Monday 3 August 2015

‘In 1971, Muslims murdered 2.4 million Hindus and raped 200,000 Hindu women’

Will the Muslim violence against the Indian people, and the contamination of barbaric Islamic ideals blended into their culture, ever end? The Israeli’s and Hindus are the largest victims of perpetural Islamic invasions and violence lasting for more than 1,000 years. Muhammad Ali Jinna, a member of the Indian National Congress and later of the All-India Muslim League (a Khilafat movement that also germinated the Palestine conflict), demanded a two-state partition, creating the Lahore Resolution, which formed the separate creation of Pakistan.

This partition of people created a domin effect of other tensions and problems spreading from Khalistan to Bangladesh, to Kashmir, to Balochistan and to continued terrorism and tension existing even today. The British tried to discourage Muhammad Ali Jinna against rallying for the partition and warned against it many times, which ended in riots, mass exodus, clashes and deaths of millions. The article covers a poorly exposed incident of Muslim massacres of Hindus that we never hear about. It’s a pity the article forms a common Hindu anti-Western mindset, and fails to acknowledge any attention to the simple fact that Britain saved India from Muslim rule. India would bend to Mecca today had it not been for the clever rulers of South India who formed an alliance with Britain for exclusive trade agreements which developed into British rule and the expulsion of Muslim rule and Sharia law. You never hear Indian people admit to this fact. Instead they are focused purely on anti-Western rhetorics. It’s not Britain who destroyed India. It’s Islam that looted, massacred and destroyed Indian culture from within. Muslim terrorism, attacks, tensions continue in India to this day.

Understanding Islamic violence; how to defend our freedoms.
 
