Saturday, April 11, 2009
B.RAMAN
The arrests earlier this week by the British Police of 11 Pakistanis,who had reportedly come to the UK on student visas, during aninvestigation into a suspected plot for multiple terrorist attacks onsoft targets draw attention once again to possible threats fromlegitimate visitors to the UK . Residents of Pakistani origin in theUK ---characterised as home-made jihadis--- had played the lead rolein the terrorist strikes of July, 2005, in London and in the thwartedconspiracy discovered by the British Police in August,2006, to blow upa number of US-bound flights. The perpetrators or the intendedperpetrators had independently, on their own, decided to organise theattacks and those involved in the July,2005, attacks had then gone toPakistan for being trained in the fabrication of explosives fromcommonly available materials and using them in improvised explosivedevices (IEDs).
2. Threats from legitimate visitors to the UK---as distinguished frompermanent residents--- are not new. The attempted terrorist strikes inLondon and Glasgow in June 2007 saw the involvement of legitimatevisitors---one of them an Indian Muslim student who died of burnsafter a thwarted attempt to blow up the Glasgow airport. There was nodefinitive evidence to connect those involved in the London-Glasgowincidents with Pakistan.
3. The latest arrests are significant for the larger number ofsuspects involved and their arrival in the UK ostensibly for higherstudies with legitimate visas issued by the Britishdiplomatic/consular missions in Pakistan after due verification oftheir antecedents. The issue of the student visas to them would showthat they had not come to the adverse notice of the British earlier.
4. The investigation is in a very preliminary stage due to hasty,premature arrests of the suspects caused by a breach of security byAssistant Commissioner of Police Bob Quick, who carried openly in hisarm in a manner readable by journalists with powerful cameras adocument, which had reportedly summarised the reasons for thesuspicion against them. The Police officer admitted the breach ofsecurity committed which could have compromised the pre-arrestinvestigation and alerted the Pakistanis that they are underinvestigation. To pre-empt the persons figuring in the list fleeingthe country or going underground, the police organised hasty raids ata nember of places such as the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester,Liverpool and Clitheroe in Lancashire. The indications till now arethat the police were able to arrest all those suspected and that noone figuring in the compromised document has managed to evade arrest.
5. The resignation of the distinguished police officer and thesubsequent arrests have given rise to considerable media speculationregarding the nature of any plot in which the arrested suspects mighthave been involved. It has even been speculated that the arrestedpersons were planning to carry out simultaneous explosions at crowdedplaces during the Easter holidays.
6.From the acceptable indicators available so far, all one can saywith confidence is that the British technical intelligence hadprobably overheard these persons discussing among themselves whatappeared to be a terrorist plot. They had identified them, put themunder surveillance and were making enquiries about them. Before theseactions could be completed the breach of security by the policeofficer occurred forcing the police to pick up the 11 suspects evenbefore their investigation had made significant progress. As a result,while the police had been able to collect evidence of a possibleterror talk by the detained Pakistanis, they had not been able tocollect evidence which would show that the plot had progressed fromthe talk mode to the preparations mode. The interrogation of thedetained suspects should show whether the suspects had made anypreparations on the ground for making their talk a reality.
7. During the investigation, the British Police would, inter alia, befocussing on the following questions: To which part of Pakistan thesuspects belonged----tribal or non-tribal areas? Where did they studyin Pakistan? Had they known each other before coming to the UK orwhether they came to know each other after arriving in the UK? Didthey have any association with any fundamentalist or terroristorganisation in Pakistan? Which organisation contacted them topersuade them to volunteer themselves for the terrorist strikes? Hadthey been recruited for the terrorist plot before they left Pakistanor after their arrival in the UK? How were they planning to carry outthe strike---with explosives or hand-held weapons?
8. The past terrorist strikes or attempts in the UK were in anger forthe British role in Iraq. The anger has now dissipated. The Britishtroops have also started withdrawing from Iraq. Anger over the Britishrole in Iraq is, therefore, unlikely to have been the trigger.However,there is considerable anger in the Pashtun tribal belt in theAfghanistan-Pakistan region over the British role in southern andeastern Afghanistan. Next to the US, the UK is playing the most activerole in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the Af-Pakregion---particularly in the Helmand provice of Afghanistan.
9.There is, therefore, a strong possibility that the plot thwarted atthe very beginning in the UK had its motivational origin in the Af-Paktribal belt. Sections of the British media have projected the plot asof Al Qaeda inspiration. For security reasons, Al Qaeda avoids directcontacts with Pakistanis either in the Af-Pak region or abroad. Itprefers to have them recruited through intermediaries such as theLashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), theHarkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) or theTehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). A direct Al Qaeda role in thethwarted London plot is of low possibility.
10. The LET, the HUM, the JEM and the HUJI have trans-nationalsleeper cell networks---- all of them across the sub-continent and inSouth-East and West Asia, the HUJI in Central Asia too and the LETand the HUM in the UK and the US too. The TTP did not have atrans-national network outside the Af-Pak region till the beginning oflast year---not even in India. Pashtun terrorists had never operatedoutside the Af-Pak region. The reported discovery by the SpanishPolice of a suspected sleeper cell owing loyalty to Baitullah Mehsud,the Amir of the TTP, in Barcelona in January,2008, was the firstreported instance of a TTP presence in the West. The London cell justunearthed by the British police may turn out to be the secondinstance.
11. As a result of the considerable tightening up of anti-explosivecontrols in the West and Australia by the Police with theco-operation of the public, terrorist attacks of the 2005 type arebecoming very difficult to organise. That is why the London-Glasgowplotters tried using gas/fuel cylinders. This option is stillavailable to the terrorists even in the West and Australia.
12. One has been seeing since the Mumbai terrorist attack of November26 to 29,2008, that mass casualties and mass publicity through themedia are becoming the driving force of terrorist attacks. It was soeven in respect of 9/11, but repeats of 9/11 have become verydifficult due to tightened physical security. Terrorists are revertingto commando-style attacks with hand-held weapons to achieve theseobjectives. After Mumbai, one had seen them doing this in Kabul,Lahore twice and in Kandahar.
13. Commando-style attacks with hand-held weapons are much easier toorganise in the West and Australia than attacks with IEDs. There ishardly any gun control in the US. Gun controls are stricter in othercountries, but the controls are not yet foolproof as one saw in arecent incident in Germany.If it is still easy for irrationalindividuals to play havoc with guns, how much easier it should be forwell-organised and well-motivated terrorists? That is a question whichshould worry counter-terrorism experts and which should call for theirfocussed attention. (12-4-2009)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt.of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For TopicalStudies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
April 11, 2009
Balochistan : Statement of Asian Human Rights Commission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-087-2009
April 11, 2009
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: Fingers point at state intelligence agencies in the killings of three Baloch nationalist leaders.
Three Baloch nationalist leaders were killed after their abduction by plain clothes persons in mysterious vehicles that bore no registration plates. They were taken from the chambers of a prominent lawyer and their deaths have raised several questions on the role of state spy agencies, particularly about military intelligence (MI). All three murdered persons, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Sher Mohammad Baloch and Lala Muneer Jan Baloch, were earlier kidnapped by the military
intelligence agencies during 2006 and 2007 and each of them were
disappeared for several months. After their release it was found that
they were kept in the different military torture cells and severely
tortured. They all were interrogated by the military officers about
the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and funding for nationalist
movements in the province against military operations.
The killings are tantamount as witness killings as they all were
previously disappeared by the army and kept in different military
torture cells before being released. Therefore they might have proved
dangerous in the probe about disappearances after arrests of political
and nationalist activists.
The Asian Human Rights Commission issued an urgent appeal on the
abduction and disappearance of two of the leaders, Mr. Ghulam
Mohammad Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch. They were abducted when
they were holding a meeting for the preparations for a protest
demonstration against the murder of Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti, the
former chief minister of Balochistan by army personnel at his hide
out. The details of their abduction in 2006 can be found on this link
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2006/2119/
The third one, Mr. Lala Muneer Jan Baloch, was also abducted in the
month of February 2007 from Balochistan province by plain clothed
persons and was kept in different military torture cells for almost
eight months. These men were all released after the restoration of
Mr. Iftekhar Choudhry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan by the Supreme
Court on July 20, 2007, as their cases of disappearance were before
the High Court of Sindh.
The military authorities could not find any evidence of their
involvement in the so called secessionist movement in Balochistan
province. They all were dumped at different places along the road
sides bearing severe torture marks on their bodies. They were told
before their release by their military captors that if they revealed
anything about their captivity in the military torture cells then
they will be killed or persons from their families will face the same
fate.
Mr. Salim Baloch, vice president of Jamhoori Watan Party of
Balochistan, was abducted by plain clothed persons on March 10, 2006,
from Karachi, Sindh province, and was kept in military torture cells
in the different cities of Pakistan particularly, in the Punjab
province, and severely tortured. He was released in the month of
December 2006 with the warning that he should not tell about his
detention in the military cells. But he was again abducted within 36
hours after he gave his statement about his ordeal of 9 months of
torture and illegal detention. In his statement made before the Sindh
High Court, Mr. Salim Baloch believed that he would be rearrested by
the secret military agencies as he was threatened by the military
officers that it would happen if he told about his arrest and
torture. Mr. Baloch requested the High Court to provide protection
but it paid no attention to his plea. Please see link for the urgent
appeal which documents his ordeals,
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2151/
An other case is that of Syed Abid Raza Zaidi, who was abducted by
plain clothed persons from Karachi on April 26 and kept in military
torture cells to get information on the Nishter Park incident of
April 11. He was released in September but again abducted by plain
clothed persons for not following the warning of the military
authorities. After giving his statement before a panel discussion of
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan at
Islamabad he was again abducted from another city of Lahore, Punjab
province. Please see the details of the case through this link,
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2006/2012/
The brutal murder of the Baloch leaders is ample proof of the
involvement of state agencies in their abduction from the office of
the lawyer. In that they all were abducted in the same fashion as
others abducted by plain clothed persons in broad daylight in
vehicles without registration numbers. According to the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan the Baloch leaders were forcibly picked up,
blindfolded and taken in cars, closely followed by vehicles belonging
to the Frontier Corps. The medical investigations by the doctors at
Civil hospital Turbat, Balochistan, suggests that all the three were
shot dead at close range with Kalashnikov AK47s and their bodies were
badly mutilated. The medical report suggests that they were killed one
week before the bodies were recovered.
The three murdered people were members of the governments committee
which was looking into the cases of disappeared persons since 2001 in
the province. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad had already given a statement that
he saw some persons in the Rawalpindi, Punjab, military centre who
had been missing for several years. Their own experiences of
disappearances and detention at military torture cells was a problem
for the state intelligence agencies. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad was also
involved in a dialogue with the persons who abducted Mr. John
Solecki, the head of UNHCR mission at Quetta, the capital of
Balochistan. He was one of the Baloch nationalist by whose efforts
Mr. Solecki was released.
Killing of witnesses threatens the possibility of any justice
regarding the large numbers of persons who have disappeared in
Pakistan. These recent killings seem to indicate the mobilisation of
secret units in order to eliminate those who have knowledge about the
maintenance of secret prisons and torture chambers in the country.
Particularly those who have taken a keen interest in pursuing justice
relating to these matters have been made targets of these killings. It
is likely that these killings will be followed by similar actions to
others. The knowledge about these murders will also discourage
victims and witnesses who want to narrate the human rights abuses
they have suffered and to seek justice. The deadening silence imposed
in such circumstances will obstruct all attempts to return to a normal
situation of rule of law. Now with the intervention of the Supreme
Court under the Chief Justice, Iftekhar Choudhry who has been
reinstated by popular intervention. On the other hand the terror
tactics adopted in this way will act to the advantage of the
extremist elements who resort to terrorism
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
-----------------------------
Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367
AHRC-STM-087-2009
April 11, 2009
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: Fingers point at state intelligence agencies in the killings of three Baloch nationalist leaders.
Three Baloch nationalist leaders were killed after their abduction by plain clothes persons in mysterious vehicles that bore no registration plates. They were taken from the chambers of a prominent lawyer and their deaths have raised several questions on the role of state spy agencies, particularly about military intelligence (MI). All three murdered persons, Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Sher Mohammad Baloch and Lala Muneer Jan Baloch, were earlier kidnapped by the military
intelligence agencies during 2006 and 2007 and each of them were
disappeared for several months. After their release it was found that
they were kept in the different military torture cells and severely
tortured. They all were interrogated by the military officers about
the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and funding for nationalist
movements in the province against military operations.
The killings are tantamount as witness killings as they all were
previously disappeared by the army and kept in different military
torture cells before being released. Therefore they might have proved
dangerous in the probe about disappearances after arrests of political
and nationalist activists.
The Asian Human Rights Commission issued an urgent appeal on the
abduction and disappearance of two of the leaders, Mr. Ghulam
Mohammad Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch. They were abducted when
they were holding a meeting for the preparations for a protest
demonstration against the murder of Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti, the
former chief minister of Balochistan by army personnel at his hide
out. The details of their abduction in 2006 can be found on this link
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2006/2119/
The third one, Mr. Lala Muneer Jan Baloch, was also abducted in the
month of February 2007 from Balochistan province by plain clothed
persons and was kept in different military torture cells for almost
eight months. These men were all released after the restoration of
Mr. Iftekhar Choudhry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan by the Supreme
Court on July 20, 2007, as their cases of disappearance were before
the High Court of Sindh.
The military authorities could not find any evidence of their
involvement in the so called secessionist movement in Balochistan
province. They all were dumped at different places along the road
sides bearing severe torture marks on their bodies. They were told
before their release by their military captors that if they revealed
anything about their captivity in the military torture cells then
they will be killed or persons from their families will face the same
fate.
