42:00.001-05:00

Nepal Crippled as Strike Enters Second Day

Narenda Shrestha/European Pressphoto Agency

Maoist party supporters chanted anti-government slogans as they faced Nepalese security forces during a second day of three day nationwide general strike in Kathmandu on Monday.

NEW DELHI — Thousands of Maoist protesters in Nepal enforced the second day of their nationwide general strike on Monday, shouting anti-government slogans and paralyzing much of the country as businesses remained shuttered and vehicle traffic was almost nonexistent in the capital, Katmandu.

The quieter protests Monday contrasted with the violent clashes that erupted a day earlier between the police and demonstrators in Katmandu. On Sunday, the police arrested at least 70 people as officers used batons and tear gas to break up protesters, who were blocking roads and preventing Nepal’s prime minister from reaching his residence after returning from the international climate change talks in Copenhagen.

“The situation is quite normal compared to yesterday,” said Jaya Mukunda Khanal, spokesman for the Nepal Home Ministry. “People are in the streets. There is no transportation, but people can walk around.”

The general strike is the latest development in Nepal’s mounting political crisis. Three years after Maoist rebels agreed to end their decade-old armed revolt and participate in politics, the peace process is under a severe strain. In the streets of Katmandu on Monday, thousands of Maoists blocked intersections near ministerial buildings, shouting slogans and demanding the resignation of the current government.

Last year, the Maoists won enough seats in national elections to lead a coalition government and elect their leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, as prime minister. But Prachanda resigned in May to protest a constitutional dispute with the president over the Nepalese military. Since then, the Maoists have staged demonstrations and even declared certain areas, including Katmandu, as symbolic “autonomous zones” beyond governmental authority.

The clash on Sunday occurred around 2:30 p.m. Bigyan Sharma, deputy inspector general of the Nepal police, said officers approached protesters, who were blocking a main road leading from the airport into the city. He said officers wanted to clear the road to allow the prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, to reach his residence after returning from the talks in Copenhagen.

Officer Sharma said the protesters refused to move and then hurled stones at officers, badly injuring a police commander, who was taken to the hospital. Officer Sharma said the police then turned water cannons on the demonstrators while other officers used batons and tear gas. Ultimately, the authorities transported the prime minister by an alternate route, Officer Sharma said.

“The police were not too aggressive,” said Mr. Khanal, the home ministry spokesman. “The police had to clear the road.”

But Dinanath Sharma, a spokesman for the Maoists, disputed that account and accused the police of overzealousness. He said officers attacked peaceful protesters and that two Maoist parliamentarians were badly injured. “Our protest program is peaceful,” Mr. Sharma said. “It was not from our side. The police forcefully tried to suppress us.”

On Monday, a relative calm settled over Katmandu, witnesses said. Demonstrators were holding sit-down protests in groups of 100 or 200, according to the police, calling for the “people’s supremacy.”

The strike is schedule to end Tuesday. The police estimated that 4,000 protesters were on the streets of the capital, while other demonstrations were underway in other cities in Nepal.

By JIM YARDLEY Published: December 21, 2009

Kiyani says no to action in North Waziristan

2009-12-19T18:40:00.000-05:00

(CBS/AP)

When President Barack Obama announced his decision to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, he stressed that success in that region was "inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan."
But despite the rhetoric of increased cooperation on counter-terrorism, relations between the two nations appear to be frayed.
Pakistan has refused U.S. demands that it crack down on Siraj Haqqani, an Afghan Taliban militant leading insurgents against American forces but who also serves as an asset for Pakistani intelligence, according to a New York Times report Tuesday.
Haqqani uses the restive Pakistani region of North Waziristan as a safe haven and has been linked to senior al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, according to the report.
The U.S. has pressed the Pakistani military to turn on Haqqani, both in State Department messages and a follow-up meeting by Gen. David Petraeus. Pakistan's failure to cooperate could mean increased American drone attacks within their border, U.S. officials have reportedly told them.
According to the report, Pakistani officials are privately fuming over the increasing burden of their U.S. alliance and view Mr. Obama's new surge strategy with skepticism. In refusing to go after Haqqani, Pakistan may be preparing for a post-America Afghanistan – one in which regional powers like China, Russia and, especially, India will jockey for influence. In short, Pakistan may need Haqqani to shore up support among locals.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the head of Pakistan's military, has argued against going after Haqqani for short-term reasons: Pakistan has its hands full fighting its own Taliban in South Waziristan and can't afford to wage a second offensive against the Afghan Taliban, which moves in and out of North Waziristan.

Pakistani officials also say that because Haqqani spends so much time in Afghanistan, the U.S. could eliminate him there, without help from Pakistan, according to the report. December 15, 2009 11:15 AM, Pakistan, U.S. at Odds over Posted by Daniel Carty Taliban Leader