In the wake of renewed violence against Hindus in Pakistan, and with more than 100 Hindu families seeking asylum in India, Director of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy group spoke to People of Shambhala. Mr. Banerjee talks about the background to the conflict, and why Pakistan was created in 1947. Why the West should include Hinduism, not just the “Judeo-Christian” tradition. And he also discusses Islam and violence against Hindus and the West, and how we can defend our values and freedoms.
PoS: At the moment about 100 Hindu families are seeking asylum in India, from Pakistan, and are claiming discrimination and violence. There were four doctors murdered on the first day of Eid, and, I think, a Sikh was stabbed as well. Can you tell us a little about that situation?
RB: Sure. The situation is very natural. Most people don’t understand what Pakistan is. Pakistan is a country that was formed for the Muslims. India is a multi-ethnic country for everybody. So Pakistan was formed with the very idea that the only people that should be in Pakistan are Muslims. There is nothing strange about what’s going on in Pakistan today. It’s being going on for a long time.
At independence Pakistan’s population was about ten percent Hindu and Sikh. Now it’s less than one percent. So the question is where did that nine percent go? Well, they were either ethnically cleansed, driven away, or slaughtered in large numbers in the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. In East Pakistan an estimated 2.4 million Hindus were slaughtered in just one year, and hundreds of thousands of Hindu women were raped.
There is nothing surprising about any of this becauseIslam was introduced into the Asian subcontinent with the objective of occupying and exterminating the Hindus. According to the historian William Durant, and other historians, an estimated 80 million Hindus were killed, were slaughtered, and thousands and thousands of Hindu temples were smashed, and mosques were built on top of them. The Muslims of India tried very hard over the period of their 700 years [of occupation] to wipe out the Hindus. But there was resistance from some of the Hindu kingdoms. They never had full control over India so they were unable to achieve that goal. But that’s the eternal goal. According to Islam, Hinduism is the lowest form of life on the planet. Because Hindus, according to them, they’re polytheistic, they believe in multiple gods. They believe we worship idols, and idol worship is a sin in Islam.  
PoS: One thing that has struck me is just the extent of the attacks on Hindus, Buddhists, Yezidis, Zoroastrians, Kalash. Yet we don’t hear anything about this. You mentioned the war of 71; 2.4 million dead, 200,000 Hindu women raped, but we don’t hear anything about that in the West.
RB: No you don’t, because there’s a systematic effort by Muslims and petrodollars to cover it up. The reason you don’t hear about it is because they make tremendous effort to silence it.
PoS: In all fairness, some Middle Eastern newspapers that probably cater mostly to Muslims have covered some of it, but you don’t seem to find it in the West, which is even more incredible. Why do you think Western journalists won’t cover something like that? The West always portrays itself as caring about minorities and being the people that always stand up to stop genocide, and that are always campaigning against violence against minorities. But nothing.
RB: This may offend you a little bit.
PoS: It won’t [laughs].
RB: It probably will [laughs]. But, it’s because the West have been hypocrites.
PoS: Yeah.
RB: If you look at Britain, for example, when they went to India they did not stop genocide or massacres, they expedited them. They actually supported the Muslims against the Hindus, helped them to perpetrate massacres. In terms of the establishment of the state of Pakistan, if you read people like William Dalrymple, a British historian, it becomes quite clear that the British encouraged the creation of Pakistan in order to divide the [anti-colonial] independence movement. [*Dalrymple’s theories are inaccurate and merely theories. The Britain discouraged against the partition of India, but the decision was created by Indian-Muslim voters themselves spearheaded by Muhammad Ali Jinna]
PoS: Do you think there is still a kind of colonial residue in the atmosphere. Do you think there is some kind of patronizing attitude in the media? Is that why we don’t see atrocities reported?
I’ve heard this question before. That it’s a form of racism that they don’t condemn Muslims for their human rights violations is because they are non-Western and [therefore] they are expected to be barbaric. There might be some of that, but these days it’s rather more a culture of fear. I mean, if you publish a cartoon of Mohammed, even if you’re in the West, you get threatened, and you possibly get killed, and you have riots going on. So now it’s more of a culture of fear.
PoS: On that note, Subramanian Swamy, the Hindu professor at Harvard, was fired because he wrote an article on how to wipe out Islamic terror [in India]. I read it. I didn’t find it shocking… I suppose [at the most controversial point] he’s saying that non-Hindus would have to appreciate their Hindu roots or they wouldn’t be allowed to vote. What was your take on his article and on his being fired?
RB: The article was a hundred percent correct. He didnot say – as has been claimed – that all non-Hindus should be forced to convert to Hinduism or anything like that. He didn’t even say that non-Hindus should be oppressed or treated badly within India. He just said they should have a respect for Hinduism, and that they should acknowledge the proper history, especially the history of the Muslims in India. There was no such thing as Islam in India before about 1,000 AD. Muslims invaded and forcibly converted millions of Hindus to Islam. That’s just a historical fact. And that they should acknowledge that historical fact.
PoS: Why is it when it comes to Islam, we don’t stick for minorities? We don’t stick up for women’s rights? We don’t stick up for gay rights? All the things that we would stand up for at any other time.
RB: It’s a combination of different things. Political correctness is part of it, but it’s not the whole explanation. It’s more a simple combination of fear and bribery. In many cases it’s just the money and influence pouring in from the Middle East demanding that no negative aspects of Islam be spoken about. It’s the carrot and the stick, the carrot being the money being the money flowing in from petrodollars, and the stick being [the fear of] rioting and beheading over a cartoon or any slight to Islam.
PoS: In 2008, there was the Mumbai attacks. A couple of things about that were striking. One thing was the way the Western media covered it. If memory serves me correctly – and I think it does – it was implied that the attacks in Mumbai were against essentially Western targets, such as the Taj Mahal Hotel. Do you think they were going after Western targets or do you think there was another incentive?
RB: Well, most of the people that were killed were Hindus. So, I wouldn’t call them Western targets… again it’s the stupidity of the West, reporting it in this way… It’s not necessarily the case that they [the terrorists] were trying to kill as many White people, or White tourists, as possible. They just wanted to attack the most visible, or the wealthiest, or the most high profile, targets. Those aren’t Western targets. The only target that they went out of their way to attack that was not related to Hinduism was the synagogue, the Jewish target.
PoS: You probably follow what is going on in Europe, where we hear a lot of calls for sharia. And some people are trying to defend liberal democracy, but they don’t always seem to know what they’re defending. You believe that Hindu values and the values of liberal democracy and modernity are the same. Can you tell me what those would be?
RB: The one mistake that Westerners all make – including conservatives – is that they define Western values and the values of liberal democracy strictly as Judeo-Christian. And I don’t think that’s the case. I believe Hindu values have to be included in that as well because India is the world’s largest democracy and it’s 80 percent Hindu, so how can it just be Judeo-Christian. Most people will tell you that it [democracy] comes from the British, which is obnoxious and insulting and racist. I would think that you should want to give credit to the people of that country rather than to an invasive force a hundred years ago.
The values of democracy are more in tune with Hinduism than with many, many, many other faith traditions, because if you look at Hinduism there was an openness – the ability of people within Hinduism to have different gods, multiple deities, and to worship as they please… The ability to allow this freedom, to worship as one pleased without being excommunicated or called a heretic, that’s one of the factors that makes Hinduism a more democratic religion than many others.
When people say that the West is a result of Judeo-Christian civilization, it’s also a combination of that and Socrates, Aristotle, and others, and they were in pre-Christian times, and they were not Jewish either. They were part of a faith that was somewhat similar to Hinduism in the sense that it had multiple gods. I think, on the one hand, it’s difficult because, it [the conception of democracy and the West] has to be more inclusive; it can’t be just Judeo-Christian. You’ve got to embrace some of those other traditions as well. On the other hand let’s not start saying Islam had something to do with it as well; [because] no it didn’t.
PoS: Are there historical links between the ancient Greeks and Hinduism?
RB: I’m not a historian, so I’m not a hundred percent certain, but some of the words and names… Sanskrit is the original Indo-European language… so there are some similarities between ancient Greek and Sanskrit.
PoS: Yes, that’s from Indo-European. Proto-Indo-European is the root of many European languages and Indian as well. And some of the ancient Greeks were influenced by Buddhism(1) as well, so there must be some links [to Hinduism].(2)
RB: Yeah, yeah, I understand there were. There must be some linkages.
PoS: That would be pretty interesting [to research into]. Sort of on that note, today we have a lot of Christian groups that embrace interfaith dialogue with Islam, and they have imams up on stage, and it’s all very lovey-dovey. Yet they react hysterically to New Age spirituality – which is a very pacifistic form of spirituality – but they are extraordinary hysterical about that and think it’s all Satan. It strikes me, whether you like it or not, New Ageism is a big part of Western culture and has been for some time. They’re obviously frightened by it, and think it’s going to destroy civilization. But, I don’t know if you know this, but Hindu nationalism and Buddhist nationalism [and anti-colonialism] were partly revived – or were encouraged to be revived – through a couple of Western proto-New Age people of the Theosophical Society.(3)
RB: Yes, I heard about that… the Theosophical Society in Calcutta.
PoS: Related to that, do you think we should be forming alliances between Hindus, and people who practice Yoga, and spiritual people, and then Christians and Jews and Zoroastrians?
RB: Yes, I think Hinduism, and Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, are a better fit for Western democracy and liberalism than Islam. I think maybe why some Christians feel kinship with Islam is that – for example, with the Inquisition – Christianity has behaved more like Islam than the peaceful, tolerant, Hindus and the Buddhists…[*this is a lack of historic accuracy. Christian history is filled with battles against Islamic invasions and barbarity]. I think you need a combination of tolerance and as strength. You shouldn’t tolerate the intolerant.
PoS: No.
RB: Maybe if you could meld together the toughness of Christianity with some of the tolerance of Hinduism and Buddhism, and form an alliance, you may be able to get the elusive Holy Grail that everyone seems to be looking for, which is how to be strong enough to deter [political] Islam, while not sacrificing our values and principles of liberalism and human rights and democracy.