Mr. Salim Baloch, vice president of Jamhoori Watan Party of
Balochistan, was abducted by plain clothed persons on March 10, 2006,
from Karachi, Sindh province, and was kept in military torture cells
in the different cities of Pakistan particularly, in the Punjab
province, and severely tortured. He was released in the month of
December 2006 with the warning that he should not tell about his
detention in the military cells. But he was again abducted within 36
hours after he gave his statement about his ordeal of 9 months of
torture and illegal detention. In his statement made before the Sindh
High Court, Mr. Salim Baloch believed that he would be rearrested by
the secret military agencies as he was threatened by the military
officers that it would happen if he told about his arrest and
torture. Mr. Baloch requested the High Court to provide protection
but it paid no attention to his plea. Please see link for the urgent
appeal which documents his ordeals,
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2151/
An other case is that of Syed Abid Raza Zaidi, who was abducted by
plain clothed persons from Karachi on April 26 and kept in military
torture cells to get information on the Nishter Park incident of
April 11. He was released in September but again abducted by plain
clothed persons for not following the warning of the military
authorities. After giving his statement before a panel discussion of
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan at
Islamabad he was again abducted from another city of Lahore, Punjab
province. Please see the details of the case through this link,
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2006/2012/
The brutal murder of the Baloch leaders is ample proof of the
involvement of state agencies in their abduction from the office of
the lawyer. In that they all were abducted in the same fashion as
others abducted by plain clothed persons in broad daylight in
vehicles without registration numbers. According to the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan the Baloch leaders were forcibly picked up,
blindfolded and taken in cars, closely followed by vehicles belonging
to the Frontier Corps. The medical investigations by the doctors at
Civil hospital Turbat, Balochistan, suggests that all the three were
shot dead at close range with Kalashnikov AK47s and their bodies were
badly mutilated. The medical report suggests that they were killed one
week before the bodies were recovered.
The three murdered people were members of the governments committee
which was looking into the cases of disappeared persons since 2001 in
the province. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad had already given a statement that
he saw some persons in the Rawalpindi, Punjab, military centre who
had been missing for several years. Their own experiences of
disappearances and detention at military torture cells was a problem
for the state intelligence agencies. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad was also
involved in a dialogue with the persons who abducted Mr. John
Solecki, the head of UNHCR mission at Quetta, the capital of
Balochistan. He was one of the Baloch nationalist by whose efforts
Mr. Solecki was released.
Killing of witnesses threatens the possibility of any justice
regarding the large numbers of persons who have disappeared in
Pakistan. These recent killings seem to indicate the mobilisation of
secret units in order to eliminate those who have knowledge about the
maintenance of secret prisons and torture chambers in the country.
Particularly those who have taken a keen interest in pursuing justice
relating to these matters have been made targets of these killings. It
is likely that these killings will be followed by similar actions to
others. The knowledge about these murders will also discourage
victims and witnesses who want to narrate the human rights abuses
they have suffered and to seek justice. The deadening silence imposed
in such circumstances will obstruct all attempts to return to a normal
situation of rule of law. Now with the intervention of the Supreme
Court under the Chief Justice, Iftekhar Choudhry who has been
reinstated by popular intervention. On the other hand the terror
tactics adopted in this way will act to the advantage of the
extremist elements who resort to terrorism
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
-----------------------------
Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367
U.S. still lacks clear Afghan strategy
19:15 | 10/ 04/ 2009
MOSCOW. (Pyotr Goncharov, for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate another $83.4 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although this sum does not exceed the annual budget of a small country, it will probably be followed by other allocations under the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
Washington will have to finance its new Afghan war strategy at a time when its European allies are behaving passively.
On April 3-4, 2009, Strasbourg in France, and Kehl and Baden-Baden in Germany hosted a NATO summit to mark the 60th anniversary of the alliance's establishment. NATO leaders were not very enthusiastic about President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan.
Although French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was delighted with President Obama's new Afghan war strategy, he does little more than make optimistic statements.
This time, President Sarkozy told the U.S. leader that Paris would send French instructors to train Afghan policemen under the new plan. However, President Obama expected other NATO countries to expand their military presence in Afghanistan because the new U.S. strategy may otherwise fail.
NATO leaders decided to send 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan in order to facilitate safe presidential elections, scheduled to be held on August 20, 2009, and to train Afghan military personnel. The United Kingdom, Germany and Spain will contribute 900, 600 and 600 soldiers, respectively, but will probably withdraw them after the elections. Another 1,200-1,400 NATO soldiers will serve with 70 units training the Afghan army and police force.
However, such expanded military presence is not enough to maintain stability in Afghanistan at a time when Washington and Kabul want to crush armed resistance and to strengthen the incumbent Afghan government throughout 2009.
The NATO summit made vague statements on the Afghan aspect of its policy because it appears that only the United States knows something about the new strategy's details.
This is hardly surprising as this uncertainty is stipulated by the strategy's author himself.
Obama said a week before the NATO summit that an effective strategy in Afghanistan could include bringing a more regional, diplomatic approach to bear and coordinating more effectively with allies (The Associated Press - March 22, 2009).
This and other statements say nothing about the required format for implementing the aforesaid regional approach to solve the Afghan problem. Moscow will hardly be satisfied with U.S. plans to include Russia, China and India in the Contact Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan advocated by President Obama.
Moscow would like the entire Central Asian region represented by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to take part in tackling the problem of Afghanistan. Although the United States agrees with Moscow, the NATO summit did not discuss this issue because the alliance only wants the SCO to implement economic projects in Afghanistan. And there are still no signs that NATO has modified its stance on the issue.
Washington's European allies are reluctant to play a more active role in Afghanistan because national parliaments, rather than generals, have to deal with this and other similar issues. As always, members of parliament dislike wars because their electorate does not want to get involved in them.
The United States, which bears the brunt of the fighting in Afghanistan, has started allocating additional budgetary funding for the war effort. However, a comprehensive strategy advocated by the Obama administration prioritizing economic reconstruction is still lacking.
Russia and its Central Asian neighbors could become America's most consistent allies on the Afghan issue on the basis that it would be absolutely pointless to try and rebuild the Afghan economy separately from other regional economies.
Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces cooperate with Pakistan, while its western and northern provinces deal with Iran and Central Asia.
The July/August 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine contained an article entitled "A Partnership for Central Asia" by S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
Starr, who in his article advocated "a Greater Central Asia Partnership for Cooperation and Development," also mentioned the above-mentioned factor, namely, Afghanistan's close economic ties with its neighbors.
Several days ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined the need to significantly boost the regional factor's role in peace processes and to involve Afghanistan's neighbors in implementing and drafting various policies.
Everybody, including NATO, seems to like the new U.S. strategy for withdrawing from Afghanistan. The strategy aims to make Afghanistan a normal country and then pull out the foreign military units. But, most importantly, the concerned parties must agree on specific options for normalizing the Afghan situation because the strategy otherwise seems to be shaky.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW. (Pyotr Goncharov, for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate another $83.4 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although this sum does not exceed the annual budget of a small country, it will probably be followed by other allocations under the new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
Washington will have to finance its new Afghan war strategy at a time when its European allies are behaving passively.
On April 3-4, 2009, Strasbourg in France, and Kehl and Baden-Baden in Germany hosted a NATO summit to mark the 60th anniversary of the alliance's establishment. NATO leaders were not very enthusiastic about President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan.
Although French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was delighted with President Obama's new Afghan war strategy, he does little more than make optimistic statements.
This time, President Sarkozy told the U.S. leader that Paris would send French instructors to train Afghan policemen under the new plan. However, President Obama expected other NATO countries to expand their military presence in Afghanistan because the new U.S. strategy may otherwise fail.
NATO leaders decided to send 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan in order to facilitate safe presidential elections, scheduled to be held on August 20, 2009, and to train Afghan military personnel. The United Kingdom, Germany and Spain will contribute 900, 600 and 600 soldiers, respectively, but will probably withdraw them after the elections. Another 1,200-1,400 NATO soldiers will serve with 70 units training the Afghan army and police force.
However, such expanded military presence is not enough to maintain stability in Afghanistan at a time when Washington and Kabul want to crush armed resistance and to strengthen the incumbent Afghan government throughout 2009.
The NATO summit made vague statements on the Afghan aspect of its policy because it appears that only the United States knows something about the new strategy's details.
This is hardly surprising as this uncertainty is stipulated by the strategy's author himself.
Obama said a week before the NATO summit that an effective strategy in Afghanistan could include bringing a more regional, diplomatic approach to bear and coordinating more effectively with allies (The Associated Press - March 22, 2009).
This and other statements say nothing about the required format for implementing the aforesaid regional approach to solve the Afghan problem. Moscow will hardly be satisfied with U.S. plans to include Russia, China and India in the Contact Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan advocated by President Obama.
Moscow would like the entire Central Asian region represented by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to take part in tackling the problem of Afghanistan. Although the United States agrees with Moscow, the NATO summit did not discuss this issue because the alliance only wants the SCO to implement economic projects in Afghanistan. And there are still no signs that NATO has modified its stance on the issue.
Washington's European allies are reluctant to play a more active role in Afghanistan because national parliaments, rather than generals, have to deal with this and other similar issues. As always, members of parliament dislike wars because their electorate does not want to get involved in them.
The United States, which bears the brunt of the fighting in Afghanistan, has started allocating additional budgetary funding for the war effort. However, a comprehensive strategy advocated by the Obama administration prioritizing economic reconstruction is still lacking.
Russia and its Central Asian neighbors could become America's most consistent allies on the Afghan issue on the basis that it would be absolutely pointless to try and rebuild the Afghan economy separately from other regional economies.
Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces cooperate with Pakistan, while its western and northern provinces deal with Iran and Central Asia.
The July/August 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine contained an article entitled "A Partnership for Central Asia" by S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
Starr, who in his article advocated "a Greater Central Asia Partnership for Cooperation and Development," also mentioned the above-mentioned factor, namely, Afghanistan's close economic ties with its neighbors.
Several days ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined the need to significantly boost the regional factor's role in peace processes and to involve Afghanistan's neighbors in implementing and drafting various policies.
Everybody, including NATO, seems to like the new U.S. strategy for withdrawing from Afghanistan. The strategy aims to make Afghanistan a normal country and then pull out the foreign military units. But, most importantly, the concerned parties must agree on specific options for normalizing the Afghan situation because the strategy otherwise seems to be shaky.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GEO-STRATEGIC AND GEO-POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE
By Dr. Subhash Kapila
Introductory Observations
The United States new Af-Pak Strategic Blueprint has lumped together Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single hyphenated geo-strategic and geopolitical identity in the region as the central focus of its renewed bid to restore stability.
The dangers of strategically joining at the hip both Afghanistan and Pakistan together may be a wise tactical masterstroke but is strategically unwise.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are two separate and distinct geo-strategic and geopolitical entities. A comparative analysis of Afghanistan and Pakistan which this Paper attempts to analyze, would indicate that the geo-strategic and geopolitical significance of Afghanistan far outweighs that of Pakistan, both in regional terms and in the global power games.
In passing, it could also be asserted that despite its landlocked location, Afghanistan far outweighs Pakistan in geo-economic terms too both in terms of substantial deposits of oil and natural gas (assessed but not tapped) and as a energy corridor for Central Asia energy produce.
If Afghanistan was not geo-strategically and geo-politically significant, then the United States would have not have executed two military interventions in Afghanistan in a span of 20 years.
Echoing the assertions of America’s noted strategist Zbignew Brezezinski in terms of United States retaining predominance in Eurasia, this Author would like to offer a pointer that what the United States today is confronting is a regional Islamist coalition of the Taliban and Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan Army sponsored safe havens in Pakistan’s border tracts, intent on pushing out the United States from Afghanistan and the region.
It stands pointed out in this Author’s earlier Papers that in terms of public attitudes polled, the majority of Pakistanis and the Pakistan Army’s rank and file are decidedly anti-American. Contrastingly, the majority of the Afghans are in favor of the United States military presence in Afghanistan to restore stability.
Significantly, it should not be overlooked by the US strategic establishment, that the United States rode in victory into Kabul in 2002 on the shoulders of the Afghan Northern Alliance and not the Pakistan Army.
With the contextual background having been laid out, this Paper attempts to analyze the main theme of this Paper under the following heads:
Afghanistan: Its Geo-strategic Significance
Pakistan’s Geo-strategic Significance Exaggerated by United States and China
Afghanistan’s Geo-political Significance Reinforced by its Strategic Location
Pakistan’s Geo-political Importance Only in United States, China and Saudi Arabia Strategic Calculus
Afghanistan: Its Geo-strategic Significance
Afghanistan with a noticeable sizeable chunk of geometrically regular territorial configuration lies at the intersection of the Indian Sub-Continent (Pakistan), the Middle East (Iran), Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) and China (The Wakhan Corridor).
In terms of International borders, the details are Pakistan (2430 km); Iran (936 km); Tajikistan (1206 km); Uzbekistan (137 km); Turkmenistan (744 km), and China (75 km).
While the theory of buffer states may no longer be operative, but the considerations of regional balance of power and a country’s location affording geo-strategic access to strategically vital regions especially in terms of energy security are strong strategic determinations today.
In terms of United States national security interests and regional strategy, Afghanistan offers better long term strategic prospects than Pakistan. Afghanistan's landlocked location should be no impediment to the United States which has conquered gegraphical constraints by air-mobility.
American strategic planners seem to view strategic access to Afghanistan, through the long torturous routes through Pakistan emanating from Karachi to Kabul via the Khyber Pass.
The United States has now awoken to the much shorter route from Iran (Chahbahar Port) and then via the Indian constructed link road joining the Iranian border to the Afghanistan circular national highway.
Geo-strategically, if the United States wishes to adhere to Brezezinski’s famous precept of USA retaining predominance in Eurasia, then Afghanistan with a US-Iran rapprochement in tandem offers the best option.
Pakistan’s Geo-strategic Significance Exaggerated by United States and China
In terms of geographical configuration, Pakistan stands out on the map as an elongated thin slive of territory, more in the nature of a “geographical appendix” of the Indian Sub-continent.
Pakistan’s geographical configuration offers no “strategic depth” in relation to its more powerful neighbours and this magnifies her security problems and also her national security uncertainties
Pakistan’s long land borders with India (2912 km); Iran (909 km); Afghanistan (2430 km); and China (523 km) pose serious security problems with its more sizeable neighbors except China, presently. Pakistan has border disputes with Afghanistan and India.
Pakistan’s geo-strategic significance has all along in its 60 years plus existence has stood considerably exaggerated by the US strategic planners. Originally, in relation to the Cold War containment strategy, in the 1980s as a spring board for US strategy to confront Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and presently (doubtful strategic utilitiy) in the global war on terrorism.
Pakistan’s geo-strategic significance appeals to US strategic planners only in its value as a “rental state” to meet US strategic ends.
China attaches great importance to Pakistan’s geo-strategic location only in terms of giving China land access to the Arabian Sea (Gwadar & Karachi); energy corridor (Gwadur to Xinjiang via Khenjerab Pass); and a Chinese Naval Base in the proximity of the strategic choke point of Hormuz Straits (Gwadur).