There is hardly any doubt regarding the critical importance of the military operation in Pakistan’s troubled South Waziristan tribal agency, which is considered to be the epicenter of jihad and the nerve center of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and their allies. The latest military operation started in mid-October and has been widely described as successful in capturing most of the TTP bases in the difficult terrain along the Afghanistan border. After years of setbacks and failures in containing the rising power of the militants, Pakistan’s military has finally managed to dismantle militant bases in this critically important region, famous for its rebel movements and legendary tales of resistance. To encourage his soldiers, Pakistan’s military chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, went in person to advanced positions in Waziristan. Pakistan’s western allies, who have long been critical of its military performance against Taliban militants, have also shown appreciation for Pakistan’s military performance. Even President Obama mentioned the Waziristan military offensive in his much talked about December 1 speech on America’s Afghanistan policy at the U.S. military academy at West Point, in which he referred to extremist militants as a “common threat” to both the United States and Pakistan.
Pakistan recently announced that its military has completed the offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan and that military operations may now be expanded to the Orakzai Tribal Agency, where many Taliban commanders are thought to be hiding. However, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani quickly backed away from this announcement, describing the operations as “ongoing” (BBC, December 12).
The success achieved by Pakistani forces in South Waziristan is vitally important to the country’s lingering war against terrorism. The Waziristan counterterrorism model could be applied to other areas where the Taliban have strongholds and wreak havoc on the lives of innocent people. However, the latest wave of terror attacks clearly demonstrate that merely disrupting the Taliban bases does not mean that the strategy has worked. In fact, it seems the Taliban have successfully expanded their war beyond the mountains of South Waziristan. They are claiming responsibility for many of the latest attacks, most notably the attack targeting senior officers in the Pakistan Army while they were praying in a highly secure mosque in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. This attack revealed that the fight against Taliban militants is far from won, and the Taliban suicide squad is still intact (Dawn [Karachi], December 5).
“The Path to Salvation”
While highlighting the importance of this offensive, Pakistani officials said that the military operation in Waziristan is a war for the country’s existence and will continue to a logical end: the complete elimination of militants (The News [Islamabad], October 21). Code-named Rah-e-Nejat (Path to Salvation), the operation was launched on October 17 after months of preparation that involved amassing nearly 30,000 troops near the South Waziristan agency and shelling of the Mahsud tribes in order to weaken the Taliban position. In the full-fledged offensive, Pakistani forces not only started using heavy weaponry, but also fighter jets and helicopter gunships. Initial reports suggested that the government’s 30,000 soldiers were taking part in the operation against what officials described as 10,000 hardcore militants. This number included between 1,000 to 1,500 foreign fighters, mostly Uzbeks (Dawn, October 18). Military officials have said that more than 600 militants and 70 security personnel have been killed in the six-week long military operation (The News, November 30).

Many analysts quickly described this much-awaited operation as the “mother of all battles,” saying tough resistance from the militant side would provide the army with its greatest challenge yet (Daily Times [Islamabad] October 8). Many also referred to the setbacks faced by Pakistani forces in this region since the start of the current insurgency in 2003-2004. Besides dozens of minor clashes and skirmishes, the three major previous operations in the South Waziristan tribal agency in 2004, 2005 and 2008 all ended in embarrassment for the Pakistani forces, leading the government to resort to controversial “peace deals.” Unfortunately, all these so-called peace deals not only provided the militants with a respite, but also helped them in strengthening and re-organizing themselves (Dawn, October 18).

Several events paved the way for the Pakistani Army’s operation in South Waziristan. First was the successful military offensive earlier this year in the Swat Valley against militants led by a local radical cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, which served as a morale booster for the military and inspired confidence in the people. The Swat Valley was taken over by Fazlullah’s forces and they implemented a strict version of Shari’a based on the Afghan Taliban government of the mid-90s. Second, the killing of Baitullah Mahsud in an August 5 American drone attack led officials to believe the time would be ripe for a military offensive while the TTP were mourning the death of their leader. A final catalyst was the spectacular attack on the Army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi in October that left 20 people dead. The Pakistani Taliban took responsibility for the attack on the GHQ, Pakistan’s Pentagon, in which ten gunmen disguised as soldiers infiltrated the heavily guarded building (Daily Times [Lahore], October 13).The attack left the civilian and military leadership with no choice but to go after the TTP and target their main hub in South Waziristan (The News [Islamabad] October 20).

As was the case in the Swat military operation, there was again strong public support for the offensive in South Waziristan. For the first time, the Swat military operation was seen by the local people as Pakistan’s own offensive, not something done at the behest of the United States. A day before the launching of the Waziristan operation, the military leadership received significant political support from all of the mainstream political parties - ruling as well as opposition – except the pro-Taliban religious parties.

The Waziristan offensive was a much more difficult campaign with many more casualties than the Swat operation earlier this year. Surprisingly, Pakistani forces easily captured some important places like Makeen, Sararogha, Laddah, Kunigaram and Kotkai in four weeks without any tough resistance. These areas once made up the stronghold of the slain TTP commander, Baitullah Mahsud.

TTP Leadership Has Survived
Few military operations have received as much advance “publicity” as the South Waziristan offensive. Military strategists usually want to capture the enemy off guard. In South Waziristan’s case, the first formal, well-publicized statement came in June from the governor of the North-West Frontier Province, Owais Ghani, when he announced the government had finally decided to go all out against the Pakistani Taliban and its leader. There were warnings from many different quarters that a delay in the operation could provide the opportunity for militants, particularly the TTP leadership, to leave for Afghanistan or slip into other areas of Pakistan. In fact, there were strong voices in favor of a quick military operation while the Taliban were on the run after the military’s success in Swat.

Now that the first phase of the military operation in Waziristan is almost complete, with the major towns captured and officials claiming to dismantle militant’s bases, it is clear that top TTP leaders have survived and successfully managed to escape to other secure regions. This includes the movement’s current leader, Hakimullah Mahsud, and his top lieutenant, Wali-ur-Rahman. It is not obvious where they have gone, but it is quite clear that they have unleashed a fresh wave of terror by sending their suicide squads across the country.

The official story is that the three-month operation was meant to blockade the Mahsud tribal territory to stop the flow of TTP supplies and to provide an opportunity for the local civilian population to leave the region. Since the Army was still maintaining order in parts of the Swat Valley with a troop presence of 20,000 soldiers, the government did not want to open another front immediately and delayed the Waziristan operation (Daily Times, July 21). The Waziristan operation may not ensure peace in the region because the TTP leadership is still at large. It is likely that militants retreated to their hideouts in secure regions where they can easily regroup and launch a guerilla war with terrorist attacks across the country (Daily Times, November 8).

Conclusion
The mountainous border region of South Waziristan is of critical importance not only to Pakistan’s struggle against militancy, but also for the U.S-led war on terror in the region, soon to be reinforced by 30,000 more U.S troops in Afghanistan. It was South Waziristan where the current insurgency began in 2003-2004, and it was this same region which gave birth to the Pakistani Taliban phenomenon that later expanded to other parts of the tribal region, finally culminating in the formation of the TTP in December 2007 under the leadership of Baitullah Mahsud. The region has been under the control of militants who have used this space not only for terrorist acts inside Pakistan but also for staging attacks across the border in Afghanistan. Terrorists were openly trained here and suicide bombers, mostly teenage boys, were trained and indoctrinated in these mountains. At times, South Waziristan also served as a nerve center for the militants’ poisonous propaganda against the Pakistani state and the United States and its allies (The News, Islamabad, October 23).
All this makes the physical occupation of South Waziristan by the Pakistani forces a major success, particularly after years of setbacks and embarrassments which included losing military posts, the surrender of troops to the TTP and failed peace deals with the militants. The jihadis have lost control of Waziristan, but they have successfully taken the war into the more secure urban areas of Pakistan, where they have been able to carry out terrorist strikes on the civilian population. The South Waziristan operation could be just the beginning of a long and difficult war.