The Company Getting Rich Off the ISIS War

For the Middle East, the growth of the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been a catastrophe. For one American firm, it’s been a gold mine.
 
The war against ISIS isn’t going so great, with the terror group standing up to a year of U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq
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But that hasn’t kept defense contractors from doing rather well amidst the fighting. Lockheed Martin has received orders for thousands of more Hellfire missiles. AM General is busy supplying Iraq with 160 American-built Humvee vehicles, while General Dynamics is selling the country millions of dollars worth of tank ammunition.

SOS International, a family-owned business whose corporate headquarters are located in New York City, is one of the biggest players on the ground in Iraq, employing the most Americans in the country after the U.S. Embassy. On the company’s board of advisors: former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz – considered to be one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq – and Paul Butler, a former special assistant to Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld.

The company, which goes by “SOSi,” says on its website that the contracts it’s been awarded for work in Iraq in 2015 have a total value of more than $400 million. They include a $40 million contract to provide everything from meals to perimeter security to emergency fire and medical services at Iraq’s Besmaya Compound, one of the sites where U.S. troops are training Iraqi soldiers. The Army awarded SOSi a separate $100 million contract in late June for similar services at Camp Taji. The Pentagon expects that contract to last through June 2018.

A year after U.S. airstrikes began targeting the Islamic State in Iraq, there are 3,500 U.S. troops deployed there, training and advising Iraqi troops. But a number that is not discussed is the growing number of contractors required to support these operations. According to the U.S. military, there are 6,300 contractors working in Iraq today, supporting U.S. operations. Separately, the State Department is seeking janitorial services, drivers, linguists and security contractors to work at its Iraqi facilities.

While these numbers pale in comparison to the more than 163,000 working in Iraq at the peak of the Iraq War, they are steadily growing. And with the fight against ISIS expected to take several years, it also represents a growing opportunity for defense, security and logistics contractors, especially as work in Afghanistan begins to dry up.

“It allows us to maintain the facade of no boots on the ground while at the same time growing our footprint,” said Laura Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University whose recent work has focused on regulating private military contractors.

Today, Afghanistan still represents a booming business for civilian contractors. In the latest quarterly report from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, there were 30,000 civilian contractors working in Afghanistan in April. But those numbers are steadily falling. For example, in April 2014, there were more than 60,000 contractors working there.

Meanwhile, from supporting weapons sales to the Iraqi government to providing base security, contractor work in Iraq is on the rise.

SOSi is also providing a handful of high-level advisors to work with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the Iraqi Kurdish regional government. In late June, the company won a $700,000 contract to provide a small group of security assistance mentors and advisors for one year. The contract could be extended for an additional four years for a total of $3.7 million.

The requirements for the job are posted on SOSi’s career site, and include “one year or more of experience working with Iraqi [Ministry of Defense] officials.”

One of the job’s duties is to “prepare and deliver briefings to senior military officials on the status of the Iraqi staff, systems, programs and transition progress.”

The company will provide one advisor to the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, and five to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, according to Frank Helmick, a retired lieutenant general who served three tours of duty in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 and is now vice president for Mission Solutions at SOSi.

“These positions are very important. They are not just translators,” Helmick said. “They are advising at the levels where decisions are made.”

For the most part, they are Iraqi-Americans with security clearances, he said.
During his second tour in Iraq between 2008 and 2009, Helmick was in charge of all the manning, training and equipping of the Iraqi security forces, so today’s mission is a familiar one.


“I’ve been going back and forth to Iraq for the last two-plus years as a businessman, which is very, very different than going as a military guy, but a lot of the same people I worked with in uniform are still there today,” he said in an interview with The Daily Beast.

He acknowledged that contractors are playing a key supportive role in Iraq.

“Contractors thicken the U.S. presence,” Helmick said. “If soldiers are sent there to advise and train, they don’t have to send people to cook their food, wash their clothes or secure themselves. Contractors can do that. We allow the U.S. or coalition military to focus on their core competency.”

SOSi is not the only company that has been on contract to provide high-level advisors to the government in Iraq. ABM, also headquartered in New York, posted a job listing for a “Security Assistance Mentor and Advisor,” who would work directly with senior Iraqi counterterrorism officials.

The position entailed providing “direct assistance to the Prime Minister’s Counter Terrorism Advisor to lead and guide the development of institutional capabilities for the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service in order to provide security and facilitate good governance,” according to the company’s job description, which has recently been taken down. A company spokesman said ABM is no longer on the contract
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But some other company will invariably fill the breach. From providing meals to strategic advice, contractors are built into today’s military operations to help defeat the Islamic State. The fact is, the U.S. can no longer go to war -- or even on an advise and assist mission -- without them.

“We’re resting a large part of the success of this mission on contractors,” said Sean McFate, a professor at the National Defense University and the author of The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order.