In terms of future US containment strategy of China, Afghanistan air bases offers better prospects than Pakistan, provided USA stays embedded in Afghanistan. Afghan air-bases also provide an added strategic asset for US strategic air coverage of the Central Asian Republics and the Middle East.
As stated before if the choice confronts Pakistan in terms of strategic support for USA versus China, Pakistan will opt for China. In real terms Pakistan geo-strategically offers no value to USA except for a very remote possibility of use as an India-containment strategy.
Afghanistan’s Geo-political Significance Reinforced by its Strategic Location
Afghanistan geo-politically has existed as a nation state since 1749 onwards and as a political state with recognized boundaries since 1919. In terms of political existence, Afghanistan pre-dates Pakistan by nearly 200 years.
Afghanistan by virtue of its geo-strategic location has witnessed political rivalries over it between Russia and the British Empire and also from Iran.
Politically, today, Afghanistan is at peace with Russia, Iran, India and her Central Asia neighbors. There is ample cooperation and trust between them.
Pakistan has since 1947 been embroiled in confrontationist stances with Afghanistan. Devoid of geographical strategic depth, Pakistan has always argued that Afghanistan falls within its security perimeter and it should therefore exercise strategic control over it. The Taliban was created by the Pakistan Army as the instrument to execute this design.
In terms of geopolitics, Russia along with Iran and India have a convergence of strategic interests in mantaining Afghanistan as a stable independent entity, free of the virulent Islamist influences emanating from Pakistan.
Geo-politically, the United States has a strategic imperatives to retain control over Afghanistan, far transcending the neutralization of Al Qaeda and Taliban.
The United States however is in a strategic dilemma as it made its Afghanistan strategy totally dependent on Pakistan Army’s cooperation. A strategic denouement is underway presently.
The United States geopolitically stirs a witches cauldron in Afghanistan by giving primacy to Pakistan Army’s strategic sensitivities to control Afghanistan.
Any US exit from Afghanistan induced by combat fatigue engineered by the Pakistan Army, could create a political vacuum which most likely gets filled in by Russia, Iran and India.
China stands aligned with the Taliban and Pakistan both pre-9/11 and post-9/11 and finds no political support in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s geo-political significance therefore far transcends any dilution of US strategic interest or exit from the Afghanistan scene.
Afghanistan, both geo-politically and geo-strategically offers the best prospects for the United States to remain “embedded” in Eurasia.
Pakistan's Geo-political Importance Only in United States, China and Saudi Arabia’s Strategic Calculus
Pakistan's geo-political importance so far figured only in the strategic calculus of the United States, China and Saudi Arabia.
The reasons for Pakistan figuring in the strategic calculus of USA and China stand spelt out earlier in the Paper.
Saudi Arabia has had both a geo-strategic and geo-political interest in Pakistan. It saw Pakistan a strategic balancer of Iran with the same appeal applicable to USA. The United States viewed Pakistan as a springboard for any military strikes on Iran.
Politically, Pakistan offered a fertile ground for promotion of extreme Islami Wahabism all around through Saudi financing of Pakistani Islamist organizations and keeping the Al Qaeda away from Saudi territory and under protective custody of the Pakistan Army is the border tracts of the Pak-Afghan border.
Strategic realities however are fast over-taking the geopolitical interest of these counties in Pakistan.
The US has entered a strategic denouement phase with Pakistan. Pakistan is fast down-sliding into state-failure and its strategic utility to US strategy is becoming limited.
Indicative of a subtle change in Chinese altitudes is that China while ready for strategic investments in Pakistan in encouraging Pakistan Army build- up is not ready to under write Pakistan’s failing economy.
With cleavages surfacing in US- Saudi relations and a likely US-Iran rapprochement the Saudis may have to downgrade their focused interest in Pakistan.
Concluding Observations
A comparative analysis of the geo-strategic and geo-political significance of Afghanistan and Pakistan has contextually become pertinent resulting from the new United States AF-PAK STRATEGY. This strategy has changed American priorities of restoring stability and security in Afghanistan to that of retrieving Pakistan from state-failure.
The present analysis in the Paper, though brief has attempted to focus attention on the fact that the geo-strategic and geo-political significance of Afghanistan for outweighs that of Pakistan, not only for the United States but also for the major regional powers.
The United States can hope for a “strategic embedment” in Eurasia provided it strategizes for a sustained and prolonged engagement in Afghanistan by divorcing its historical baggage of bowing to Pakistan Army's strategic sensitivities over Afghanistan, disconnects Pakistan from its Afghanistan policy formulations and recognizes the strategic reality that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are using Islam and Islamist terrorism as a weapon to push USA out of the region.
(The author is an International Relations and Strategic Affairs analyst. He is the Consultant, Strategic Affairs with South Asia Analysis Group. Email:drsubhashkapila.007@gmail.com)
Introductory Observations
The United States new Af-Pak Strategic Blueprint has lumped together Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single hyphenated geo-strategic and geopolitical identity in the region as the central focus of its renewed bid to restore stability.
The dangers of strategically joining at the hip both Afghanistan and Pakistan together may be a wise tactical masterstroke but is strategically unwise.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are two separate and distinct geo-strategic and geopolitical entities. A comparative analysis of Afghanistan and Pakistan which this Paper attempts to analyze, would indicate that the geo-strategic and geopolitical significance of Afghanistan far outweighs that of Pakistan, both in regional terms and in the global power games.
In passing, it could also be asserted that despite its landlocked location, Afghanistan far outweighs Pakistan in geo-economic terms too both in terms of substantial deposits of oil and natural gas (assessed but not tapped) and as a energy corridor for Central Asia energy produce.
If Afghanistan was not geo-strategically and geo-politically significant, then the United States would have not have executed two military interventions in Afghanistan in a span of 20 years.
Echoing the assertions of America’s noted strategist Zbignew Brezezinski in terms of United States retaining predominance in Eurasia, this Author would like to offer a pointer that what the United States today is confronting is a regional Islamist coalition of the Taliban and Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan Army sponsored safe havens in Pakistan’s border tracts, intent on pushing out the United States from Afghanistan and the region.
It stands pointed out in this Author’s earlier Papers that in terms of public attitudes polled, the majority of Pakistanis and the Pakistan Army’s rank and file are decidedly anti-American. Contrastingly, the majority of the Afghans are in favor of the United States military presence in Afghanistan to restore stability.
Significantly, it should not be overlooked by the US strategic establishment, that the United States rode in victory into Kabul in 2002 on the shoulders of the Afghan Northern Alliance and not the Pakistan Army.
With the contextual background having been laid out, this Paper attempts to analyze the main theme of this Paper under the following heads:
Afghanistan: Its Geo-strategic Significance
Pakistan’s Geo-strategic Significance Exaggerated by United States and China
Afghanistan’s Geo-political Significance Reinforced by its Strategic Location
Pakistan’s Geo-political Importance Only in United States, China and Saudi Arabia Strategic Calculus
Afghanistan: Its Geo-strategic Significance
Afghanistan with a noticeable sizeable chunk of geometrically regular territorial configuration lies at the intersection of the Indian Sub-Continent (Pakistan), the Middle East (Iran), Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) and China (The Wakhan Corridor).
In terms of International borders, the details are Pakistan (2430 km); Iran (936 km); Tajikistan (1206 km); Uzbekistan (137 km); Turkmenistan (744 km), and China (75 km).
While the theory of buffer states may no longer be operative, but the considerations of regional balance of power and a country’s location affording geo-strategic access to strategically vital regions especially in terms of energy security are strong strategic determinations today.
In terms of United States national security interests and regional strategy, Afghanistan offers better long term strategic prospects than Pakistan. Afghanistan's landlocked location should be no impediment to the United States which has conquered gegraphical constraints by air-mobility.
American strategic planners seem to view strategic access to Afghanistan, through the long torturous routes through Pakistan emanating from Karachi to Kabul via the Khyber Pass.
The United States has now awoken to the much shorter route from Iran (Chahbahar Port) and then via the Indian constructed link road joining the Iranian border to the Afghanistan circular national highway.
Geo-strategically, if the United States wishes to adhere to Brezezinski’s famous precept of USA retaining predominance in Eurasia, then Afghanistan with a US-Iran rapprochement in tandem offers the best option.
Pakistan’s Geo-strategic Significance Exaggerated by United States and China
In terms of geographical configuration, Pakistan stands out on the map as an elongated thin slive of territory, more in the nature of a “geographical appendix” of the Indian Sub-continent.
Pakistan’s geographical configuration offers no “strategic depth” in relation to its more powerful neighbours and this magnifies her security problems and also her national security uncertainties
Pakistan’s long land borders with India (2912 km); Iran (909 km); Afghanistan (2430 km); and China (523 km) pose serious security problems with its more sizeable neighbors except China, presently. Pakistan has border disputes with Afghanistan and India.
Pakistan’s geo-strategic significance has all along in its 60 years plus existence has stood considerably exaggerated by the US strategic planners. Originally, in relation to the Cold War containment strategy, in the 1980s as a spring board for US strategy to confront Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and presently (doubtful strategic utilitiy) in the global war on terrorism.
Pakistan’s geo-strategic significance appeals to US strategic planners only in its value as a “rental state” to meet US strategic ends.
China attaches great importance to Pakistan’s geo-strategic location only in terms of giving China land access to the Arabian Sea (Gwadar & Karachi); energy corridor (Gwadur to Xinjiang via Khenjerab Pass); and a Chinese Naval Base in the proximity of the strategic choke point of Hormuz Straits (Gwadur).
In terms of future US containment strategy of China, Afghanistan air bases offers better prospects than Pakistan, provided USA stays embedded in Afghanistan. Afghan air-bases also provide an added strategic asset for US strategic air coverage of the Central Asian Republics and the Middle East.
As stated before if the choice confronts Pakistan in terms of strategic support for USA versus China, Pakistan will opt for China. In real terms Pakistan geo-strategically offers no value to USA except for a very remote possibility of use as an India-containment strategy.
Afghanistan’s Geo-political Significance Reinforced by its Strategic Location
Afghanistan geo-politically has existed as a nation state since 1749 onwards and as a political state with recognized boundaries since 1919. In terms of political existence, Afghanistan pre-dates Pakistan by nearly 200 years.
Afghanistan by virtue of its geo-strategic location has witnessed political rivalries over it between Russia and the British Empire and also from Iran.
Politically, today, Afghanistan is at peace with Russia, Iran, India and her Central Asia neighbors. There is ample cooperation and trust between them.
Pakistan has since 1947 been embroiled in confrontationist stances with Afghanistan. Devoid of geographical strategic depth, Pakistan has always argued that Afghanistan falls within its security perimeter and it should therefore exercise strategic control over it. The Taliban was created by the Pakistan Army as the instrument to execute this design.
In terms of geopolitics, Russia along with Iran and India have a convergence of strategic interests in mantaining Afghanistan as a stable independent entity, free of the virulent Islamist influences emanating from Pakistan.
Geo-politically, the United States has a strategic imperatives to retain control over Afghanistan, far transcending the neutralization of Al Qaeda and Taliban.
The United States however is in a strategic dilemma as it made its Afghanistan strategy totally dependent on Pakistan Army’s cooperation. A strategic denouement is underway presently.
The United States geopolitically stirs a witches cauldron in Afghanistan by giving primacy to Pakistan Army’s strategic sensitivities to control Afghanistan.
Any US exit from Afghanistan induced by combat fatigue engineered by the Pakistan Army, could create a political vacuum which most likely gets filled in by Russia, Iran and India.
China stands aligned with the Taliban and Pakistan both pre-9/11 and post-9/11 and finds no political support in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s geo-political significance therefore far transcends any dilution of US strategic interest or exit from the Afghanistan scene.
Afghanistan, both geo-politically and geo-strategically offers the best prospects for the United States to remain “embedded” in Eurasia.
Pakistan's Geo-political Importance Only in United States, China and Saudi Arabia’s Strategic Calculus
Pakistan's geo-political importance so far figured only in the strategic calculus of the United States, China and Saudi Arabia.
The reasons for Pakistan figuring in the strategic calculus of USA and China stand spelt out earlier in the Paper.
Saudi Arabia has had both a geo-strategic and geo-political interest in Pakistan. It saw Pakistan a strategic balancer of Iran with the same appeal applicable to USA. The United States viewed Pakistan as a springboard for any military strikes on Iran.
Politically, Pakistan offered a fertile ground for promotion of extreme Islami Wahabism all around through Saudi financing of Pakistani Islamist organizations and keeping the Al Qaeda away from Saudi territory and under protective custody of the Pakistan Army is the border tracts of the Pak-Afghan border.
Strategic realities however are fast over-taking the geopolitical interest of these counties in Pakistan.
The US has entered a strategic denouement phase with Pakistan. Pakistan is fast down-sliding into state-failure and its strategic utility to US strategy is becoming limited.
Indicative of a subtle change in Chinese altitudes is that China while ready for strategic investments in Pakistan in encouraging Pakistan Army build- up is not ready to under write Pakistan’s failing economy.
With cleavages surfacing in US- Saudi relations and a likely US-Iran rapprochement the Saudis may have to downgrade their focused interest in Pakistan.
Concluding Observations
A comparative analysis of the geo-strategic and geo-political significance of Afghanistan and Pakistan has contextually become pertinent resulting from the new United States AF-PAK STRATEGY. This strategy has changed American priorities of restoring stability and security in Afghanistan to that of retrieving Pakistan from state-failure.
The present analysis in the Paper, though brief has attempted to focus attention on the fact that the geo-strategic and geo-political significance of Afghanistan for outweighs that of Pakistan, not only for the United States but also for the major regional powers.
The United States can hope for a “strategic embedment” in Eurasia provided it strategizes for a sustained and prolonged engagement in Afghanistan by divorcing its historical baggage of bowing to Pakistan Army's strategic sensitivities over Afghanistan, disconnects Pakistan from its Afghanistan policy formulations and recognizes the strategic reality that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are using Islam and Islamist terrorism as a weapon to push USA out of the region.
(The author is an International Relations and Strategic Affairs analyst. He is the Consultant, Strategic Affairs with South Asia Analysis Group. Email:drsubhashkapila.007@gmail.com)
Commie Karat doesn’t know how to count
http://cpmindia. blogspot. com/2009/ 04/karat- doesnt-know- how-to-count. html
The drift and decline of the Left
T V R Shenoy | April 09, 2009 | 20:53 IST
Prakash Karat told an election rally in Agartala on April 5 that it was 'thousand per cent confirmed' that the Third Front would form the government in Delhi after the Lok Sabha polls.