Military Victory in South Waziristan or the Beginning of a Long War? Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 38, December 15, 2009 09:57 AM Age: By: Imtiaz Ali

US Apologist Talat Masood on Anti-Americanism:

2009-12-17T18:45:00.000-05:00

Talat Masood Uncle—nothing personal—but your ideas are not in the best interest of Pakistan. You make some good points, but the “defense at any costs” is unwarranted and does not help either America or Islamabad. You paint a rosy picture—but don’t condemn the occupation or the bombing of Pakistan. Obama’s arguments were no different from Bushs’:–Fidel Castro Ruz. Many claim that you are on foreign payrolls—others say that you represent everything that is wrong with Pakistan. Some even claim that you are a Fifth Column deprecating Pakistan at every forum. You have served the nation well. Your uniform and your work has to be appreciated—but you are just plain wrong on most issues of concern to Pakistanis. Have you ever spoken up against foreign bases. Shutting down the bases.

Why don’t you speak up against Bharat (aka India)? “India behind terrorist attacks” FM Qureshi. Your discussion of Blackwater has been stated, as if it was only a misunderstanding and a communication issue. While many Americans are questioning the war in Afghanistan, there is a cabal in Pakistan that wants perpetual US occupation of Afghanistan. Why are you in that group? Defeating Al-Qaeda by not fighting Taliban

You wrote reams against Musharraf for his alleged obsequious attitude towards America. Why are you silent about the complaint PPP government which you support.Why did Rehman Malik release arrested Blackwater spies?

Anti-Americanism continues to rise unabated in Pakistan. It is not confined to fringe elements alone but is spreading in the mainstream. A few recently retired military officers and politicians have gone as far as accusing US for abetting and supporting acts of terror that have engulfed the country. This is despite the fact that President Obama and the administration has made serious efforts clearing up misunderstandings and reducing the inherent tensions not only with Pakistan but with the Muslim world in general.

Washington has tried to redress the past policy mistakes of abandoning Pakistan by developing a long-term strategic relationship. It has expanded, in scope and depth, Pakistan’s economic assistance threefold and doubled military assistance, totaling $2.2 billion annually. The Enhanced Partnership Act, notwithstanding its intrusive clauses and abrasive wording, is a clear manifestation of breaking from the past. The United States has also been highly supportive of Pakistan at the World Bank, IMF and other multilateral forums to ease its financial crisis.

Furthermore, on a larger canvas, President Obama has tried to reach out to the Muslims and expressed as a matter of policy his desire to develop a relationship on the basis of mutual respect. He has repeatedly emphasised his close personal links with Muslims and frequently reflects warmly on his experiences in Muslim countries during the early part of his life. His speech at the University of Cairo and prior to that in Turkey was a clear indication of this shift. The immediate withdrawal of some of the draconian measures like water boarding and his plans to close Guantanamo Bay, although as yet to be implemented, are all signs that were meant to reduce the cleavage with the Muslim world and an assurance that the US is not at war with Islam but is only fighting those radical Muslim elements that have taken arms against them. The Nobel Peace Prize award to Obama was an acknowledgement of the transformational changes that he was aspiring to bring in American policy.
But nothing seems to work. Even when the US administration or the military leadership makes a statement that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute would contribute towards regional stability, it is viewed with great scepticism. Similarly, when top US military and government officials publicly acknowledge that Pakistan’s nuclear assets are safe it fails to resonate.

In short, cynicism and dislike for America has reached a point of no return among a certain class in Pakistan, and from their point of view nothing that US does can possibly be good for the country. And they cling to the mantra, despite repeated assurances, that Washington’s interest only lies in taking out our nuclear assets.
What then are the reasons for this distrust and how far are these allegations of the US wanting to destabilise Pakistan, with the help of India, credible?

Any major power, when it adopts a security or foreign policy, always weighs the flip side of everything. If Washington were to destabilise Pakistan as a deliberate policy, then the ensuing chaos will create a vacuum that would surely be filled by the Taliban and jihadi forces, posing a far greater danger to the US, India and the rest of the world. It would be absurd for the US to simultaneously fight the militants, be it the Taliban or Al Qaeda, and support them.

The fact, however, is that the internal and external policies Pakistan has pursued in the last three decades to advance its perceived national interests were flawed and have come to roost. Regrettably, we are in a state of denial and not prepared to accept that militancy is not home grown, and has taken root with the people. There is no doubt that American policies along with Indian designs have accentuated Pakistan’s regional problems. But the answer to our insurgency and the expanding frontiers of terrorism lies primarily with us. It is the responsibility of our leaders to give clarity in defining the nature of threat and mobilising the nation’s resources, both human and material, to combat it successfully. Failure to do so has resulted in the spread of endless rumours generally to the advantage of the militants. We are also failing to optimise the exceptional support that the international community is willing to extend in these difficult times.

This is also true that the legacy of betrayal is so strong and deep-seated that the US will have to work very hard to overcome the prevailing suspicions. The US administration will have to make a categorical assertion that Blackwater or its associates are not operating in Pakistan if confidence in the public of its sincerity is to be restored. The policy of employing drones needs also to be reviewed so that Pakistan military’s involvement at the intelligence and operational levels is fully integrated.

Otherwise every drone attack fuels anti-Americanism and exposes the contradiction in our relations, neutralising the tactical advantage that its employment accrues.
It is equally important to realise that, while we are passing through the worst of times, not everything is lost. There are many positive elements that are emerging as we wade through the present crisis. Despite all odds, a democratic system however fragile has been put in place. Institutions have started functioning, the judiciary is asserting itself, and media is robust debating every facet of our political, economic and social life and acting as a watchdog on our leaders. Parliament has yet to energise but is under public pressure to assume its responsibilities of legislating and assisting in the formulation of national policies. The civil society is emerging, albeit somewhat gradually.