But the role of civilian contractors on the battlefield remains controversial, partly because waste, fraud and abuse became rampant in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade. The Commission on Wartime Contracting, a bipartisan review board created by Congress in 2008, estimated that between $31 billion and $60 billion was lost to contract waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And security contractors continue to face particular scrutiny after a series of abuses over the last several years. Particularly damaging to the industry’s reputation was the 2007 Nisour Square shooting when guards working for Blackwater fatally shot 17 civilians.

Because of these scandals, there is now increased oversight of civilian contractors at the national and international level, said Dickinson. For example, the Pentagon has made numerous internal changes to improve the way contractors are vetted and used.

Helmick said he’s watched the contractor scene in Iraq change from when he first visited in 2003 to today. For example, he says, the ratio of contractors to U.S. servicemembers is down to less than one to one, at least for SOSi. At the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors outnumbered U.S. troops. While SOSi may have lowered their ratio to remain competitive, based on the Pentagon’s own statistics, it appears contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq today.

Today’s business environment is more competitive, Helmick said. “There are a lot of companies vying for this work.”

William Beaver, the editor-in-chief of DangerZoneJobs.com, said the market’s grown more competitive because there is a large pool of experienced contractors thanks to the last 14 years of war. There are also a large number of combat veterans who have left the military, but are looking for ways to work overseas again, he said.
This has led to a considerable drop in salaries, according to Beaver.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is the lack of transparency around these contracts. There is no central public database for finding out who’s doing this work, so it’s only possible to get a scattershot view, without much context, from searches on FedBizOps.com, the Pentagon’s daily contract announcements and various job boards.
For example, it is unclear whether any contractors are supporting the 935 U.S. and coalition military personnel as they vet and train moderate Syrian rebels.


What is known is that contractors are integral to the teams that operate surveillance drones and analyze the hours of video footage collected, providing the military with the information it needs to target Islamic State fighters on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq. While these contractors are not based overseas — and therefore not included in any official tallies — they are directly supporting the mission to defeat the Islamic State. )
From the very beginning, U.S. military commanders have warned that the war against the Islamic State will be a long one. SOSi’s contract for services at Camp Taji may be due to expire in 2018, but it seems certain that it and companies like it will continue to find business as this fight rages on.

Sunday 2 August 2015

Muslims to outnumber Christians worldwide by 2070: Islam will be only major religion to increase faster than world’s population.

  • Muslims will increase at more than double the rate of world's population
  • Largest proportion of Muslims likely to be in India, data showed
  • Research was completed by the Pew Research Center in America

    There will be more Muslims than Christians in the world in less than sixty years, new research revealed.

    The religion's share of the world’s population will equal the Christian share - at roughly 32 per cent each - in 2070, analysis by the Pew Research Center showed.
    The number of Muslims will increase at more than double the rate of the world's population, which is expected to rise by 35 per cent in the next four decades. 
    There will be more Muslims than Christians in the world in less than sixty years, the Pew Research Center has claimed. Above, Kashmiri Muslims pray outside a mosque in Srinagar
    By 2100 around one per cent more of the world’s population will be Muslim than Christian, with the largest proportion of followers in India.

    Several countries are also projected to have a different religious majority by 2050.
    The number of countries with a Christian majority is expected to decline from 159 to 151, the report claimed

    Less than 50 per cent of the population will be Christian in the United Kingdom, Australia, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Republic of Macedonia.

    By 2050 Muslims will make up around ten per cent of Europe's population. 

    It is thought the religion will thrive due to its young population and high fertility rates, with an average of 3.1 children per woman. 
    By 2100 there will be around one per cent more Muslims than Christians (graph left), with the largest proportion of the religion's followers in India. The map (above) also shows population growth rate for each country

    COUNTRIES THAT WILL NO LONGER HAVE A CHRISTIAN MAJORITY IN 2050 
     
    COUNTRYMAJORITY RELIGION 2010 PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION 2010 (%)MAJORITY RELIGION 2050  PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION 2050 (%)
    AustraliaChristian67.3Christian 47
    UKChristian64.3Christian45.4
    FranceChristian63Unaffiliated44.1
    New ZealandChristian57Unaffiliated45.1 
    NetherlandsChristian50.6Unaffiliated  49.1
    Bosnia-Herzegovina Christian52.3Muslim49.4  
     Source: Pew Research Center, The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.
    The rate is well above the 2.1 replacement level - the minimum typically needed to maintain a stable population - and the fertility rate of Christians, which is around 2.7 children per woman.

    The Pew Research Center's report said: 'Religions with many adherents in developing countries – where birth rates are high and infant mortality rates generally have been falling – are likely to grow quickly. 
    'Much of the worldwide growth of Islam and Christianity, for example, is expected to take place in sub-Saharan Africa.' 
    The data also revealed that the number of atheists, agnostics and those who are religiously unaffiliated will decline from 16 per cent of the world's population to 13 per cent in the next four decades. 

    Buddhism will also decline, with its followers decreasing by 0.3 per cent


      

10 Terrifying Laws Dictated By ISIS You Must Read And Feel Thankful For You Aren’t Under Them.

IS or Islamic State is fast growing and spreading it’s terror even quickly! Even India’s neighbors aren’t too far from them. But worry not Indian Army is here! But meanwhile, read these scary and nerve wrecking ‘laws’ which are forced upon the citizens. Read them and feel bad for those who aren’t as lucky as us.

1. Women will have to wear Islamic dress all the time and must not leave the house, unless very necessary. Here too, they should not leave without their husbands or will have to face number of lashes. 

veil-main


2. When this is how they treat women from their religion, think what could be the plight of non- Muslims or ‘kaafir’ as they call them. Such infidel women no matter their age as treated as sex slaves and are subjected to violent brutality. They are often given as ‘rewards’. 