'Thousand per cent'? For India's sake I hope the general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist is just as good a soothsayer as he is a mathematician.
India could fool around -- a little bit anyway -- with Third Front ministries back in the days when the global economy was booming; the dinosaur economics of the Left will lead only to drift and decline.
But drift and decline seem to be in the DNA of the Left. Look at the records, and you can see how the Communists have been losing ground.
Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress sprawled over the benches when the first Lok Sabha met in 1952, occupying 361 of the 489 seats. The other parties were in such disarray that the next largest category consisted of Independents, 37 MPs in all.
You could count the seats won by the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha, the ancestors of today's Bharatiya Janata Party, on two hands -- and still have a few fingers left over. The Jan Sangh had only three MPs, the Hindu Mahasabha was slightly better off with four.
The single largest party on the Opposition benches was the undivided Communist Party of India, 16-strong and led by the late A K Gopalan. The Revolutionary Socialist Party had three MPs and the Forward Bloc added a solitary representative.
The title of 'Leader of the Opposition' was not in vogue in those days. Gopalan would not have qualified in any case since the CPI did not have 10 percent of the seats, not even close to that. But it was generally assumed back then that the party would develop into a national alternative to the Congress.
The Congress is now a pale imitation of its old self; the party cannot win 361 seats, probably not even half of that. The BJP has expanded almost twentyfold since the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha days of 1952. But what of the Left?
Technically, the Left Front now has three times the number of MPs that it did back in the first Lok Sabha. But in some ways the Left has conceded space instead of going forward. In 1952 five of the CPI's 16 seats were from West Bengal and two from Tripura, both still Leftist bastions. But one MP was elected from Orissa and the other eight, half the total, were from the then Madras presidency. (The CPI drew a blank in Travancore-Cochin. )
The name 'Madras' is slightly misleading since the giant state included most of what is now Andhra Pradesh along with chunks of modern Kerala and Karnataka. Most of the Communist MPs won from Telugu-speaking areas, the exceptions being Gopalan from Cannanore and K Ananda Nambiar from Mayuram (Mayiladuthurai) .
The point is that the CPI back then was strong enough to win seats on its own from Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. These are states where it now plays second fiddle to regional parties.
The CPI actually improved in the 1957 polls, both geographically as well as in absolute numbers. It had 27 MPs in the second Lok Sabha, expanding into new areas -- winning four seats in the old state of Bombay and one each in Uttar Pradesh and in Punjab. In 1962 the CPI tally went up to 29, with the party now making its parliamentary debut from Bihar too.
The Congress still dreams of winning back Uttar Pradesh though it has been whipped there in every election since 1989. The BJP has long-term plans of building a strong presence in the south, with Karnataka of course already in the party's bag. Can you imagine the CPI-M on its own managing to get a single MP elected from Uttar Pradesh, or Punjab, or Gujarat and Maharashtra (collectively the old state of Bombay)?
Fellow travellers may argue that in 2004 the Left Front registered its best performance ever in terms of numbers. How do those numbers stack up?
The CPI-M won 43 seats. Twenty-six of those were from West Bengal, 12 were from Kerala, two each from Tripura and Andhra Pradesh, and one from Tamil Nadu.
The CPI-M's junior partner the CPI won ten seats. West Bengal and Kerala each contributed three, it won two in Tamil Nadu, and one each in Jharkhand and in Andhra Pradesh. (It is a disgrace that this tattered rag of an outfit continues to be given the status of a 'national' party.)
The Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party each won three seats in West Bengal. Sebastian Paul, running as an independent candidate backed by the Left, won the Ernakulam seat in Kerala, as did the Janata Dal-Secular's M P Veerendra Kumar in Calicut.
Going through the lists above it is clear that the bulk of these 61 seats came courtesy of West Bengal (35) and Kerala (17). I suppose it is possible that the Left Front shall do fairly well once again in West Bengal. But it is hard to see a repeat performance in Kerala where the CPI-M chief minister and the local party boss can barely bring themselves to be civil to each other.
The problem for the Left Front is that, for all practical purposes, it does not exist outside West Bengal, Kerala, and tiny Tripura. Any major losses in West Bengal and Kerala simply cannot be made up by gains in other states.
Forget about the Third Front, there is a possibility that either the Bahujan Samaj Party or the Samajwadi Party shall overtake the CPI-M as the third-largest party in the Lok Sabha behind the BJP and the Congress. Will Comrade Karat then run around trying to create a Fourth Front?
Rereading Prakash Karat's statement, I note that the CPI-M boss spoke only of 'forming a government', not of winning a majority. That is the story of the Communist movement in India in a nutshell, it is a group that prefers to cut deals behind closed doors rather than reach out to India to win the people's mandate.
http://www.rediff. com///election/ 2009/apr/ 09the-drift- and-decline- of-the-left. htm
The drift and decline of the Left
T V R Shenoy | April 09, 2009 | 20:53 IST
Prakash Karat told an election rally in Agartala on April 5 that it was 'thousand per cent confirmed' that the Third Front would form the government in Delhi after the Lok Sabha polls.
'Thousand per cent'? For India's sake I hope the general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist is just as good a soothsayer as he is a mathematician.
India could fool around -- a little bit anyway -- with Third Front ministries back in the days when the global economy was booming; the dinosaur economics of the Left will lead only to drift and decline.
But drift and decline seem to be in the DNA of the Left. Look at the records, and you can see how the Communists have been losing ground.
Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress sprawled over the benches when the first Lok Sabha met in 1952, occupying 361 of the 489 seats. The other parties were in such disarray that the next largest category consisted of Independents, 37 MPs in all.
You could count the seats won by the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha, the ancestors of today's Bharatiya Janata Party, on two hands -- and still have a few fingers left over. The Jan Sangh had only three MPs, the Hindu Mahasabha was slightly better off with four.
The single largest party on the Opposition benches was the undivided Communist Party of India, 16-strong and led by the late A K Gopalan. The Revolutionary Socialist Party had three MPs and the Forward Bloc added a solitary representative.
The title of 'Leader of the Opposition' was not in vogue in those days. Gopalan would not have qualified in any case since the CPI did not have 10 percent of the seats, not even close to that. But it was generally assumed back then that the party would develop into a national alternative to the Congress.
The Congress is now a pale imitation of its old self; the party cannot win 361 seats, probably not even half of that. The BJP has expanded almost twentyfold since the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha days of 1952. But what of the Left?
Technically, the Left Front now has three times the number of MPs that it did back in the first Lok Sabha. But in some ways the Left has conceded space instead of going forward. In 1952 five of the CPI's 16 seats were from West Bengal and two from Tripura, both still Leftist bastions. But one MP was elected from Orissa and the other eight, half the total, were from the then Madras presidency. (The CPI drew a blank in Travancore-Cochin. )
The name 'Madras' is slightly misleading since the giant state included most of what is now Andhra Pradesh along with chunks of modern Kerala and Karnataka. Most of the Communist MPs won from Telugu-speaking areas, the exceptions being Gopalan from Cannanore and K Ananda Nambiar from Mayuram (Mayiladuthurai) .
The point is that the CPI back then was strong enough to win seats on its own from Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. These are states where it now plays second fiddle to regional parties.
The CPI actually improved in the 1957 polls, both geographically as well as in absolute numbers. It had 27 MPs in the second Lok Sabha, expanding into new areas -- winning four seats in the old state of Bombay and one each in Uttar Pradesh and in Punjab. In 1962 the CPI tally went up to 29, with the party now making its parliamentary debut from Bihar too.
The Congress still dreams of winning back Uttar Pradesh though it has been whipped there in every election since 1989. The BJP has long-term plans of building a strong presence in the south, with Karnataka of course already in the party's bag. Can you imagine the CPI-M on its own managing to get a single MP elected from Uttar Pradesh, or Punjab, or Gujarat and Maharashtra (collectively the old state of Bombay)?
Fellow travellers may argue that in 2004 the Left Front registered its best performance ever in terms of numbers. How do those numbers stack up?
The CPI-M won 43 seats. Twenty-six of those were from West Bengal, 12 were from Kerala, two each from Tripura and Andhra Pradesh, and one from Tamil Nadu.
The CPI-M's junior partner the CPI won ten seats. West Bengal and Kerala each contributed three, it won two in Tamil Nadu, and one each in Jharkhand and in Andhra Pradesh. (It is a disgrace that this tattered rag of an outfit continues to be given the status of a 'national' party.)
The Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party each won three seats in West Bengal. Sebastian Paul, running as an independent candidate backed by the Left, won the Ernakulam seat in Kerala, as did the Janata Dal-Secular's M P Veerendra Kumar in Calicut.
Going through the lists above it is clear that the bulk of these 61 seats came courtesy of West Bengal (35) and Kerala (17). I suppose it is possible that the Left Front shall do fairly well once again in West Bengal. But it is hard to see a repeat performance in Kerala where the CPI-M chief minister and the local party boss can barely bring themselves to be civil to each other.
The problem for the Left Front is that, for all practical purposes, it does not exist outside West Bengal, Kerala, and tiny Tripura. Any major losses in West Bengal and Kerala simply cannot be made up by gains in other states.
Forget about the Third Front, there is a possibility that either the Bahujan Samaj Party or the Samajwadi Party shall overtake the CPI-M as the third-largest party in the Lok Sabha behind the BJP and the Congress. Will Comrade Karat then run around trying to create a Fourth Front?
Rereading Prakash Karat's statement, I note that the CPI-M boss spoke only of 'forming a government', not of winning a majority. That is the story of the Communist movement in India in a nutshell, it is a group that prefers to cut deals behind closed doors rather than reach out to India to win the people's mandate.
http://www.rediff. com///election/ 2009/apr/ 09the-drift- and-decline- of-the-left. htm
Yemen's Political Impasse
9 Apr 2009
With prospects for democratic reform unclear, Yemen is struggling to cope with myriad political, security and socio-economic challenges, Dr Dominic Moran writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Dominic Moran for ISN Security Watch
The recent decision to delay parliamentary elections by two years raises questions concerning the prospects for Yemeni political reform as the government struggles to address pressing economic and security crises.
Despite lengthy negotiations, the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) coalition and President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) were unable to find common ground on the holding of scheduled parliamentary elections this year.
The primary cause of the delay of the poll, initially scheduled for 27 April, was a failure to agree on the reform of electoral procedures and institutions, with the JMP's focus firmly on the GPC-controlled Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendums. Under the GPC-JMP deal, the parliamentary term will be extended from four to six years.
The JMP had threatened to boycott elections if their demands for comprehensive democratic reform were not met, clearly believing that a free and fair poll would see a significant boost in their representation in the 301-member Assembly of Representatives, the lower house of the bicameral legislature.
Speaking candidly in a Wednesday interview with ISN Security Watch, Yemen Observer Chief Editor Zaid Al-Alaya'a said, "Personally, I think it is the first time in my life I hear an opposition asking the ruling party to extend their power for two more years."
"I think it is a violation of the Yemen constitution. […] I think it is wrong. It is a breach of the rights of the people," he said, stressing that this was a personal opinion and not that of his newspaper.
Backing stability
While key allies the US and EU expressed concerns regarding the election delay, it appears that significant pressure was brought on the Saleh government behind the scenes to agree to a postponement in lieu of genuine electoral reform.
Yemen Post Editor-in-Chief Hakim Almasmari told ISN Security Watch, "The government was forced to abide by the opposition demands or delay the elections because the opposition had European and American support and the EU announced that it would not send election observers if the opposition did not participate in the election."
There appear to be concerns amongst agencies involved in building the capacities of both the GPC and JMP parties that considerable work still needs to be done in order to build viable political movements with developed policy platforms and the capacity to respond appropriately to constituent needs. Given the stakes, it is hard to envisage significant movement in either the government or JMP positions on democratic reform in the coming years.
"The government is very firm and is not changing. The opposition is also very firm in its demands. I don't expect any positive changes in the next two years at all," Almasmari said.
Surprising cohesion
While the JMP is unlikely to be in a position to challenge the GPC for power in 2011, the fact that the opposition coalition succeeded in forcing a delay of the poll indicates its growing influence.
The ability of the JMP to present a united front in the standoff with the government over electoral reform underlines that the covert ties between the government and opposition elements through which the GPC managed political challenges to its authority in the past are being progressively undermined.
The survival of the opposition bloc since 2002 - despite the absconding of some minor member movements - is in itself a considerable achievement given that the JMP is an amalgam of disparate Nasserite, socialist and Islamic parties.
Explaining differences within the JMP over attitudes to the government, Al-Alaya'a said, "Some of them were willing to accept a kind of compromise with the GPC: the moderate ones. The conservative ones continue in their attack against the government, criticizing everything they are saying."
The future of political reform remains moot in light of reported efforts to undermine the status of the parliament through constitutional emendations.
Given the JMP challenge, the GPC could well see the election postponement as a positive, preventing the opposition from benefiting from its perceived governance failures.
Fomenting divisions?
A former GPC ally, the Sunni Islamic Islah party, is by far the largest and most influential JMP movement with 46 MPs, 7 percent representation on governorate councils, and 12 percent of district level seats.
Last year, former Islah spiritual authority Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who retains significant cachet in the movement, established an apolitical organization dubbed the Authority for Protecting Virtue and Fighting Vice, a move interpreted by the Yemen Times as threatening the integrity of the party. This, because the authority's stances on rights issues and civil freedoms was likely to stand at odds with positions held by fellow JMP parties.
Almasmari disagrees with this assessment: "Most of the [authority] members are from both parties: the ruling party and opposition. So it is not party-oriented and it is not authorized by the government in any way, so it will not have any affect on the elections whatsoever."
Regardless, the government may seek to foment latent rifts between Islah moderates and conservatives in a bid to break up the JMP front - divisions managed in 2006 when al-Zindani openly touted his decisions to vote for Saleh in that year's presidential poll.
"Most analysts expect that by next year either a split in the Islah party itself or agreements between the al-Zindani group and the other more moderate groups in the Islah party [will occur]," Almasmari said.
Co-opted opposition
The main political opposition to the JMP-GPC election postponement deal came from the National Alliance Parties (NAP) bloc, which appeared set to gain from a JMP boycott of the polls.
"They threatened that they would file a suit against the Joint Meeting Parties and the GPC because they believed that what happened was a sort of suspicious deal […] and [that] nobody has the right to postpone the elections," Al-Alaya'a said.