Tragically, the nation is paying a heavy price in blood and sweat in combating militancy. It is forcing us to reform or face the consequences of an existential threat. The cumulative impact of these developments whether it is pressure of media, civil society or the violent acts of militants is bringing about fundamental changes in the society. Feudalism and tribal hierarchy is on its way out and politicians canot fool the people, and the military is in no position to capture power. Militancy is now compelling the government to act and reach out to the tribal people whom they neglected for 62 years. Similarly, the insurgency in Baluchistan is forcing the government to take political and economic measures that it denied to them. The military is acting against the proxies that at one time it patronised. The society is in flux and anarchic but there are several positive happenings as well. Anti-Americanism, Monday, December 14, 2009, Talat Masood, The writer is a retired lieutenant-general. Email: talat@comsats.net.pk

Headley worked for CIA, FBI and the DEA: Was US responsible for Mumbai massacre?

2009-12-15T18:35:00.001-05:00

Once a CIA spy—always a CIA spy. The CIA spy, FBI agent and DEA operative is involved in the Mumbai massacre. Mr. David Coleman Headley is an American citizen and worked for various organs of the US Government. Mr. Kasab was an individual, another stateless actor. However Delhi’s anger is on Pakistan and not the USA.

Pakistani-American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, charged with scouting targets for Mumbai terror attacks, worked as a confidential informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration for more than a decade, according to a US media report.

The relationship began with his first arrest back in June 1988, when customs agents at the Frankfurt airport pulled aside an intense and striking young man waiting to get on a plane back home to Philadelphia, McClatchy Newspapers reported Monday.

"They suspected he had heroin in his suitcase. They were right - two kilos' worth from Pakistan, hidden under a false bottom," the report said. He wasn't tough to crack: Before the day was out, Daood "David" Gilani decided to save his own skin, agreeing to betray his drug-dealing partners by helping US drug agents set up a sting," it said.

It was the beginning of a complicated, off-and-on relationship as a confidential informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration - one that lasted more than a decade.

In fact, Gilani was so helpful as a DEA informant in the late 1990s on heroin imported from Pakistan, according to records and Inquirer interviews, that prosecutors made a rare move: They ended his probation years early, allowing him to travel freely.

Within weeks, investigators cited by McClatchy said, he began training with terrorists in Pakistan.

New details are emerging about the strange double life of Headley, the son of a Pakistani broadcaster and a Main Line socialite who would spend evenings holding court and drinking splits of champagne in her bar, the Khyber Pass, McClatchy said.

He was briefly married to a Philadelphia woman in the 1980s whom he met at the bar, who, like a lot of other young women, was mesmerised by his dark skin and piercing eyes - one blue, the other brown.

He later became a heroin addict, and twice was caught smuggling the drug into the country by the DEA, in 1988 in Frankfurt, Germany, and in 1997 in New York. Both times, he got off with a lighter sentence by testifying against his partners.

It quickly became clear to federal law enforcement officials in New York that Headley knew a great deal about the heroin trade between the US and Pakistan and was willing to cooperate, McClatchy said. Headley worked as US agency informant for a decade, Indo-Asian News Service, Washington, December 15, 2009, First Published: 13:04 IST(15/12/2009), Last Updated: 16:33 IST(15/12/2009)

Shame on Hasni Mubarak for building a fence around Gaza prison

2009-12-14T22:49:00.001-05:00

Gaza border: Why Egypt is building a steel underground wall

Reports from the Gaza border say that Egypt is building an underground wall as deep as 100 feet to stem smuggling in Hamas-controlled tunnels. But there are broader goals, too.

Heavy machinery operates on the Egyptian side of the border between the southern Gaza Strip, right, and Egypt, left, as seen from Rafah, Thursday. Egypt has been digging trenches and installing metal sheets underground along its border with Gaza in an apparent attempt to curb smuggling into the Palestinian territory through tunnels, Gaza border guards and area residents said Thursday.

Eyad Baba/AP

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By Sarah A. Topol Contributor / December 14, 2009

Cairo

Reports that Egypt is building a steel underground wall along its border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip have fueled speculation about what exactly Cairo intends to accomplish with the project, which British newspapers claim is being carried out with the help of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

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The Israeli separation barrier: A West Bank wall

Failed State: Unsuccessful attempts to form a country--India

2009-12-11T18:21:00.001-05:00

The world is aghast—like the USSR, Bharat is imploding. The analysts were right—it would take a feather to unravel the poorly concocted country called India. Winston Churchill was right when he proclaimed “that India is as ephemeral as the Equator”. The Balkanization of Bharat continues. Let the games begin. The Chinese had threatened to break up Bharat into 20 states. They may not have to take the trouble. Shining Indian is imploding as we speak. What surprises the world that Indians have not blamed Pakistan for their imploding country—at least not yet!

Telangana is Balkanizing India towards 560 independent states era during Company Raj, British Rule, Mughal era & before

Telengana secession from Andhara unleashes centrifugal forces all over India. Assam, Kashmir, Bodoland, Sikkim, Telangana, Gorkhaland, Bundelkhand and others want their own states. Most don’t want any control from Delhi. When Zaid Hamid proclaimed that India would be reduced to the size of Sri Lanka, many scoffed at his prophetic words with skepticism. Now the reality is showing the world the veracity of his words.

Naxalite insurgency exposes deep cavities in India India Balkanizing: Naxal insurgency widening cracks into deep abyss “India” was never one country—always a patchwork of alliances, deceitful conspiracies, shifting loyalties, loose associations, and constant rebellions against the center. Even the might Mughal Armies could not control the entire territory. Quell a rebellion in the West, and the East was usurping. Quit down an aggressive potentate in the North, and the South would be in revolt. Today history is being repeated. India: Inebriated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization

“India” is a misnomer: The British “Indian” Empire included parts of the Subcontinent, Iraq, Burma etc. The French “Indian” Empire included parts of the Subcontinent plus Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. The Dutch “India” is a misnomer: The British Indian Empire included parts of the Subcontinent, Iraq, Burma etc. The French “Indian” Empire included parts of the Subcontinent plus Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. The Dutch “Indian” Empire included Indonesia and parts of the Subcontinent. included Indonesia and parts of the Subcontinent.