Women-under-ISIS-665x385 

wom 

3. Petty crimes such as stealing will result in cutting of right hand and left leg. 

isis1 

4. People are forced to pray and even shops are closed during that time of day. Some shopkeepers use to lock themselves in their shops but, IS patrol found out and threw them out, forcing to pray.

ISIS-prayer-640x400 

5. Neither can men escape from this torture; they are held responsible for every ‘mistake’ a women does in his society. This is punishable by several lashes in public. 

ISIS-flogs-a-civilian 

6. Selling or consuming alcohol, cigarettes or drugs is punishable by 80 whips.

iuj 

7. Idol worship is strictly prohibited in Islam and therefore, museums and other such things are destroyed. 

syriaisis 

8. Homosexuality is a grave sin and is punishable only by death of both the partners. Death often comes by throwing the person from a height, in public.

isis-gay-execution-640x480 

9. Guess what price shall be paid if you gave wrong directions to someone? Lashes and also, you may lose your limbs! 

10. Disbelief in God or leaving the group equals to getting executed. Not a week goes without someone being executed. 

A second part of the ISIS (Islamic State) video also shows the mass murder of Syrian military personnel by beheading allegedly led by Jihadi John at a desert location. Grabbed from Twitter account: https://twitter.com/zaidbenjamin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 1 August 2015

Yakub Memon's funeral: Did the serial blasts convict deserve a hero's farewell?

A court had found Yakub Memon guilty of complicity in the Mumbai blasts and other courts had reaffirmed the verdict. Of that there can be no doubt.

People might argue about whether he deserved the death penalty or whether he was being hanged in lieu of his brother Tiger or whether India was reneging on some kind of deal it had made with him for his cooperation in the investigation. And others might be opposed to capital punishment simply on principle.
The mourning for Yakub Memon at his funeral paints a picture of two Indias. PTI
The mourning for Yakub Memon at his funeral creates an impression of two Indias. 

But that does not change, or even challenge, the guilty verdict delivered on Memon.
That is why the images of thousands of mourners bidding him farewell is a disquieting one, even as it remains their right to do so. A report in the Indian Express talks about mourners coming from Kurla, Malad, Jogeshwari, Mumbra and Kalyan, by train, motorcycle and car. “I’ve worked here for 30 years,” said the florist inside Bada Qabrastan. “Aisa manzal pehle nahin dekha (Never seen such a sight before).” To accommodate the swelling crowd there were two sets of funeral prayers – one at the Mahim dargah and one at the funeral ground. The police allowed that but refused to allow Memon’s face to be uncovered for one last glimpse.

The whole affair seems to be have been conducted with restraint and dignity on all sides, without naarebaazi (slogan shouting), but it still leaves an uncomfortable question hanging, if one can use that word.
Whether there was valid reason to commute his sentence or not, did Yakub Memon deserve such a hero’s farewell?

The Memon family’s involvement in the 1993 bomb blasts is not really being disputed. Usman Majeed, a militant turned MLA in Kashmir tells The Telegraph about meeting Tiger Memon in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He says he asked Tiger why he carried out the blasts. Tiger told him that he was “emotional” after some weeping Muslim women came to him, carrying a tray of bangles and asked him to wear them for sitting idle after the riots. If the Mumbai blasts were a reassertion of Tiger Memon’s wounded masculinity, Yakub was hardly the Vibhishana of the story, harbouring a moral disagreement with his brother’s actions from the get-go. Yakub did flee the country. Courts did find him guilty of having organised the complicated financial dealings that distributed payments to the accused. By saying that apart from Tiger, no other member of the Memon family was involved in the blasts, he might have hoped he could get the rest of the clan off the hook, but that is another matter.

Even S Hussain Zaidi’s book Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, while saying Yakub Memon’s return “paid rich dividends for the CBI” in terms of adding up to “significant confirmation of Pakistan’s involvement”, still says Yakub had, by his early thirties, acquired the reputation of being a “criminal” albeit “the best read and smartest criminal that the Bombay police had ever known.”

Perhaps many see Yakub Memon not so much a hero but as a victim of double standards. Let us note that double standards do not mean Yakub is innocent, just that others accused or convicted of terror crimes have eluded the death sentence. Over 900 died in the 1992-1993 riots in Mumbai and many more in the 1984 riots around the country but their perpetrators have largely escaped justice. But the images of a sea of Muslim mourners feed into an impression of two Indias, each caught increasingly in its vicious circle of victimhood. In a column in The Telegraph, Swapan Dasgupta writes, “The theme of Muslim victimhood is a recurrent theme of the pro-clemency lobby, to which has been brought the alleged perfidy of the Indian intelligence agencies.”

Dasgupta assails the likes of Hyderabad MP Akbaruddin Owaisi for openly suggesting “Indian justice is discriminatory and targets Muslims while leaving Hindu communalists to escape either unpunished or with lesser sentences.” But had the Srikrishna Commission reports on the riots resulted in the punishment of their own, maybe that could have defanged and silenced an Owaisi. Dasgputa is silent on that score and complains that those arguing against Memon’s execution are "packaging" the Mumbai blasts as “a political act of retribution”. They were indeed an act of “retribution” but that does not justify them in any way just as the US misadventures in the Middle East can never justify 9/11.