The independence of the Baathist and other movements involved in the NAP is in serious question:
"These parties are really part of the government […] were formed by the government to make a coalition to go against the opposition," Almasmari said, adding, "This coalition has no power whatsoever in the country."
Northern rebellion flares
With the national political contest effectively on hold and the economy on the slide a further challenge has reemerged through the reinvigoration of the al-Houthi rebellion in the northern al-Sa'ada governate.
On 5 April, it was reported that fighters loyal to the Zaydi Shia militancy had taken over all governmental and security facilities and the central market and telecommunications facilities in the al-Sa'ada district of Ghamr.
Reconciliation and mediation efforts had failed to secure a ceasefire at the time of writing, though the state-run Saba news agency reported Tuesday the withdrawal of al-Houthi fighters from the seized facilities.
Little apparent progress has been made in either instigating planned reconstruction efforts in the governate or to deal with the plight of an estimated 77,000 internal refugees forced to flee their homes during the conflict which has flared sporadically since June 2004.
The current leader of the militancy, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, signed a Qatari-mediated ceasefire deal with the government in June 2007 (subsequently revised in July 2008). Under the agreement, the rebels agreed to disarm of heavy weapons and withdraw from seized positions. Both sides agreed to prisoner releases.
To Almasmari, the al-Houthi and government are now fighting solely "to show who has the upper [hand] and who will release their prisoners first and faster," he said, adding that an intensification of the violence was expected in coming weeks.
In a recent interview with a Saudi paper, Parliamentary Speaker Himyar Abdullah Bin Hussein al-Ahmer accused the Iranian takfeeri group of propagating extremist ideology and financing terrorist activities in Yemen and of links to both the al-Houthi and al-Qaida elements.
While careful not to single out a responsible country or movement, Al-Alaya'a said, "I think the Houthi rebels are being manipulated by others outside Yemen to destabilize and cause a sort of shake in Yemeni security and stability."
Almasmari said that most Yemenis believe the government claim of Iranian involvement lacks an evidentiary basis.
Managing relations
The resurgence of the al-Houthi rebellion is merely one of a myriad of security and governance challenges facing the government. A major government operation was reportedly launched in late March to hunt wanted members of a splinter faction of the fundamentalist, militant Jama’at al Jihad movement in the Ja’ar district of the southern Abyan governate.
With the extent of government control sharply circumscribed in many areas, the Saleh government has been forced over the years to negotiate its relationships with powerful local tribal groupings and Islamic movements including militant groups, some of which have purported links to al-Qaida.
"The government has been doing very well compared with the past when negotiating with tribesmen," Almasmari said. "The relations are much, much better and the problems are probably 80 percent less than what they were years ago."
Al-Qaida claimed in January that Yemen had become the center of its activities on the Arabian peninsula. A fortnight later, the Yemeni government released 170 men initially held on suspicion of involvement in al-Qaida.
Disturbances in the south in 2007-2008 were ostensibly over the failure of the government to provide equal treatment to South Yemen army veterans, but bespoke a broader disenchantment with GPC rule.
Asked if there is a genuine secessionist movement in the south, Almasmari said, "Until now there is nothing concrete. There are just some people in the south who are saying that, but their reach on this issue has no power whatsoever."
Poverty and instability
While political paralysis and security threats take the focus internationally, the root cause of the progressive undermining of the Yemeni state remains endemic poverty.
Speaking at a meeting of donors and government officials on 5 April, Prime Minister Ali Mujawar identified soaring food prices, flood disasters caused by climate changes, and the impacts of the global financial crisis as the "main challenges facing Yemen's development," alongside the Sa'ada rebellion and terrorism.
He also spoke of the pressure building on Yemen through an influx of refugees from Africa (total arrivals surged from 29,500 in 2007 to 50,000 in 2008).
Given the country's reliance on oil exports, the recent drop in oil prices is a major blow to the economy, with some officials speaking of a devastating halving of production ahead of an expected tapping of reserves by decade's end. Systematic planning for the expected end of oil production is sorely lacking and will only be impeded in coming years by the political stalemate.
In an indication of the direct impact of economic straits on the populace, wheat imports into Yemen fell by 49 percent in 2008. The country only produces a tenth of it annual wheat needs and has suffered drastic price rises in basic foodstuffs – now gradually easing. According to 2008 UN figures, 40 percent of children in Yemen are malnourished and close to 50 percent of the population suffers moderate hunger.
Referring to the public interest in wider national issues, Almasmari said, "They have another thing to focus on more which is just trying to live."
While noting that the situation is expected to improve over time, he added that currently: "People are trying to survive the crisis but most families are not able to do so."
Dr Dominic Moran, based in Tel Aviv, is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in the Middle East and the Director of Operations of ISA Consulting.
With prospects for democratic reform unclear, Yemen is struggling to cope with myriad political, security and socio-economic challenges, Dr Dominic Moran writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Dominic Moran for ISN Security Watch
The recent decision to delay parliamentary elections by two years raises questions concerning the prospects for Yemeni political reform as the government struggles to address pressing economic and security crises.
Despite lengthy negotiations, the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) coalition and President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) were unable to find common ground on the holding of scheduled parliamentary elections this year.
The primary cause of the delay of the poll, initially scheduled for 27 April, was a failure to agree on the reform of electoral procedures and institutions, with the JMP's focus firmly on the GPC-controlled Supreme Commission for Elections and Referendums. Under the GPC-JMP deal, the parliamentary term will be extended from four to six years.
The JMP had threatened to boycott elections if their demands for comprehensive democratic reform were not met, clearly believing that a free and fair poll would see a significant boost in their representation in the 301-member Assembly of Representatives, the lower house of the bicameral legislature.
Speaking candidly in a Wednesday interview with ISN Security Watch, Yemen Observer Chief Editor Zaid Al-Alaya'a said, "Personally, I think it is the first time in my life I hear an opposition asking the ruling party to extend their power for two more years."
"I think it is a violation of the Yemen constitution. […] I think it is wrong. It is a breach of the rights of the people," he said, stressing that this was a personal opinion and not that of his newspaper.
Backing stability
While key allies the US and EU expressed concerns regarding the election delay, it appears that significant pressure was brought on the Saleh government behind the scenes to agree to a postponement in lieu of genuine electoral reform.
Yemen Post Editor-in-Chief Hakim Almasmari told ISN Security Watch, "The government was forced to abide by the opposition demands or delay the elections because the opposition had European and American support and the EU announced that it would not send election observers if the opposition did not participate in the election."
There appear to be concerns amongst agencies involved in building the capacities of both the GPC and JMP parties that considerable work still needs to be done in order to build viable political movements with developed policy platforms and the capacity to respond appropriately to constituent needs. Given the stakes, it is hard to envisage significant movement in either the government or JMP positions on democratic reform in the coming years.
"The government is very firm and is not changing. The opposition is also very firm in its demands. I don't expect any positive changes in the next two years at all," Almasmari said.
Surprising cohesion
While the JMP is unlikely to be in a position to challenge the GPC for power in 2011, the fact that the opposition coalition succeeded in forcing a delay of the poll indicates its growing influence.
The ability of the JMP to present a united front in the standoff with the government over electoral reform underlines that the covert ties between the government and opposition elements through which the GPC managed political challenges to its authority in the past are being progressively undermined.
The survival of the opposition bloc since 2002 - despite the absconding of some minor member movements - is in itself a considerable achievement given that the JMP is an amalgam of disparate Nasserite, socialist and Islamic parties.
Explaining differences within the JMP over attitudes to the government, Al-Alaya'a said, "Some of them were willing to accept a kind of compromise with the GPC: the moderate ones. The conservative ones continue in their attack against the government, criticizing everything they are saying."
The future of political reform remains moot in light of reported efforts to undermine the status of the parliament through constitutional emendations.
Given the JMP challenge, the GPC could well see the election postponement as a positive, preventing the opposition from benefiting from its perceived governance failures.
Fomenting divisions?
A former GPC ally, the Sunni Islamic Islah party, is by far the largest and most influential JMP movement with 46 MPs, 7 percent representation on governorate councils, and 12 percent of district level seats.
Last year, former Islah spiritual authority Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who retains significant cachet in the movement, established an apolitical organization dubbed the Authority for Protecting Virtue and Fighting Vice, a move interpreted by the Yemen Times as threatening the integrity of the party. This, because the authority's stances on rights issues and civil freedoms was likely to stand at odds with positions held by fellow JMP parties.
Almasmari disagrees with this assessment: "Most of the [authority] members are from both parties: the ruling party and opposition. So it is not party-oriented and it is not authorized by the government in any way, so it will not have any affect on the elections whatsoever."
Regardless, the government may seek to foment latent rifts between Islah moderates and conservatives in a bid to break up the JMP front - divisions managed in 2006 when al-Zindani openly touted his decisions to vote for Saleh in that year's presidential poll.
"Most analysts expect that by next year either a split in the Islah party itself or agreements between the al-Zindani group and the other more moderate groups in the Islah party [will occur]," Almasmari said.
Co-opted opposition
The main political opposition to the JMP-GPC election postponement deal came from the National Alliance Parties (NAP) bloc, which appeared set to gain from a JMP boycott of the polls.
"They threatened that they would file a suit against the Joint Meeting Parties and the GPC because they believed that what happened was a sort of suspicious deal […] and [that] nobody has the right to postpone the elections," Al-Alaya'a said.
The independence of the Baathist and other movements involved in the NAP is in serious question:
"These parties are really part of the government […] were formed by the government to make a coalition to go against the opposition," Almasmari said, adding, "This coalition has no power whatsoever in the country."
Northern rebellion flares
With the national political contest effectively on hold and the economy on the slide a further challenge has reemerged through the reinvigoration of the al-Houthi rebellion in the northern al-Sa'ada governate.
On 5 April, it was reported that fighters loyal to the Zaydi Shia militancy had taken over all governmental and security facilities and the central market and telecommunications facilities in the al-Sa'ada district of Ghamr.
Reconciliation and mediation efforts had failed to secure a ceasefire at the time of writing, though the state-run Saba news agency reported Tuesday the withdrawal of al-Houthi fighters from the seized facilities.
Little apparent progress has been made in either instigating planned reconstruction efforts in the governate or to deal with the plight of an estimated 77,000 internal refugees forced to flee their homes during the conflict which has flared sporadically since June 2004.
The current leader of the militancy, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, signed a Qatari-mediated ceasefire deal with the government in June 2007 (subsequently revised in July 2008). Under the agreement, the rebels agreed to disarm of heavy weapons and withdraw from seized positions. Both sides agreed to prisoner releases.
To Almasmari, the al-Houthi and government are now fighting solely "to show who has the upper [hand] and who will release their prisoners first and faster," he said, adding that an intensification of the violence was expected in coming weeks.
In a recent interview with a Saudi paper, Parliamentary Speaker Himyar Abdullah Bin Hussein al-Ahmer accused the Iranian takfeeri group of propagating extremist ideology and financing terrorist activities in Yemen and of links to both the al-Houthi and al-Qaida elements.
While careful not to single out a responsible country or movement, Al-Alaya'a said, "I think the Houthi rebels are being manipulated by others outside Yemen to destabilize and cause a sort of shake in Yemeni security and stability."
Almasmari said that most Yemenis believe the government claim of Iranian involvement lacks an evidentiary basis.
Managing relations
The resurgence of the al-Houthi rebellion is merely one of a myriad of security and governance challenges facing the government. A major government operation was reportedly launched in late March to hunt wanted members of a splinter faction of the fundamentalist, militant Jama’at al Jihad movement in the Ja’ar district of the southern Abyan governate.
With the extent of government control sharply circumscribed in many areas, the Saleh government has been forced over the years to negotiate its relationships with powerful local tribal groupings and Islamic movements including militant groups, some of which have purported links to al-Qaida.
"The government has been doing very well compared with the past when negotiating with tribesmen," Almasmari said. "The relations are much, much better and the problems are probably 80 percent less than what they were years ago."
Al-Qaida claimed in January that Yemen had become the center of its activities on the Arabian peninsula. A fortnight later, the Yemeni government released 170 men initially held on suspicion of involvement in al-Qaida.
Disturbances in the south in 2007-2008 were ostensibly over the failure of the government to provide equal treatment to South Yemen army veterans, but bespoke a broader disenchantment with GPC rule.
Asked if there is a genuine secessionist movement in the south, Almasmari said, "Until now there is nothing concrete. There are just some people in the south who are saying that, but their reach on this issue has no power whatsoever."
Poverty and instability
While political paralysis and security threats take the focus internationally, the root cause of the progressive undermining of the Yemeni state remains endemic poverty.
Speaking at a meeting of donors and government officials on 5 April, Prime Minister Ali Mujawar identified soaring food prices, flood disasters caused by climate changes, and the impacts of the global financial crisis as the "main challenges facing Yemen's development," alongside the Sa'ada rebellion and terrorism.
He also spoke of the pressure building on Yemen through an influx of refugees from Africa (total arrivals surged from 29,500 in 2007 to 50,000 in 2008).
Given the country's reliance on oil exports, the recent drop in oil prices is a major blow to the economy, with some officials speaking of a devastating halving of production ahead of an expected tapping of reserves by decade's end. Systematic planning for the expected end of oil production is sorely lacking and will only be impeded in coming years by the political stalemate.
In an indication of the direct impact of economic straits on the populace, wheat imports into Yemen fell by 49 percent in 2008. The country only produces a tenth of it annual wheat needs and has suffered drastic price rises in basic foodstuffs – now gradually easing. According to 2008 UN figures, 40 percent of children in Yemen are malnourished and close to 50 percent of the population suffers moderate hunger.
Referring to the public interest in wider national issues, Almasmari said, "They have another thing to focus on more which is just trying to live."
While noting that the situation is expected to improve over time, he added that currently: "People are trying to survive the crisis but most families are not able to do so."
Dr Dominic Moran, based in Tel Aviv, is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in the Middle East and the Director of Operations of ISA Consulting.
Rahul Gandhi’s phoney love for the poor
Source: OFFSTUMPED
Rahul Gandhi has been making a big deal of his Poverty Tourism in election speech after speech while glossing over his own indifference to real suffering by the poor in the face of tyranny of the State.
The reality is Rahul Gandhi’s love of the poor is as phoney as his MPhil in Development Economics.
To refresh everyone’s memory, November 2007 was the most infamous month in the History of India when the CPI-Mafioso State Government allowed its cadre to wage War on the People of Nandigram.
November 2007 was also the month when Rahul Gandhi made his debut speech at the AICC after being annointed General Secretary of the Congress.