Many think of Bharat (aka India) as a monolith. In actual fact, there were more than 570 independent states before Lord Clive entered Calcutta. Even during the Company Raj (Plassy to War of Independence), the East India Company controlled a small portion the territory (1176-1857). When the Crown formally took over South Asia after the Company almost lost the war of Independence (aka Great Indian Mutiny) it only controlled only about 40% of the region. The rest of the area was ruled by princes, potentates, rajas, kings, badshahs—who had varying degree of sovereignty and independence. Some of the larger states were very independent. For example Hyderabad was a country by itself. Bhopal and Kashmir were also not ruled by Delhi.Bodoland wants independence from India

Is India is a failed state? The maps show the more than 89 insurgencies that are raging in India
The hundreds of states in the Subcontinent in the middle of the 19th century

Cracks are showing in Bharat today!

These are the most serious cracks identified by the security agencies of Bharat.

The forces in East Punjan, Kashmir, Seven Sissters of the Norhteast, The Naxalite insurrection

The states truncated.

Nagaland does not want to be part of Bharat.

The Seven Sisters want to be independent

Chattirgarh want to be by itself.

These are imperial British maps of the Subcontinent

This is the Pakistan that was demanded.

In 1948 Nehru forced all states to join the “Indian Union”. Any state that would try to exist independently would be declared enemy state and Bharat would be at war with it. He used a fake article of accession to send forces to Kashmir and tried to occupy it. The article of accession was never presented to Pakistan, or the UN—and is now purportedly lost—as if it ever existed. Nehru allowed Patel to instigate a “Police Action” against Hyderabad and took over over. The same story was repeated about 560 times. Junagarh and Manvadar who had opted to join Pakistan were forcibly incorporated into Bharat (the opposite of what happened in Kashmir).

This expansionism didn’t end with the take over of Assam. Nehru then tried to take over Sikkim and Bhutan.

Now the chickens have come to roost. Ironically the Central government of Bharat today only control 40% of the the territory of the land mass of the country. This is similar to the British Raj. The Naxals control 40% of the land, and Assam, and Kashmiris control the rest. The announcement for the new state has opened the floodgates of secession.

Analysts said the decision will fuel protests by other ethnic and regional groups seeking separate states. Among these are Gorkhas wanting a new state in the mountainous Darjeeling region.

“This is a test for India’s ability to address sub-national sentiment in a law-governed way,” said Mahesh Rangarajan, a Delhi University political scientist. “It’s going to raise the question: should India consider having a state re-organisation commission?”

India has 28 states, mostly formed in 1956 in an effort to reorganise administrative units along ethnic and linguistic lines after British colonial rule.

But doubts have grown about the states’ ability to govern large populations as regional economic disparities widen. In Andhra Pradesh, politicians from the inland Telangana region have long resented the greater prosperity of the coastal belt. Financial Times

Supporters of Telangana statehood celebrate in Hyderabad on Thursday after the Indian government agreed to support their separatist demands in an effort to quell unrest.

After Hyderabad was broken up and its pieces parsed out to “Andhra Pradesh” and other areas, the state ceased to exist. The city which was a center of Muslim culture and Urdu learning died as the cultural Mecca for the Muslims.

Now the various ethnicities in Andhara Pradesh are fighting among themselves---the Telangana plan was to create a separate state. Its approval by the Indian National Congress has once again exacerbated the thin ethnic rivalries of diverse groups with competing interest. Uttar Pradesh was never a monolithic state either. It comprised of Awadh and other provinces. The British called it United Provinces (or UP). Now the Dalit leader of UP wants to re-split up UP into its former territories of Awadh and other states.

The Begums of Awadh, once humiliated by the British must smiling today—at the resurrection of their beloved state. Today another Begum in Lucknow is asking for its creation

“As soon as we get the nod from the centre, motion would come in the House”, Mayawati said, adding division of the state was necessary for good governance and balanced development. Mayawati said she was in favour of formation of Poorvanchal state also. But the demand should come from the people.

Of the 12 districts of Bundelkhand seven are in UP and five in Madhya Pradesh. Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) demanding Harit Pradesh in western UP has laid claim on 23 districts, including areas of Roohelkhand comprising Barielly and Moradabad divisions. Hindustan Times

India's Security concerns Both the Congress, and the BJP are in favor of the division. Ms. Maywati is a very powerful leader in UP. What she is saying will happen.

LUCKNOW/ NEW DELHI: After the Centre's Telangana plan, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati and Jaswant Singh on Friday joined the chorus for smaller states with the BSP supremo renewing the demand for splitting her state into three while the senior politician pitched for Gorkhaland.

Mayawati dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that steps be taken for carving out separate states of Bundelkhand and western Uttar Pradesh out of the country's most populated state.

Rahul Gandhi has been in the forefront in pushing for a development package for Bundelkhand -- parts of which fall in UP and MP while RLD's Ajit Singh has threatened to launch a fresh agitation for creation of Harit Pradesh(Western UP).

"I have renewed the demand for smaller states in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to also give consent to Uttar Pradesh as it has given to Andhra Pradesh for setting up separate Telangana state", Mayawati told newspersons in Lucknow.

"Both the BSP and my government are of the view that smaller states are conducive to all-round development and have been making a demand for trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh through letters", Ms. Mayawati said adding she had also written to the Centre in this regard on March 15, 2008. Times of India. Telangana fallout: Maya wants UP into 3,Jaswant for Gorkhaland, PTI 11 December 2009, 09:01pm IST

India's worst nightmare come true: Long term strategic malaise
Mumbai False flag: Indian hawk & Gujarat Chief Minister Modi exonerates Pakistan's position. Delhi's fails to prove Pakistan is complicit
India intoxicated by meager success is blind to real self-portrait of caste infested penury and balkanization

Gorkhaland:

Emboldened by the Centre's move to initiate process for carving Telengana state out of Andhra Pradesh, members of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Friday began fast-unto-death at five places in Darjeeling hills and Dooars demanding Gorkhaland state.