Dasgupta misses, or ignores that point. Just as the sea of mourners at Bada Qabristan misses, or ignores the larger message that a martyr’s goodbye for Yakub Memon sends out to the rest of the country. Both are entrenched in their own sense of righteous victimhood. Thus, one bitter mourner tells IE, “The blast victims are calling it justice. But look at Bada Qabrastan, and tell me if this looks like closure. Or the start of something.” That sounds like another ominous turn of the wheel of the vicious circle.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes in his column about the intellectual logjam created by this. “That is why ‘shame on Indian judiciary’ is a politically self-defeating response to the bloodcurdling ‘hang Yakub’,” he writes. Courts, he says, can make grievous mistakes, “but taking away from them a presumptive legitimacy will leave us unprotected in every respect” even as a “cowardly but Talibanesque hounding of anyone who disagreed with the hanging” is “postmodern equivalent of a medieval lynch mob.”

This means that an event like Yakub Memon’s funeral runs the danger of being read as Je suis Yakub Memon moment. That does great damage because on one hand, it confirms the worst stereotypes of one side of a treacherous Muslim “other”. As if on cue, Tathagata Roy, the governor of Tripura has tweeted, "Intelligence shd keep a tab on all (expt relatives & close friends) who assembled bfr Yakub Memon's corpse. Many are potential terrorists."

On the other hand, it does nothing to address the grievances of those who feel shortchanged by the state. If there is anger and frustration from the victims of the Mumbai riots who have not had their "closure" yet, that is not what comes through in the images of the sea of mourners for Yakub Memon. Instead, it attaches the sense of victimhood to the wrong symbol – a man convicted of terrorism.


Thursday 30 July 2015

The British Ruled Us For 190 Years. Here’s How India got Back At Them

 People on Quora were wondering about whether India ever got any form of revenge on the British Empire for their 200 years of ruinous control. Well for starters, remember reading about the might of the British East India Company, that controlled parts of the world, and wormed it's way into claiming India as a colony?

Today, the East India Company that plundered and ruined India's economy is owned by an unassuming man named Sanjiv Mehta. It was dissolved in 1871, but lived on as a small business.

 

Sanjiv is an entrepreneur who bought the company in 2005 and runs it now as a consumer brand focused on luxury foodstuff. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

 

Another strangely satisfying fact is that Royal Enfield, the pride and joy of bearded Indians everywhere, was originally a British company that made rifles, cannons and other products. In fact, their ammunition was one of the reasons for the revolt of 1857. 

In 1971, the original British Enfield producing company was dissolved, but the Indian one was thriving. In 1984, India started exporting Enfields back to the UK. I'd call that a win!

 

 


 

SCHEME OF EXAMINATION OF VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS - TELENGANA STATE

TSPSC is the TELENGANA STATE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION. Aspirants waiting for job in various departments for the government of telengana. TSPSC is going to recruit on a larger basis as no recruitment has happened in the last two years.

Below is the scheme of examination for various department. GROUP 1 SERVICES


GROUP 2&3&4 SERVICES

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Most extremists in India are not Muslim – they are Hindu

The media has misleadingly conflated terrorism with Islam. But don't expect Narendra Modi or his ministers to clear up such misconceptions.




Are most terrorists in India Muslims? I had the chance to look at this following yet another avoidable incident last week.

On April 1, Nigeria’s ambassador to India responded to a comment made by Union minister Giriraj Singh, who said: “If Rajiv Gandhi had married a Nigerian lady and not a white-skinned woman, would the Congress have accepted her leadership?” The remark revealed the casual racism that is so commonplace in India.

Nigeria’s ambassador OB Okongor was upset enough to say, “I believe the prime minister will do right thing on this. I am not going to lodge protest.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignored it – once again, as those who have observed his conduct on such things will have noticed – though the media was naturally outraged.

Rediff ran a commentary headlined “5 reasons why Giriraj Singh should shut up”. It included this statement of his from last year: “Isn’t it true that all people caught in terrorist activities belong to one community? I am not trying to blame any one particular community. Why are all so-called secular parties silent on this?”

Presumably he means Muslims. He is of course not right in assuming that all people caught for terrorism are Muslims, but are Muslims responsible for most of the terrorism in India? Let’s look at the data. The South Asian Terrorism Portal lists fatalities and incidents across India. Quite helpfully, it also lists them by conflict theatre.

Numbers disprove belief

In 2014, there were 976 deaths from terrorism (or extremism, whatever name one wants to use for it) in India. Of these, the most (465) came in the North East. The second most (314) came from Left-wing extremism, by a group of people called Maoists. Deaths in Jammu & Kashmir, assuming we want to attribute the whole lot to terrorism, stood at 193. Outside of these conflict theatres, Islamist extremism claimed four lives.

In 2013, the figure was most for Maoists (421), the second most for the North East (252), and the Kashmir plus Islamist violence outside the state again came third (206). In 2012, we had a similar situation: Maoists (367), followed by the North East (326), followed by Kashmir (117). The total number of victims of Islamist terrorism outside these three areas, across India, was 1.

In 2011, Maoist violence claimed 602 lives, the North East 246, and Kashmir plus Islamist violence outside the state toll stood at 225. This year, again the sequence is the same, though violence levels across India have dropped, as they have been doing for the past decade.

As is obvious, most terrorists in India are Hindus, the ones whom we have conveniently labelled "Maoist" instead of "Hindu". The second largest group of terrorists are the tribals, Hindus, animists and perhaps some Christians of the North East. Muslims are third. If one looks outside the separatism of Kashmir, their violence and terrorism levels are among the lowest in the world and they appear to be less susceptible to terrorism not just by the standards of the world’s Muslims but also India’s Hindus.

A media construct

So what explains Giriraj Singh’s statement, which I must confess one hears all the time in India? I cannot remember the number of times I have been informed by someone at a party that “all Muslims are not terrorists but why are all terrorists Muslims?” They are not. Not even close.