While the poor and largely Muslim populace of Nandigram suffered immensely between November 7th and November 22nd 2007, the mother and son duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi disgraced themselves with their conspiracy of silence on Nandigram in speeches delivered at the AICC session in New Delhi on 17th November 2007.
The reality for these mostly poor and largely Muslim Victims of the CPI-Mafioso’s tyranny of Nandigram was that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi let them down when they needed them the most by looking the other away at Buddhadeb’s Taliban Act.
As Rahul Gandhi goes about tom-tomming his phony love of the poor it is imperative to refresh everyone’s memory of those poor he let down badly in Nandigram by never fighting for their dignity.
Taslima Bibi - an armed band entered the village, assaulted residents and began firing
Rabia Bibi - Widowed with 3 sons and a daughter, refugee for 17 days
Sheikh Qayum Qazi - Killed because he participated in processions and meetings since he wasn?t sure of what would happen to his land
Maqsuda Bibi - refugee
Sheikh Anwar Ali - victim of terror
Mir Akbar Ali - witnessed wife’s rape and two teenage daughters missing
Abdul Hamid - House burnt
Mossamat Akhera Bibi - Raped, 2 teenage daughters missing
Sayam Kazi - Shops wrecked
Sheikh Akram - bullet wound
Sheikh Samad - house burnt down
Rabiul Islam - forced to carry a red flag
Abu Taher - refugee
Sheikh Sufiyan - refugee
Sheikh Jamshed - refugee, home ransacked
Mehroon Bibi - beaten up, hospitalized her shop was burnt to ashes and she was forced to abandon her home
Jehnara Bibi - beaten up for not joining a rally
Shamima Begum - beaten up for not joining a rally
Ansura Khatun - Age 16 missing
Mansura Khatun - Age 14 missing
Nuhu Nabi - house ransacked
Bulu Mir - 30 shot fighting for life
Amina Khatun - 7 years old saw her family thrashed and forced out of their home
And we are still counting ……….
No this is not Gujarat in 2002?we are talking Nandigram in 2007.
The untold story of Nandigram is the inordinately large number of Muslim victims who have fallen prey to the CPI-Mafioso.
So when Buddhadeb spoke like a Taliban Warlord that “they have been paid with the same coin” who exactly was he referring to - innocent Muslim women ?
Let us recount what exactly he said
“The people who were ruling Nandigram, do you think they were peaceful people? They were moving without arms? They harassed, killed and evicted our people without arms? Our people were evicted by a group of armed workers of opposition,?
More names from relief camps
Abdul Odud, the 62-year-old retired headmaster of Garchakraberia primary school. He and his son Md Mujdafa Ali are now in hospital with serious injuries.
A two-storied house that had been completely gutted. Its owner, Mohibul, said he was targeted because his absconding elder brother is a BUPC leader
Maleka Bibi of Osmanchak
Abu Mondal at Mohammedpur
Satangabari’s Abida Khatun
Khairul Mir - house ransacked, torched
Sheikh Jakaria, a resident of Satnambar jalpai village in Nandigram, is a teacher of Kanchannagar South Primary School in Garchakraberia, the most violence-hit village in Nandigram
Sheikh Mujtafa - had been beaten up at the Nandigram CPI-M office and released later
Sheikh Seikhwan, a 72-year-old man from Amgachia, said that he was beaten up brutally by the CPI-M cadres who forced him to leave his home on Saturday
April 10, 2009
Quotes of the day: Samskrita Bharathi Chennai
Source: Lakshminarasimhan Krishnamurthi , email : simhan_kl@hotmail.com
Samskrita Bharathi Chennai
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
कृतस्य करणं नास्ति मृतस्य मरणं तथा।
गतस्य शोचना नास्ति ह्येतद् वेदविदां मतम्॥
What has been completed shall not be done again; what is already dead cannot die again; what is lost shall not be repented for; such is the view of those learned in the Vedas.
अप्रियं पुरुषं चापि परद्रोहं परस्त्रियम्।
अधर्ममनृतं चैव दूरात् प्राज्ञो विवर्जयेत्॥
A wise man should keep far away from an unpleasant person, from injuring others, from other women, from unrighteous conduct and from untruth.
अप्रियवचनाङ्गारैर्दग्धोऽपि न विप्रियं वदत्यार्य:।
किं दह्यमानमगरु स्वà¤ावसुरà¤िं परित्यजति॥
A man of culture does not speak unpleasantly though burnt by the heat of displeasing talk. Does the fragrant aloe wood abandon its natural fragrance when being burnt?
कुपितोऽपि गुणायैव गुणवान् à¤à¤µà¤¤ि ध्रुवम्।
स्वà¤ावमधुरं क्षीरं क्वथितं हि रसोत्तरम्॥
A man possessing good qualities surely serves only a good cause even when he gets angry; milk which is sweet by nature becomes all the more tasty when it is boiled.
Samskrita Bharathi Chennai
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
कृतस्य करणं नास्ति मृतस्य मरणं तथा।
गतस्य शोचना नास्ति ह्येतद् वेदविदां मतम्॥
What has been completed shall not be done again; what is already dead cannot die again; what is lost shall not be repented for; such is the view of those learned in the Vedas.
अप्रियं पुरुषं चापि परद्रोहं परस्त्रियम्।
अधर्ममनृतं चैव दूरात् प्राज्ञो विवर्जयेत्॥
A wise man should keep far away from an unpleasant person, from injuring others, from other women, from unrighteous conduct and from untruth.
अप्रियवचनाङ्गारैर्दग्धोऽपि न विप्रियं वदत्यार्य:।
किं दह्यमानमगरु स्वà¤ावसुरà¤िं परित्यजति॥
A man of culture does not speak unpleasantly though burnt by the heat of displeasing talk. Does the fragrant aloe wood abandon its natural fragrance when being burnt?
कुपितोऽपि गुणायैव गुणवान् à¤à¤µà¤¤ि ध्रुवम्।
स्वà¤ावमधुरं क्षीरं क्वथितं हि रसोत्तरम्॥
A man possessing good qualities surely serves only a good cause even when he gets angry; milk which is sweet by nature becomes all the more tasty when it is boiled.
Killing of Baloch Leaders by ISI : Baloch Diaspora Press Release
Kiling of Ghulam Mohammad Baloch : OTHER PRESS RELEASES
09/04/2009
PRESS RELEASE
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Chapter of the Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) strongly condemns the brutal murder of three prominent Baloch politicians by Pakistani intelligence agencies.
The mutilated bodies of Mr Ghulam Mohammed, President of Baloch National Movement (BNM), his deputy Lala Munir and Mr Sher Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of Balochistan Republican Party, were found on a mountain river bed in Pidrak near Turbat on late Wednesday afternoon.
Ghulam Mohammed, who is also the President of Baloch National Front and was former chairman of Baloch Students Organisation, and Sher were previously kidnapped from an open and public political gathering in Karachi by intelligence agencies and went missing for more than a year during Musharraf’s dictatorship. They were traced in a remote Balochistan police custody held on some dubious charges like stealing a cow. When brought to Turbat after released, they were almost dead due to torture.
All the three were picked up by officials from an intelligence agency from their lawyer’s office in Turbat (the headquarters of Makran division of Balochistan) at 12 noon on April 3.
They were sitting in the office of advocate Kachkol Ali Baloch, a former provincial minister and former leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly, when intelligence officers in civilian dresses arrested them, blind-folded and put on a four-wheel drive vehicle.
BHRC information collected from local residents suggests they were tortured and killed on the same day they were picked up. An eye witness said a helicopter was seen hovering over the Pidrak valley in the late afternoon of April 3. Also, Turbat local government officials told the media the medical reports suggest they were dead six days ago. According the local government hospital doctors, their bodies must have been dropped from high height.
Ghulam Mohammed was one of the key members of a committee set up in coordination with the United Nations to trace and rescue John Solecki, the Balochistan UNHCR chief, who was claimed kidnapped by a shadowy organisation called Baloch Liberation United Front, an organisation never heard before.
The slain BNM leader’s fellow friends Munir and Sher were also involved in recovering Solecki, who was released just a day after the three leaders were kidnapped by the agency from their Mr Kachkol’s office in Turbat. They had returned from a court hearing related to their earlier disappearance.
The Chief Minister of Balochistan Mohammed Aslam Raisani on Wednesday told the media at a function in Karachi he could not disclose the identities of Solecki’s kidnappers as it was an extremely sensitive issue involving sensitive elements.
BHRC condemns this criminal act of the state and calls upon the international community, particularly the United Nations and the European Union, to send fact-finding missions and investigate the brutal murders of Baloch politicians.
We also call upon international human rights organisations, with particular emphasis on the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UNHCR, and the international media to come and see what is happening in Balochistan. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and living a miserable life due to the ongoing military operation in Balochistan. Hundreds of Baloch people, including women, children and aged, have been picked up by intelligence agencies (Military Intelligence and ISI) and are still missing.
No Baloch in Pakistan is safe from the state terrorism and crime. Particularly the intellectual section of the population - journalists, writers, poets and politicians and artistes - are the most vulnerable to this state crime. The majority among the missing people are journalists, writers and political activists.
Recently an highly intellectual, who is the author of several English literary books, a critic and the editor of Aasaap daily newspaper, Janmamad Dashti , escaped death when he was shot by state agents while driving to his office in daylight in Balochistan capital Quetta. His driver died, and he is still fighting for his life in a Karachi hospital with an eye lost in the attack. Before this, he has been called by officials from an intelligence agency warning him against his newspaper policy. Ha has also been receiving life-threatening calls days before the attack.
Please, it is a wake-up call. The world now must look into the grievances of Baloch that has been marginalized by the history. We are not Taliban. We, by nature, are a secure people. For us, religion is a relation between man and God. But unfortunately, the state of Pakistan is trying its best to tell the world Baloch means Taliban, Al Qaida and global terrorists. Pakistan is using American-provided weapons meant for terrorists against Baloch to settle old scores.
This is the third in series of selecting and killing Baloch leaders. Pakistani intelligence and its mighty army can find a 90-year-old Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti fighting for his people’s rights in the most difficult and rugged mountains and caves and kill him with an aerial bombing. They can find, target and kill the young Baloch engineer Balaach Marri, the son of Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri, one of the most prominent politician in entire Pakistan. But they cannot find Mulla Omar and Al Qaida terrorists living in not-so-difficult-to-find locations. They are in the safe custody of intelligence agencies to blackmail the international community to get more dollars.
The state can and always negotiated with international terrorists like Baithullah Mehsood, Nek Mohammed and Sufi Mohammed and many more groups and individuals allowing them to impose inhuman and ancient rules to flog and humiliate women and children in public in the name of Islam.
Pakistan deserves for the new development that took place today, April 9 – Sufi Mohammed has declared his truce with the state null and void. No surprise. It is another engineered move by agencies – to further blackmail the world community for more dollars and divert the attention of the media and the world at large from other issues like the brutal murders of the three Baloch leaders. The new development happened when the entire Balochistan and beyond with Baloch populations in Pakistan were burning in protest. It also happened when top US officials just ended their visit after warning military-cum-bureaucracy establishment to behave.
There is an insurgency in Balochistan, but it never involved suicide bombings. It does not involve killing innocent people while praying. Suicide and hurting innocent people is against Baloch culture.
Please wake up and save Baloch from state barbarianism.
Mir Dadal,
Spokesman BHRC, GCC Chapter
Mir Dadal bd.press @ hotmail.com
Baloch Human Rights Council
Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) is a non-political-party-affiliated organisation formed to unite Baloch Diaspora on a single issue – to highlight human rights violations in both Eastern (Pakistan) and Western (Iran) Balochistan.
It was formed in August 2008 in London, which is now BHRC headquarter with regional offices across the world, by a grand gathering of Baloch delegations from both Balochistan, Afghanistan, GCC, East Africa, Turkmenistan, form different European countries and North America.It is an organisation of Baloch Diaspora with different political backgrounds with an aim to tell the world what is happening in Balochistan.
BHRC Background
The Baloch who live and work outside Balochistan have, for a long time, felt the need for a worldwide organization to highlight the never-ending human rights violations committed, almost on a daily basis, by the twin governments of Pakistan and Iran. The cruel irony is that both these countries are signatories to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration and its Charter of Human Rights. But the fact of the matter is neither of them has shown any respect for these documents as far as their treatment of the Baloch people is concerned. Not only have the Baloch been denied basic human rights but have had to undergo most horrific atrocities at the hands of both Pakistani and Iranian authorities.
Lately as a consequence of the ongoing military operations in Eastern Balochistan mounted by the Pakistani army and the constant acts of violence perpetrated by the Iranian regime in Western Balochistan, the human rights’ situation in the whole of Balochistan has become extremely critical. Responding to this unprecedented circumstance, the representatives of the Baloch Diaspora gathered in London in August 2008 and decided to launch a global organization. The Baloch Human Rights Council shall endeavour unfailingly to uphold the principles set forth in this constitution and work tirelessly to promote its aims and objects in order to help the Baloch people achieve their legitimate historical rights including the right to national self-determination and independence.
Kiling of Ghulam Mohammad Baloch : OTHER PRESS RELEASES
GHULAM MUHAMMAD BALOCH KILLED : HIS LAST INTERVIEWE WITH REUTERS
Balochistan deaths spark strikes
There are fears violence could spread over the weekend
Political groups in Pakistan's Balochistan province have called a three-day general strike in protest at the killing of three ethnic leaders.
One policeman died in riots on Thursday and more trouble is feared.
The United Nations expressed "serious concern" over the killings and urged an immediate investigation.
Supporters say the three men went missing after being detained by security forces. An army spokesman blamed "anti-state elements".
Reports from the provincial capital, Quetta, suggest the strike is being widely observed, with shops and schools closed and little traffic on the streets.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says the discovery of the bodies has torn the lid off a simmering conflict. Baloch nationalists have long campaigned for greater autonomy and control of local resources. An armed insurgency is demanding outright independence.
'Regrettable'
It is feared protests and riots will continue across Balochistan on Friday and over the weekend.
The government has already shut educational institutions in the province, while lawyers are boycotting courts in protest.
A statement by Michele Montas, spokeswoman for the UN secretary general, read: "The United Nations calls on the government of Pakistan to immediately investigate these murders and to ensure that the Balochistan Qaum Dost Committee continues its important work."