GJM press and publicity secretary Benoy Tamang said the agitation started in front of district magistrate's office in Darjeeling as also in Kurseong, Kalimpong and Kalchini in Dooars from 10 am. A batch of 21 members each began the fast. Hindustan Times

The centrifugal forces will continue to grow and ask for more and more.

View Full Image . Reuters NEW DELHI -- Other groups pushing for separate statehood in India are ratcheting up pressure on the government after New Delhi gave its nod earlier this week for a separate Telangana state to be carved out of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Among groups to demand their own state is Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, a political party, which announced Friday that about 20 of its members would go on indefinite hunger strike in an effort to persuade the government to form a separate state of Gorkhaland out of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

Pradeep Pradhan, the party's president, said in an interview that the party was encouraging Gorkhas to participate in a 96-hour business shutdown in the region starting Dec. 14. Wall Street Journal

Gorkhas are an ethnic group that spans parts of Nepal and northeastern India. Mr. Pradhan says the separate state would give identification to the Indian and Nepali Gorkhas who have been otherwise neglected.

The leaders of GJM are using the same tactics as the leaders of Telengana—rioting, fasts, and violence.

In New Delhi, leaders of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha met Union home minister P Chidambaram and demanded the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state saying "we want to be liberated from the colonial rule" of West Bengal government.

Assam: The restive tribes of Assam want their own states and they want independence.

Bodos, Dimasas and Karbi tribes of Assam have renewed their demand for separate states carved out of Assam following the Centre's decision to create a separate Telengana state. Indian Express

West Bengal:

"We do not want to stay with West Bengal. We want to be liberated from the colonial rule of the West Bengal government," GJM general Secretary Roshan Giri told reporters.

Expelled BJP leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh, who was part of the delegation, said the demand for a separate Gorkhaland was just and was also the "oldest" demand for carving out a new state. Times of India. Telangana fallout: Maya wants UP into 3,Jaswant for Gorkhaland, PTI 11 December 2009, 09:01pm IST

Amnesty International Report on "Horrid India" The spectacle of the break up of the USSR is within the memory banks of most. Now one is watching the same history being repeated in Bharat. The world is watching the behemoth implode.

“Whatever the arguments for and against the legitimacy of the Telangana cause, it’s clear that by ceding to it, the Centre has stirred up a hornet’s nest,” said the Financial Express newspaper in an editorial Thursday. Financial Express

Naxals: Balkanizing Cracks in “India”: Naxalite insurrection growing

The Naxalites have a force of approximately 15,000 cadres spread across 160 districts in the states of Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. They operate primarily in the lawless, dense forested areas of India’s interior, with some estimates saying Naxalites control approximately 10.03 million hectares (about 25 million acres) of forests nationwide. They also have an active campaign to recruit students and other youths to help spread their left-wing extremism into India’s towns and cities. Thus far, however, the Naxalites have not demonstrated the ability to operate in urban areas.

Like Yugoslavia and the USSR, the decentralization of Bharat continues.

In 2000, three new states were made: Chhattisgarh, which was part of Madhya Pradesh; Uttarakhand, from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, out of Bihar. Telangana will be India’s 29th state.

More locally, there are fears that if the up and coming city of Hyderabad is included in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, which has invested heavily in its main city, will lose significant amounts of revenue.Christian Science Monitor

How Bharati media gags criticism of Delhi. With 75% of the population living under one Dolalr, a literacy rate that is below that of Pakistan—Bharat is the hungriest nation in South Asia (according to the World Hunger Index). It spends Billions on military equipment, while half the population of Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkota, Benaras, and Mumbai sleeps on the sidewalks. What is worse is that generations have been born, lived and died on the “footpath” without any shelter available to them. It is this generation that joins the ranks of the Naxals and the Maoists that control a wide swathe of territory from Nepal deep into Andhara Pradesh.

Assam and the seven sisters have almost no association with Delhi—linked by the narrow “chicken’s neck” which runs around Bangladesh.

There is the fear that balkanisation could prove to be disastrous for the idea of India. This is mainly the view of the metropolitan intelligentsia whose grasp of India beyond the big urban conglomerations is tenuous at best. DNA India

White Widows: 50, million women ostracized from society and incarcerated in temples

East Punjab: Brutal suppression of Punjabi insurrection. Thousands killed
Tamil Nadu and Mizuram are in flames seeking independence
Tamil insurrection in Sri Lanka fled by Tamils in India
Bihar: Major issues in Bihar and problems with Bangladesh
West Bengal in Communist hands.
Gujrat: Serious Hindu Muslim riots perpetuated by Mr. Moodi
200 -300 million Untouchables have little or no rights
150 million Muslims are at the lowest rung of the ladder:

India has had wars with all her neighbors. By harping on the “failed state” mantra the bigoted Indian commentariat wants to surround “Akhand Bharat” with small Balkanized mini-states like Sikkim, Bhutan, Sri Lanka. Any hegemonous power achieves its goal in the region by sabotaging the integrity and sovereignty of the neighbors. India wants to surround itself with a “Warsaw pact” type of string of obsequies and subservient states. Pakistan is big hurdle in India’s hegemonistic policy of Westward expansion. Since the West never faced “India” in combat, they are unaware of the (South) Indian agression that was encountered by Southeast Asia (Laos, Cambodia, and even Indonesia). China and Pakistan working together have arrested the advance of the sepoys of Delhi.

Today Bharat has to be stopped from expanding its borders. Ignoring “Superpoweritis” & thwarting India’s plans

Sudra Holocaust: Genocide of 1 million Dalits in India since 1947: About three million Dalit women have been raped and around one million Dalits killed from the time of Independence. This is 25 times more than number of soldiers killed during the wars fought after independence. That is why Dalits do not need Aryan culture or Hindu Dharma based on caste any more. …” [Dr. Tulsiram]

Mayawati, Telangana, Twitter, Facebook, Share, Email, Print, Save, Comment

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Obama wants to Subcontract war to Pakistan

2009-12-11T00:15:00.001-05:00

Obama's perilous Pakistan strategy

Pakistani troops have had successes against the Taliban

US President Barack Obama has not only ordered a troops surge in Afghanistan, but has also spelt out an exit strategy.