The reason is that ‘terrorism’ is today accepted only that which is Islamist. And the reason for this is the narrative in the media, which has neatly conflated terrorism with Islam and Pakistan. News channels like Times Now run many more programmes firing middle class and Anglicised Indians up against ‘terrorism’ (i.e. Islamist/Pakistan) than they run shows on the North East and on Maoism, which claim a far greater number of lives as the figures show.

It is of course unfortunate that this should be the case, but we can explain away the common man using such arguments. For a Union minister to hold them as Gospel is frightening and shows how wrongheaded the members of this government are.

I said on a TV show after Giriraj Singh’s comment that Modi deliberately chose such unhinged people because they said what he wanted to but could not. He agreed with every word Singh said and that is why he was rewarded with a ministry. My comment greatly offended the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman on the panel, who read out a list of cabinet ministers who were touched by sobriety, like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.

But surely these people pick themselves in any BJP cabinet. They have been leaders at the Centre before Modi. It is the new ministers, like Giriraj Singh and Niranjan Jyoti (famous for referring to non-Hindus as bastards), whom Modi has brought in. And he has done so, as I said, because he agrees with what they say, even though it is manifestly and demonstrably bogus.

ALL COMMENTS ARE WELCOME.

New ISIS document reveals 'grand plan' to wage war in India, trigger 'Armageddon'

Geneva, July 29 (ANI): A recruitment document retrieved from Pakistan's lawless tribal lands has revealed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) 'grand ambition' to ignite a war in India, build a new terror army in Pakistan and Afghanistan and provoke an Armageddon-like 'end of the world' situation.

 

The 32-page-document, titled 'A Brief History of the Islamic State Caliphate (ISC),' has been obtained by American Media Institute (AMI), and says that 'The Caliphate, according to the Prophet', seeks to unite various terror factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan into a single army, the USA Today reports.

The document, which highlights a 'never-before-seen' history of the ISIS, describes future battle plans and urges Al Qaeda to join the group. It says that the self-styled Islamic State leader should be recognised as the sole ruler of the world's one billion-strong Muslim population under a religious empire called, 'caliphate'.
It also warns that 'preparations' are on for an attack in India and predicts that an attack will provoke an 'apocalyptic confrontation' with America.

The document also urges the world to 'swallow the bitter truth' that the caliphate will survive and prosper until it takes over the entire globe and beheads every last person who rebels against Allah.
U.S. officials are concerned about the recruiting efforts of the ISIS, as the group has stepped up its online outreach.

Confronted with efforts by the Islamic State to inspire Americans to commit violence, the F.B.I. in recent months has apprehended people suspected of being Islamic State sympathizers soon after they came onto the government's radar.

The F.B.I. has arrested and charged at least 25 people in the past three months with having ties to the Islamic State or other terrorist groups, compared with 20 people arrested over the previous year, according to court records.

The revelation came after former Punjab DGP K P S Gill claimed that the terror attack that took place in Gurdaspur, Punjab recently was carried out under the umbrella of the ISIS.

At least six people were killed and nine injured after three terrorists, who were armed with mortars and night-vision devices, apart from AK-47s, crossed the Ravi on the border and came to Dinanagar by taking the route to the railway track.

The GPS devices showed they were activated at Talwandi Point in Gurdaspur's Parmanand village and their next target was civil lines in Gurdaspur town, around 25 km from Dinanagar. (ANI)

Annoying Things African Parents Do To Their Kids

 

Supreme Court dismisses Yakub Memon’s plea

NEW DELHI: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court has rejected 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon's plea seeking a reconsideration of his death sentence.



The apex court said that there was no lapse in the curative petition.
Senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam said, "the SC has rejected all the contentions raised by Yakub Memon. The Maharashtra Governor and the President will have to take the decision on the mercy petition today itself."
Memon has filed a fresh plea with the president on Wednesday, seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Governor rejected his mercy plea today.
According to the TADA court order, 53-year-old Memon is to be hanged at a jail in Nagpur for his role in the deadly terror attack in which 257 people were killed in blasts at various landmarks across Mumbai.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice HL Dattu set up a larger bench after Justices Anil Dave and Kurien Joseph gave a split verdict on Yakub’s petition.

Dismissing Memon's petition, Justice Dave said: "Submissions made about the curative petition do not appeal to me as they are irrelevant and there is no substance in them. In these circumstances, the writ petition is dismissed."

Justice Kurien Joseph, however, said that there had been a clear violation of procedure and "such technicality should not stand in the way to protect the life of a person."
Memon had sought a stay of his death sentence after the apex court had on July 21 rejected his mercy petition.

He moved the apex court contending that the death warrant for his execution was issued before he could exhaust the legal remedies available to him. He also sought that his death sentence be stayed by the apex court.

Yakub's brother Tiger Memon, the main accused along with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, has been missing since 1993.

Nepal's Gadhimai festival bans animal sacrifice




The practice of animal sacrifice has been banned at Nepal's Gadhimai festival, the world's biggest animal sacrifice event held every five years. 

In a significant move that will save the lives of millions of animals, the practise of sacrifice has been banned at Nepal's Gadhimai festival, the world's biggest animal sacrifice event held every five years.
Gadhimai festivalThe temple trust announced its decision on Tuesday and urged all devotees not to bring animals to the festival, a religious practise which had been continuing for the last 300 years.