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Clashes broke out on Thursday after the bodies were discovered
The victims were members of the committee that was recently formed by the government of Pakistan to investigate the case of missing persons in the province, notably abducted UN worker John Solecki, who was freed last Saturday.
The three leaders killed were named as Ghullam Muhammad Baloch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Muhammad Bugti.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned the killings, calling them an attempt to sabotage reconciliation efforts.
Balochistan's worsening situation
A lawyer and former opposition leader in the province, Kachkol Ali, said that the three were picked up by members of a security agency from his chambers in Turbat last Friday.
Their decomposed bodies were found late on Wednesday night near Turbat. Apparently they had been killed more than two days previously.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the statement by the army spokesman is highly unusual.
It terms the murders "regrettable" and blames "anti state elements... out to destabilise and undermine the reconciliatory efforts of the government".
The spokesman said it was "unfortunate and not in the interest of the country to make serious allegations against security agencies without knowing the facts and evidence".
Our correspondent says the army's internal intelligence wing, the Military Intelligence, is widely held responsible by many people in Balochistan for "disappearances" of political activists this century.
Many of them have been killed or maimed by torture.
'Largely forgotten'
On Thursday a policeman was killed by protesters' gunfire in the town of Khuzdar.
In Quetta, three policemen were injured when a grenade was thrown at a police van.
A number of banks and offices were set on fire.
In August 2006, Balochistan experienced widespread rioting and strikes after the killing of tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti. Hundreds were arrested.
Writing recently on Balochistan, BBC columnist Ahmed Rashid pointed to the worsening situation in the province, where the wide-ranging political and economic grievances of the alienated Baloch people have remained largely forgotten and unaddressed.
India Defies Slump, Powered by Growth in Poor Rural States
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123931787215706747.html
By PETER WONACOTT
DEV KULI VILLAGE, India -- This country's path out of the global economic turmoil may start here, among a community of outcastes who dine on rats.
In Bihar, India's poorest and least literate major state, the Mushahar are the poorest and least literate. Most are farm laborers. About one in 10 can read. So impoverished is this group that they hunt field rats to supplement a deprived diet. Mushahar is Hindi for "rat eater."
But the outlook for the state's two million Mushahar has brightened in the past year. Thanks to government aid programs, more Mushahar children are attending school. Increased state investment in roads and local factories has put their parents to work. Demand for laborers has pushed up wages for field work.
Bouncing Up From the Bottom Rung
View Slideshow
Peter Wonacott/The Wall Street Journal
The one-room primary school for Mushahar children at Bihar's Dev Kuli village, where several hundred of the low-caste Mushahar families live.
In a sign of the times, a government proposal to promote rat farming was ridiculed by the Mushahar, the very group of untouchables, or Dalits, it was supposed to benefit. They worried it would pull their children out of school and extend a social stigma to the next generation. Some protested on the streets of Bihar's capital, Patna, shouting: "We want to learn to use a computer mouse, not catch mice."
The Mushahar in Bihar are part of a political and economic shift that is building across the Indian countryside. The transformation, largely driven by development spending by national and state policy makers, will be put to a test starting next week. The world's largest democracy kicks off a month of polling April 16 in which many of the leaders behind these experiments are seeking re-election.
Growth has slowed in the new India of technology outsourcing, property development and securities trade. But old India -- the rural sector that is home to 700 million of the country's billion-plus people -- shows signs it can pick up the slack. The rural awakening helps explain why India continues to grow even as the U.S. recession drags on the world economy.
The change is largely political. In years past, many state leaders rode to power with vows to give voice to lower-caste voters. But after failing for the most part to lift living standards, these officials have been replaced in many cases by leaders who have. In poor and largely rural states from Orissa in the east to Rajasthan in the west, many new leaders have invested in health, education and infrastructure. That has set the stage for the creation of industry and consumer markets and enabled upward mobility.
It's unclear whether development spending in rural India will spark longer-term expansion. "Up till now, a lot of our growth has been bubble growth," says Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd., a software and outsourcing company. "That makes the internal reforms even more important now, so we create momentum for future growth."
The rural economic rise is recent, with few figures yet available for 2008. In the five-year period ending in 2007, rural Indians' consumer spending grew faster than that of city dwellers, according to Indian brokerage IIFL. Rural India has surpassed urban centers in the number of households earning $2,000 a year, above which families begin to have disposable income.
Companies from Coca-Cola Co. to telecom provider Reliance Communications India Ltd. say rising sales in once-spurned rural areas are driving their India growth. The Indian unit of LG Electronics, which sells low-voltage appliances for power-deprived areas, expects rural areas to account for 45% of its Indian sales this year, up from 35% last year. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a car and tractor maker, says it couldn't keep up with orders for its new Xylo, a cross between a minivan and SUV, in part because of surprising rural demand.
"If any one part of the economy is decoupled from the global crisis, it is India's rural sector," says Anand Mahindra, vice chairman of auto maker's parent company, Mahindra Group.
Tariff Barriers
The countryside's strength comes in part from a trade policy that free-market economists say may hurt India in the long run. Tariffs on agricultural imports are among the world's highest and may have deterred investment in rural India. But these tariffs have also sheltered swaths of the country. An estimated 88% of India's rural incomes are tied to activities inside those markets, according to IIFL.
Even slight improvements here are significant, economists say, because they build on a base of practically zero. "For so long, these states were a drag on our economy," says Surjit Bhalla, head of Oxus Research & Investments, an advisory firm in New Delhi. "Now larger rural populations can become a fillip to growth."
India's economy has held up better than most, in spite of slowing tech sales and falling real-estate and stock markets. The International Monetary Fund projects India will grow 5.1% in 2009, faster than Brazil (1.8%) and Russia (-0.7%). India is also closing the gap on China, whose 6.7% projected growth for 2009 marks a sharp decline from recent double-digit gains.
Bihar, which borders Nepal, was once a breadbasket of eastern India. But it largely missed out on the economic miracle of the last decade. In the 1990s, as India's economy expanded about 5% a year, Bihar barely grew.
Infrastructure was poor. Farm goods often rotted before reaching the market. Amid corruption and rampant crime, the state was branded India's "kidnap capital." The young left to seek education and jobs.
More than half Bihar's 83 million residents live below the international poverty line of about $1 dollar a day. Fewer than half are literate. The state attracted $167 million in foreign direct investment between 1994 and 2004, a period when India as a whole attracted $29 billion.
Government Open House
In recent years, political candidates won elections with promises to empower to lower-caste voters. But education, health and infrastructure projects were often neglected, presenting opportunity for opponents. In late 2005, a former railways minister from a low-caste background, Nitish Kumar, became chief minister, the leader of Bihar state.
Breaking from the torpid bureaucracy of his predecessors, the 58-year-old Mr. Kumar has tried to prod the government machinery into action. He hosts Monday open houses at his residence, where ministers and department secretaries are required to field public complaints. Bureaucrats must also accompany him to town-hall meetings in far corners of the state, where they pitch tents in fields. His critics say the exercises simply aim to drum up votes; Mr. Kumar says an open government serves the people and the economy.
"My message is that democracy should provide solutions to the problems," he said in an interview at his residence, where he wore traditional white linen trousers and shirt.
With an alliance led by his ruling Janata Dal (United) party, Mr. Kumar has built thousands of miles of roads. He has hired 200,000 schoolteachers and is recruiting 100,000 more. He has lured private-clinic doctors back to public hospitals.
Development projects and strong harvests have helped Bihar's economy close the gap with the national average. The state is growing at an annual rate of about 5.5%, and that is expected to accelerate, according to the Asian Development Research Institute. The number of people migrating out dropped 27% in the 2006-08 period compared with 2001-03, according to the Bihar Institute of Economic Studies, a local think tank.
Homes in a Gully
One of Mr. Kumar's toughest challenges is improving the lot of the Mushahar in places like Dev Kuli village.
Home to about 10,000 people, Dev Kuli is surrounded by farming hamlets and abuts a two-lane highway where long-haul trucks blast their air horns as they rumble toward New Delhi. The lives of all residents, from low caste to high, have long revolved around the rice and wheat harvests.
Several hundred village families are outcaste Mushahar, who live among goats, pigs and swarms of flies in a dried-out gully. The government began to build brick houses but left them without windows or doors.
As a caste the government has identified as "extremely backward," the Mushahar will be eligible for a $57 million government program that will provide families with a water supply, toilets, radios and educational support, according to Vijoy Prakash, the principal secretary for two government departments dedicated to low-caste assistance.
On Mr. Prakash's desk sits a stuffed rat, a reminder of who such programs aim to help. Yet he says past efforts have failed in part because only 9% of the Mushahar can read. "This is the group that has remained excluded from India's growth," he says.
As the sun came up on a recent day, a group of Mushahar gathered round a water pump to wash clothes. Later in the morning a long line of Mushahar children made their way up a mud embankment and, in a profound departure from community tradition, headed to primary school.
Parents complain that their children face discrimination even at Dev Kuli's one-room school for Mushahar children, the name of which translates as "Slum People's Primary School." Children from other castes attend a school nearby.
The government has repaired the school's roof in recent months, hired a new teacher and added an extra bathroom to provide privacy for girls. Even so, the school doesn't have chairs or desks, so students sit on empty grain bags and write on a cement floor covered with dirt.
Each day, a group of government-hired Mushahar, known as "motivators," roust children from their homes and escort them to class. Motivator Phulwanti Devi, a recent and rare Mushahar college graduate, says she battles parents almost every morning to release their children from farm work.
"We tell them, 'It will improve their future,'" says Ms. Devi, 25 years old.
"They reply, 'We don't see that you have such a good job.' I tell them: 'I have a diploma, and so I can get a better job. What about you?'"
Still, Ms. Devi and other motivators say attendance at the school has grown. Teachers say about 150 children are enrolled. On a recent day, the motivators rounded up about half that many.
There are other challenges. Some motivators say they haven't been paid their salaries of 2,000 rupees a month, about $40. Local officials occasionally tell teachers to skip class to conduct government work, such as counting votes at election time.
Mr. Prakash, the secretary for lower castes, says the motivators will soon be paid from funds his department has set aside. Bihar's education secretary, Anjani Kumar Singh, says a Bihar court has ruled that teachers can't skip class for government work, but admitted the order could be hard to enforce at election time.
Spicy Masala
Generating genuine business activity among a largely illiterate community hasn't been easy, either, judging by Mr. Prakash's rat-farming initiative. He estimated that three million people in the state would welcome a stable supply of the protein-rich meat.
Many Mushahar say they enjoy the meat, typically barbecued or cooked with a spicy masala, and believe it keeps their hair dark. But many resented being pushed into farming them. "If we get involved in rat farming, our children will also get involved," says Ms. Devi.
After some Mushahar protested in Patna late last summer, Mr. Kumar, the chief minister, shelved the proposal.
Yet Dev Kuli's economy has improved. The infrastructure push has created jobs building and repairing roads. That has helped bring factories to the area, say locals, including a steel mill and a cola-bottling plant. Those jobs have boosted farm wages to the point where the Mushahar won't work in the fields for less than about $2 a day, says Raj Ballabh Raji, a local farmer from a different caste.
Mr. Raji, who now works his six acres with a new tractor, notes one more sign of prosperity. "You can now find a petrol pump within a mile of here," he says in a tone of pleasant surprise. "The economy is changing."
—Manoj Chaurasia in Patna and Vibhuti Agarwal in New Delhi contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com
By PETER WONACOTT
DEV KULI VILLAGE, India -- This country's path out of the global economic turmoil may start here, among a community of outcastes who dine on rats.
In Bihar, India's poorest and least literate major state, the Mushahar are the poorest and least literate. Most are farm laborers. About one in 10 can read. So impoverished is this group that they hunt field rats to supplement a deprived diet. Mushahar is Hindi for "rat eater."
But the outlook for the state's two million Mushahar has brightened in the past year. Thanks to government aid programs, more Mushahar children are attending school. Increased state investment in roads and local factories has put their parents to work. Demand for laborers has pushed up wages for field work.
Bouncing Up From the Bottom Rung
View Slideshow
Peter Wonacott/The Wall Street Journal
The one-room primary school for Mushahar children at Bihar's Dev Kuli village, where several hundred of the low-caste Mushahar families live.
In a sign of the times, a government proposal to promote rat farming was ridiculed by the Mushahar, the very group of untouchables, or Dalits, it was supposed to benefit. They worried it would pull their children out of school and extend a social stigma to the next generation. Some protested on the streets of Bihar's capital, Patna, shouting: "We want to learn to use a computer mouse, not catch mice."
The Mushahar in Bihar are part of a political and economic shift that is building across the Indian countryside. The transformation, largely driven by development spending by national and state policy makers, will be put to a test starting next week. The world's largest democracy kicks off a month of polling April 16 in which many of the leaders behind these experiments are seeking re-election.
Growth has slowed in the new India of technology outsourcing, property development and securities trade. But old India -- the rural sector that is home to 700 million of the country's billion-plus people -- shows signs it can pick up the slack. The rural awakening helps explain why India continues to grow even as the U.S. recession drags on the world economy.
The change is largely political. In years past, many state leaders rode to power with vows to give voice to lower-caste voters. But after failing for the most part to lift living standards, these officials have been replaced in many cases by leaders who have. In poor and largely rural states from Orissa in the east to Rajasthan in the west, many new leaders have invested in health, education and infrastructure. That has set the stage for the creation of industry and consumer markets and enabled upward mobility.
It's unclear whether development spending in rural India will spark longer-term expansion. "Up till now, a lot of our growth has been bubble growth," says Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd., a software and outsourcing company. "That makes the internal reforms even more important now, so we create momentum for future growth."
The rural economic rise is recent, with few figures yet available for 2008. In the five-year period ending in 2007, rural Indians' consumer spending grew faster than that of city dwellers, according to Indian brokerage IIFL. Rural India has surpassed urban centers in the number of households earning $2,000 a year, above which families begin to have disposable income.
Companies from Coca-Cola Co. to telecom provider Reliance Communications India Ltd. say rising sales in once-spurned rural areas are driving their India growth. The Indian unit of LG Electronics, which sells low-voltage appliances for power-deprived areas, expects rural areas to account for 45% of its Indian sales this year, up from 35% last year. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., a car and tractor maker, says it couldn't keep up with orders for its new Xylo, a cross between a minivan and SUV, in part because of surprising rural demand.
"If any one part of the economy is decoupled from the global crisis, it is India's rural sector," says Anand Mahindra, vice chairman of auto maker's parent company, Mahindra Group.