This has created a situation in Pakistan which is both perilous and promising, depending on which side of the national divide you stand on.

Since the reintroduction of democracy in 2008, the Pakistani power structure has evolved into two discernible blocs.

One bloc is led by the country's powerful security establishment, which still wields considerable power and has influential allies in the media and political circles.

The other is led by the political government, which has problems of governance and credibility and has a weak grip on power, but has large pockets of support in various parts of the country, especially in the south.

The two blocs have publicly voiced contradictory views on how Pakistan should treat its two most important neighbours, India and Afghanistan.

And this fundamental disagreement is likely to shape Pakistan's long-term response to America's impending endgame in Afghanistan.

Western 'failure'

For the moment, though, the Pakistani government has welcomed the US decision of a surge in troop numbers in Afghanistan, but has expressed concern over large deployments in the south which it fears will push the war into its territory.

The underlying argument is that while the Pakistani army has successfully dealt with militants in some parts of the north-west, the Western and Afghan troops have failed to do the same inside Afghanistan.

President Obama announced 30,000 more US troops would be deployed

Commentators close to the security establishment express the fear that the Americans will now force the Pakistani army to also fight their part of the battle, and that too on Pakistani soil.

This will complicate the situation in south-western Pakistan - the likely battlefield in such a scenario - where the country already faces an armed insurgency by separatist groups, they say.

Many in the political establishment also express fears publicly that an intensified campaign of drone strikes in Pakistani areas may stoke the fires of anti-Americanism and strengthen the extremists.

But in private conversations they also express hope that increased US pressure on Pakistan to squeeze the space for militant groups will weaken the army's resolve to continue to support and protect them.

Western and Pakistani analysts have long held that Islamic militant groups were created and managed by Pakistan's military intelligence community as strategic tools to destabilise India and Afghanistan, two neighbours that the army considers hostile.

Pakistan's top politicians privately agree that these groups were also used to subvert the political process at home.

The US announcement of a troop surge in Afghanistan, coupled with an exit strategy that becomes operational barely 18 months from now, means that Pakistanis will be under great pressure to dismantle these groups without further delay.

For many, this is an impossible task.

Some analysts believed to be close to the security establishment admit that the Pakistani intelligence services nurtured these groups as a foreign policy tool, but say they are no longer under the army's control and have taken on a life of their own.

They believe that a widening of the war will create conditions which would be beyond the control of the Pakistani security forces and may harm the country irreparably.

Targets deep inside Pakistan

But Obama administration officials apparently seem to think that the militants can be defeated, and that the key to this lies in Pakistan.

And there are indications that the Americans would be willing to go to any length to persuade the Pakistanis to do what is necessary.

A credible source in Islamabad told the BBC News website that if the Pakistanis were found to be dragging their feet on the issue of militant groups, the Americans might consider drone strikes on some important strategic targets deep inside Pakistan to hasten the process.

The source said a message to this effect had already been conveyed to the Pakistani leadership.

The Americans have not offered a quid pro quo for this, but there are indications that they may be working on other fronts to boost the Pakistanis' sense of security.

Analysts interpret India's decision to scale down troops in the part of Kashmir it controls - a region disputed by India and Pakistan - and to hand over security operations to local police there as the result of back-channel diplomacy involving some Western powers.

The Indian announcement came a day after President Barack Obama unveiled his Afghanistan policy.

So, there are obvious signs of a carrot-and-stick approach.

The way things stand now, Pakistan has much to gain from Mr Obama's strategy - but in return he will make big demands, particularly of the military. BBC. By M Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad

Quaid’s message first delivered on 24th of October 1947

2009-12-11T00:11:00.001-05:00

Quaid’s message first delivered on 24th of October 1947, still inspirational, motivational and thought-provoking for the Pakistani Nation

“God often tests and tries those whom he loves. He called upon Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice the object he loved most. Ibrahim answered the call and offered to sacrifice his son. Today too, God is testing and trying the Muslims of Pakistan and India. He has demanded great sacrifices from us. Our new-born State is bleeding from wounds inflicted by our enemies. Our Muslim brethren in India are being victimized and oppressed as Muslims for their help and sympathy for the establishment of Pakistan. Dark clouds surround us on all sides for the moment but we are not daunted, for I am sure, if we show the same spirit of sacrifice as was shown by Ibrahim, God would rend the clouds and shower on us His blessing as He did on Ibrahim. Let us, therefore, on the day of Eid-ul-Azha which symbolizes the spirit of sacrifice enjoined by Islam, resolve that we shall not be deterred from our objective of creating a State of our own concept by any amount of sacrifice, trials or tribulations which may lie ahead of us and that we shall bend all our energies and resources to achieve our goal. I am confident that in spite of its magnitude, we shall overcome this grave crisis as we have in our long history surmounted many others and notwithstanding the efforts of our enemies, we shall emerge triumphant and strong from the dark night of suffering and show the world that the State exists not for life but for good life.

On this sacred day, I send greetings to our Muslim brethren all over the world both on behalf of myself and the people of Pakistan. For us Pakistan, on this day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, has been overshadowed by the suffering and sorrow of 5 million Muslims in East Punjab and its neighborhood. I hope that, wherever Muslim men and women foregather on this solemn day. They will remember in their prayers these unfortunate men, women and children who have lost their dear ones, homes and hearths and are undergoing an agony and suffering as great hand cruel as any yet inflicted on humanity. In the name of this mass of suffering humanity I renew my appeal to Muslims wherever they may be, to extend to us in this hour of our danger and need, their hand of brotherly sympathy, support and co-operation. Nothing on earth now can undo Pakistan.

The greater the sacrifices are made the purer and more chastened shall we emerge like gold from fire.

So my message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation.