"The Gadhimai Temple Trust hereby declares our formal decision to end animal sacrifice. With your help, we can ensure Gadhimai 2019 is free from bloodshed. Moreover, we can ensure Gadhimai 2019 is a momentous celebration of life," the chairman of the trust, Ram Chandra Shah, said in a statement. "For generations, pilgrims have sacrificed animals to the Goddess Gadhimai, in the hope of a better life. For every life taken, our heart is heavy.

"The time has come to transform an old tradition. The time has come to replace killing and violence with peaceful worship and celebration," he added.

In 2014, HSI/India and AWNN's global campaign against the Gadhimai animal massacre captured the public imagination when thousands of national and international supporters expressed their ire and displeasure against the ruthless killing. Protests were held worldwide.

The decision has been welcomed by animal right activists who have been campaigning against the practise.
"This is a tremendous victory for compassion that will save the lives of countless animals. We commend the temple committee but acknowledge that a huge task lies ahead of us in educating the public so that they are fully aware."

"Animal sacrifice is a highly regressive practise and no nation in the modern world should entertain it," said Gauri Maulekhi, Humane Society International/India (HSI) Consultant and Trustee People for Animals who had approached the Supreme Court of India against the movement of animals from the country into Nepal for the festival.

"We applaud the temple committee's decision to end this mass slaughter of innocent animals and hope that they will continue to support us in our future endeavours for protecting animals in the country," said Manoj Gautam, a founding member of Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN) and campaigner against the Gadhimai festival.

It is estimated that more than 500,000 buffalo, goats, chickens and other animals were decapitated at Gadhimai in 2009, but in 2014 the numbers had reduced significantly.
The Supreme Court of India had recently issued directions to states to set up mechanisms to prevent animals from being taken to Gadhimai in future and create awareness against animal sacrifice. "Earlier this year, following the global outrage stemming from the Gadhimai massacre, the temple committee also decided not to sacrifice any animals during the harvest festival (Sankranti)," said the statement.

Yakub Memon files fresh mercy plea with President: TV reports

New Delhi, July 29 (ANI): 1993 Mumbai blasts death row convict Yakub Memon has reportedly filed a fresh mercy plea with President Pranab Mukherjee.
This is the second mercy plea to the President filed by Memon.




Leaders from different political parties and members of the legal fraternity had earlier submitted a petition to the President, requesting him to consider the mercy plea against Memon's execution.
A three-judge bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla C. Pant and Amitava Roy will today hear Memon's plea seeking a stay on his execution.

Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu constituted a larger three-judge bench after a two-judge bench of Justices A.R. Dave and Kurian Joseph yesterday gave a split verdict on Memon's plea. While Justice Dave dismissed his plea without staying the death warrant, Justice Kurian differed and favoured a stay. (ANI)

Tuesday 28 July 2015

15 Amazing ‘Foreign’ Places You Can Visit In India






We don't all have the privilege of going abroad on a whim. Time and money are barriers that never let us experience all the wonders of the world. There is hope, however, because India has it's own set of places that reflect the essence of some of the world's nicest places down to a T.

Check out some foreign places you can visit right here in India!

1. Shillong: Scotland of the East

With it's undulating meadows, rivers and lush extensive grasslands, there's really no other place Shillong and it's surroundings can be compared to other than Scotland


 

 

 

 

 

2. Malana: Little Greece

A lot of the locals believe that they are the descendants of Greek soldiers of Alexander's army. This is because the Malanese people have a lower-house and upper-house system. That's where the similarity ends though.
  
 

3. Pondicherry: The French Town

The architecture here reflects the stylings of the colonial times of the Portugese, Dutch and French. It's interesting to note the seamless transition of Tamil houses to French villas. Very quaint and very charming.


4. Alleppey: Watery Venice

With waterways being the main means of transport between houses and people, you don't need to book tickets to Venice to experience life as a water person.


5. Kasol: Little Israel 

With a massive Israeli population, Hebrew signs and Hummus everywhere, it's hard to figure out whether you're in India once you reach Kasol.


6. Rann of Kutch: Mini Bonneville Salt Flats

Create your own land speed records in this vast expanse of beautiful nothingness. And watch the stars while you're at it.


7. Goa: The Hippie Paradise

It might have sold it's soul a while ago, but certain parts of Goa still retain the vibe of the 60s down to the (highly unkempt) toes.


8. Mumbai: Miami from the 80s

With it's fast paced lifestyle, growing economy and shady underworld, Mumbai is basically exactly what Miami was 30 years ago.



9. Kashmir: India's Switzerland

Snowy mountains, stunning locales and some massive cows. That's basically Switzerland in a nutshell i.e Kashmir.



10. Andaman and Nicobar Islands: The Ko Phi Phi of India

The islands have some of the best scuba diving spots around, plus everything around you is tinted blue and green, so no need to dish out for a flight to Thailand to experience the same.



11. Chitrakoot Falls: The Niagara Falls of India

These massive falls will give the Niagara a run for it's money, and the spray on your face feels pretty chill as well.



12. Thar Desert: India's Sahara Desert 

India's very own arid desert land, with scorpions, sand snakes, endless dunes and nights filled with stars. No need to waste your water on the Sahara!


13. Western Ghats: Desi Amazon Forest

This massive forest land filled with all kinds of mysterious wildlife and thick, lush greens gives you a solid taste of the Amazon in your very own country!


14. Coorg: The Scotland of India

India seems to have a certain affinity for the Scottish landscape. Green meadows and fields as far as the eye can see make this another perfect Scotland counterpart.



15. Valley of Flowers, Uttarakhand: India's Antelope Valley

You don't need to travel to the States to soak in the scenic beauty of extended flowerlands. Go check out the valley in Uttarakhand. Pretty amazing.