Pakistan Zinda-o-Paindabaad

The blame game continues—Defeated ISAF & NATO blame Pakistan

2009-12-10T20:02:00.001-05:00

Afghanistan and Pakistan: Anatomy of a Proxy War

Obama's Afghan surge and new strategy attempt sophistication and nuance, but fail to grasp the terrible complexities of the Afghan war. In his speech the President noted two key issues: Afghanistan's rampant corruption and the problematic role of Pakistan. But these problems are more vexing than he admits.

I know the depth of these problems from study and from years of -- sometimes bitter and disappointing -- experience working in Afghanistan. From 2001 until very recently I was intimately involved with Afghan security and intelligence agencies; helped to create the Afghan National Security Council; did reconstruction work; trained NATO forces for deployment; and traveled across much of the country by road, in the process coming to know many of its local and regional leaders.

First, the issue of a "credible" Afghan partner. Obama wants Karzai to fight corruption and he wants to sidestep Karzai to effectively deliver aid. Good luck with that.

But what about the heart of the strategy, the Afghan National Army? This force is supposed to "stand up as we stand down." Sadly this is a phantom Army. Made up from the recombined remnants of Northern Alliance militias, held together by British and American money and training, it has nowhere near the numbers needed nor claimed. Drug addiction and demoralization are rampant among its soldiers.

Most importantly, the ANA is a largely Tajik army. Tajiks are the second largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and are based in the north of the country. The Pashtun are the largest group and dominate the south. The Taliban draws its support from the Pashtun. Tajik and Pashtuns are bitter rivals.

In the eyes of Tajik leaders, Karzai (a Pashtun) isn't "their" president, and this isn't "their" war, nor are Tajiks too keen on getting killed in it, as many US soldiers have noticed.

Even if Tajik forces were willing to fight and replace NATO soldiers, sending the Tajik dominated ANA into the south to control the Pashtun would not amount to a "national army" fighting "its own" war. The Pashtun would and do see these Tajiks as invaders.

In short, this is not the force that will beat the Taliban.

What about our other ally, Pakistan? Regardless of what they tell you, the Pakistani military is not on America's side. They pretend to be because they enjoy receiving billions and billions of dollars in aid every year, but in the end the Pakistani Army is obsessed with India. Their fear of India means they want a weak Islamic Afghanistan behind them.

The Pakistani officer class sees the current Afghan government as allied to India and thus hostile to Islamabad -- which it is. India supported the communist government of Afghanistan and then the northern Alliance and now the Karzai government. It is heavily involved in Afghanistan. But Pakistan is determined that it will dominate Afghanistan once we, the foreigners, leave.

Despite its weakness, Afghanistan's political leaders have always coveted large areas of Pakistan: the Pashtun inhabited North West Frontier Province, (the NWFP) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (the FATA). Afghanistan lost these regions to what was British India in 1893 when it accepted the so-called "Durand line" which is now the border with Pakistan.

In the 1950s and early 60s, Afghanistan did its best to destabilise Pakistani control in these regions, and actually sent armed tribal groups to invade them. This did much to encourage Islamabad's later enthusiastic support of the US-back Mujahadeen in the late 1970s and 1980s.

In the Pakistani military's view, the international community will leave Afghanistan, as they did after the Soviets left, and indeed as Obama has promised to do. When that happens Pakistan feels that it must be in position to install a friendly regime in Kabul, one that will expel the Indian advisors, spies, diplomats, contactors, etc and provide a potentially friendly area to the rear of Pakistan in the event of another major war with India. This is the Pakistani idea of "strategic depth."

Who would be that friendly government: most likely, the Taliban.

And if they cannot get a friendly government in Kabul, an ungoverned Afghanistan is better than the present Indian dominated one.

This pro-Taliban stance remains the Pakistani position, despite the blow back from their encouragement of extremist Islamic groups. Pakistan uses radical jihadist groups as proxies in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Sometime it looks different, because the Pakistanis do just enough by way of arresting Arabs and other Islamic extremists to keep the US happy. Bluntly speaking, the Pakistanis desperately need the US money (billions every year, year on year) to equip themselves in the build up against India.

And the Pakistan military is being forced to push back the various newly formed Pakistani Taliban groups. So it can look like the Pakistani's really are US allies. But that is an illusion.

Whilst the Pakistani Taliban maintain strong connections with the Afghan Taliban and other Islamic rebels and extremists, the Pakistani military regards the two forces as entirely separate. In their eyes, the Pakistani Taliban are dangerous rebels, whereas the Afghan Taliban are the next government of Afghanistan; and must be kept on good terms and assisted at every juncture.

It has taken US intelligence, military and diplomats years to see this and they still don't quite know what to do about it.

The Afghan Taliban created themselves almost spontaneously in 1994, with the intention of improving justice and security, and removing illegal checkpoints and local warlords. But the Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, soon began supporting them. And soon this vigilante force became a religious army of Pashtun nationalists, believing that they have a god-given right to rule.

This Pakistani encouragement of radical Islam in Afghanistan and in Kashmir has seriously "blown back." Much of the Pashtun areas of Pakistan are now in rebellion and the Pakistani Taliban does not answer to the ISI. From here it may seem like one single movement and threat however, it is essential to understand that Pakistani military and intelligence officers regard the two Taleban organizations (or clusters of organizations) as separate.

The present action against the Pakistani Taliban is just that. The Pakistan has, definitively, not moved against the Afghan Taliban. In fact, the Afghan Taliban leadership remains secure in Pakistan. Indeed they are widely thought to have moved the Quetta Shura (Mullah Omar's command structure) to Karachi, to protect it from possible air strikes.

Powerful elements in Pakistan will continue to support the Pashtun insurgency in Afghanistan no matter what Islamabad's government says or does. This is only one of many problems affecting Afghanistan, but it is the core problem.

Unless the international community can address the proxy fight between Pakistan and India at a political level -- through a settlement on the line of control through Kashmir and a guarantee of security for Pakistan -- it is unlikely that Pakistan's support of the Afghan Taliban can be stopped. And without that stabilizing Afghanistan is very unlikely.

Bob Churcher is a former British Army Officer with a degree in history. He served in Northern Ireland and Africa and has spent the last 20 years in conflict or post-conflict environments, including, the Balkans, East Timor and Afghanistan.

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