Tariff Barriers
The countryside's strength comes in part from a trade policy that free-market economists say may hurt India in the long run. Tariffs on agricultural imports are among the world's highest and may have deterred investment in rural India. But these tariffs have also sheltered swaths of the country. An estimated 88% of India's rural incomes are tied to activities inside those markets, according to IIFL.
Even slight improvements here are significant, economists say, because they build on a base of practically zero. "For so long, these states were a drag on our economy," says Surjit Bhalla, head of Oxus Research & Investments, an advisory firm in New Delhi. "Now larger rural populations can become a fillip to growth."
India's economy has held up better than most, in spite of slowing tech sales and falling real-estate and stock markets. The International Monetary Fund projects India will grow 5.1% in 2009, faster than Brazil (1.8%) and Russia (-0.7%). India is also closing the gap on China, whose 6.7% projected growth for 2009 marks a sharp decline from recent double-digit gains.
Bihar, which borders Nepal, was once a breadbasket of eastern India. But it largely missed out on the economic miracle of the last decade. In the 1990s, as India's economy expanded about 5% a year, Bihar barely grew.
Infrastructure was poor. Farm goods often rotted before reaching the market. Amid corruption and rampant crime, the state was branded India's "kidnap capital." The young left to seek education and jobs.
More than half Bihar's 83 million residents live below the international poverty line of about $1 dollar a day. Fewer than half are literate. The state attracted $167 million in foreign direct investment between 1994 and 2004, a period when India as a whole attracted $29 billion.
Government Open House
In recent years, political candidates won elections with promises to empower to lower-caste voters. But education, health and infrastructure projects were often neglected, presenting opportunity for opponents. In late 2005, a former railways minister from a low-caste background, Nitish Kumar, became chief minister, the leader of Bihar state.
Breaking from the torpid bureaucracy of his predecessors, the 58-year-old Mr. Kumar has tried to prod the government machinery into action. He hosts Monday open houses at his residence, where ministers and department secretaries are required to field public complaints. Bureaucrats must also accompany him to town-hall meetings in far corners of the state, where they pitch tents in fields. His critics say the exercises simply aim to drum up votes; Mr. Kumar says an open government serves the people and the economy.
"My message is that democracy should provide solutions to the problems," he said in an interview at his residence, where he wore traditional white linen trousers and shirt.
With an alliance led by his ruling Janata Dal (United) party, Mr. Kumar has built thousands of miles of roads. He has hired 200,000 schoolteachers and is recruiting 100,000 more. He has lured private-clinic doctors back to public hospitals.
Development projects and strong harvests have helped Bihar's economy close the gap with the national average. The state is growing at an annual rate of about 5.5%, and that is expected to accelerate, according to the Asian Development Research Institute. The number of people migrating out dropped 27% in the 2006-08 period compared with 2001-03, according to the Bihar Institute of Economic Studies, a local think tank.
Homes in a Gully
One of Mr. Kumar's toughest challenges is improving the lot of the Mushahar in places like Dev Kuli village.
Home to about 10,000 people, Dev Kuli is surrounded by farming hamlets and abuts a two-lane highway where long-haul trucks blast their air horns as they rumble toward New Delhi. The lives of all residents, from low caste to high, have long revolved around the rice and wheat harvests.
Several hundred village families are outcaste Mushahar, who live among goats, pigs and swarms of flies in a dried-out gully. The government began to build brick houses but left them without windows or doors.
As a caste the government has identified as "extremely backward," the Mushahar will be eligible for a $57 million government program that will provide families with a water supply, toilets, radios and educational support, according to Vijoy Prakash, the principal secretary for two government departments dedicated to low-caste assistance.
On Mr. Prakash's desk sits a stuffed rat, a reminder of who such programs aim to help. Yet he says past efforts have failed in part because only 9% of the Mushahar can read. "This is the group that has remained excluded from India's growth," he says.
As the sun came up on a recent day, a group of Mushahar gathered round a water pump to wash clothes. Later in the morning a long line of Mushahar children made their way up a mud embankment and, in a profound departure from community tradition, headed to primary school.
Parents complain that their children face discrimination even at Dev Kuli's one-room school for Mushahar children, the name of which translates as "Slum People's Primary School." Children from other castes attend a school nearby.
The government has repaired the school's roof in recent months, hired a new teacher and added an extra bathroom to provide privacy for girls. Even so, the school doesn't have chairs or desks, so students sit on empty grain bags and write on a cement floor covered with dirt.
Each day, a group of government-hired Mushahar, known as "motivators," roust children from their homes and escort them to class. Motivator Phulwanti Devi, a recent and rare Mushahar college graduate, says she battles parents almost every morning to release their children from farm work.
"We tell them, 'It will improve their future,'" says Ms. Devi, 25 years old.
"They reply, 'We don't see that you have such a good job.' I tell them: 'I have a diploma, and so I can get a better job. What about you?'"
Still, Ms. Devi and other motivators say attendance at the school has grown. Teachers say about 150 children are enrolled. On a recent day, the motivators rounded up about half that many.
There are other challenges. Some motivators say they haven't been paid their salaries of 2,000 rupees a month, about $40. Local officials occasionally tell teachers to skip class to conduct government work, such as counting votes at election time.
Mr. Prakash, the secretary for lower castes, says the motivators will soon be paid from funds his department has set aside. Bihar's education secretary, Anjani Kumar Singh, says a Bihar court has ruled that teachers can't skip class for government work, but admitted the order could be hard to enforce at election time.
Spicy Masala
Generating genuine business activity among a largely illiterate community hasn't been easy, either, judging by Mr. Prakash's rat-farming initiative. He estimated that three million people in the state would welcome a stable supply of the protein-rich meat.
Many Mushahar say they enjoy the meat, typically barbecued or cooked with a spicy masala, and believe it keeps their hair dark. But many resented being pushed into farming them. "If we get involved in rat farming, our children will also get involved," says Ms. Devi.
After some Mushahar protested in Patna late last summer, Mr. Kumar, the chief minister, shelved the proposal.
Yet Dev Kuli's economy has improved. The infrastructure push has created jobs building and repairing roads. That has helped bring factories to the area, say locals, including a steel mill and a cola-bottling plant. Those jobs have boosted farm wages to the point where the Mushahar won't work in the fields for less than about $2 a day, says Raj Ballabh Raji, a local farmer from a different caste.
Mr. Raji, who now works his six acres with a new tractor, notes one more sign of prosperity. "You can now find a petrol pump within a mile of here," he says in a tone of pleasant surprise. "The economy is changing."
—Manoj Chaurasia in Patna and Vibhuti Agarwal in New Delhi contributed to this article.
Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com
Congress gimmicks
N.S. Rajaram
It is obvious that Sonia has committed a major blunder by giving a ticket to Jagdish tytler and then announcing (through proxies) that the CBI has given him a 'clean chit'. The CBI is an investigating agency, it cannot pass judgments, which is the court's job. So, someone very ignorant has come up with the idea.
And now, Manmohan Singh is stuck with the problem, made worse by the fact he is a Sikh himself. Tytler is finished to save Sonia. Another Sonia gimmick is Chidambaram' s announcement that Sonia is a target of LTTE terrorists, immediately denied by them. This is to get some sympathy, especially since the Congress-DMK coalition is in trouble in Tamil Nadu.
It is obvious that Sonia has committed a major blunder by giving a ticket to Jagdish tytler and then announcing (through proxies) that the CBI has given him a 'clean chit'. The CBI is an investigating agency, it cannot pass judgments, which is the court's job. So, someone very ignorant has come up with the idea.
And now, Manmohan Singh is stuck with the problem, made worse by the fact he is a Sikh himself. Tytler is finished to save Sonia. Another Sonia gimmick is Chidambaram' s announcement that Sonia is a target of LTTE terrorists, immediately denied by them. This is to get some sympathy, especially since the Congress-DMK coalition is in trouble in Tamil Nadu.
"Muslims are victims of vote bank politics"
"Muslims are victims of vote bank politics" (Interview with Lal Krishna
Advani)
Author:
Publication: The Hindu
Date: April 9, 2009
URL: http://www.hindu. com/2009/ 04/09/stories/ 2009040956041200 .htm
We held the price line for six years and our contribution to building
infrastructure cannot be ignored
Lal Krishna Advani is the star campaigner of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), the man who would be the Prime Minister should the BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) come to power at the Centre. He is
busy criss-crossing the country, having covered 45 Parliamentary
constituencies since the first week of February. He spoke to VINAY KUMAR
during his election campaign in Karnataka, on the way to filing his
nomination in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, on a wide range of issues from the
2004 'India Shining' campaign to the BJP shedding its image of being a
party of 'North India.'
Q.: In 2004, your slogan was 'India Shining.' Is there one in 2009? And,
how would you assess the performance of the UPA government over the past
five years?
A.: There were two main reasons for the setback we suffered in 2004 -
the first was our overconfidence that we are going to win and the
second, which was more widespread, was the failure of our support base
to understand the compulsions of coalition politics. The common plank
with our allies was the nuclear deterrent and they could not agree to
our promises of construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, Uniform Civil
Code and abolition of Article 370. Our support base, which identifies
with our party ideology, saw resentment seeping in. But this time round,
we are not overconfident and my interactions with a large section of
people show that NDA will be able to put up a good show.
As far as the UPA government's performance is concerned, it is very
disappointing to say the least. If the Congress went to the polls last
year, when the Left parties had withdrawn their support, I think it
would have been better placed and politically it would have made much
more sense.
Q.: Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stake too much on Indo-U.S. civil
nuclear agreement?
A.: The nuclear deal has failed to become an issue in these elections;
nobody is talking about it in the campaign. If the Congress was so keen
on it, politically it made a blunder in not going to polls at that time
on this issue and withdrawal of support by the Left. For us, the
strategic independence of India is important.
Q.: In the recent past, political life has seen much rancour, with
accusations and charges being hurled at one another by political
leaders. Would you say politics is touching a new low?
A.: I have been in public life since 1952. It was not so during the
times of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and I would say even Rajiv
Gandhi, [who] observed niceties and pleasantries and displayed utmost
dignity. I feel hurt to hear and see all these accusations. I would not
like to comment on it but will say that prominent political
personalities only belittle themselves by indulging in all this.
Q.: How would you compare the performance of the NDA and the UPA?
A.: Besides Pokhran-II, the biggest achievement of the NDA government
which concern the common man and middle classes was holding the price
line; the government ensured all through six years the price stability
of food items and commodities of everyday use. Then, our contribution to
building infrastructure - the golden quadrilateral linking North to
South and East to West cannot be ignored. The NDA government also
handled the economic situation well in the face of sanctions that came
after Pokhran-II, as well as cyclones and quakes that affected the
country. We also launched the Kisan Credit Card, pursued a policy of
technological advancement and took Information Technology ahead. As
against all this, the UPA talks about only NREGA scheme but it failed
miserably in preventing suicides of debt-ridden farmers in Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh. There have not been any
incidents of farmers' being driven to suicide in NDA and BJP-ruled
States.
Q.: The BJP is criticised for returning to the Ram Temple issue when
elections are round the corner.
A.: The issue of the Ram Temple has always been there, it touches the
faith of millions in our land. Our commitment remains to construct a
temple at the birthplace of Ram in Ayodhya. It finds prominent mention
in our manifesto and we are not apologetic about it. We have said in the
past also that the Ram Temple can be constructed either through a court
order or by discussions and agreement between Hindus and Muslim
community. And I am hopeful that the temple will be constructed with the
cooperation and agreement of the two communities. The sad part is that
Muslims have been victims of vote bank politics and that is the main
reason behind their social, economic and educational backwardness. The
Sachar Committee pointed it out after six decades of Independence.
Politicians deliberately kept alive symbols of separation from the time
of creation of Pakistan. Gross mishandling of Muslim community prevented
it from readily assimilating into the national mainstream. I would say
that we have slightly modified our slogan to "Justice for all,
discrimination towards none" instead of "appeasement of none."
Q.: After initial hiccups, the BJP is now backing Varun Gandhi after his
alleged speech at Pilibhit.
A.: For the first time in 60 years, the Election Commission gave advice
to a political party [BJP] not to give a ticket to Varun Gandhi.
Secondly, a draconian law like the National Security Act was slapped on
him. Whatever has been attributed to Varun Gandhi was denied by him and
he said the CD was doctored. The BJP disassociated itself from his
alleged comments, but invoking the NSA was a thoughtless action. It is
not that candidates have not won in the past because draconian laws were
invoked against them and they were under detention. Two examples are
George Fernandes and Nanaji Deshmukh.
Q.: Which States will provide you with a rich harvest of Lok Sabha
seats?
A.: I will say that the 2009 elections are mainly a contest between the
BJP and the Congress. And it is also for the first time that we are at a
disadvantage in not having Vajpayeeji campaigning for us. Also, the
advantage is that for the first time the BJP is not being seen as a
party of 'North India.' We have our own government in Karnataka for the
past 10 months and it is a major difference. I believe we will do well
in Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and
Bihar. In U.P. and Orissa also our position is not bad despite Kalyan
Singh leaving us and Naveen Patnaik's BJD snapping ties with us. On the
whole, the prospects of the NDA are bright, I am sure people of India
will give us the mandate once again.
Advani)
Author:
Publication: The Hindu
Date: April 9, 2009
URL: http://www.hindu. com/2009/ 04/09/stories/ 2009040956041200 .htm
We held the price line for six years and our contribution to building
infrastructure cannot be ignored
Lal Krishna Advani is the star campaigner of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), the man who would be the Prime Minister should the BJP-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) come to power at the Centre. He is
busy criss-crossing the country, having covered 45 Parliamentary
constituencies since the first week of February. He spoke to VINAY KUMAR
during his election campaign in Karnataka, on the way to filing his
nomination in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, on a wide range of issues from the
2004 'India Shining' campaign to the BJP shedding its image of being a
party of 'North India.'
Q.: In 2004, your slogan was 'India Shining.' Is there one in 2009? And,
how would you assess the performance of the UPA government over the past
five years?
A.: There were two main reasons for the setback we suffered in 2004 -
the first was our overconfidence that we are going to win and the
second, which was more widespread, was the failure of our support base
to understand the compulsions of coalition politics. The common plank
with our allies was the nuclear deterrent and they could not agree to
our promises of construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, Uniform Civil
Code and abolition of Article 370. Our support base, which identifies
with our party ideology, saw resentment seeping in. But this time round,
we are not overconfident and my interactions with a large section of
people show that NDA will be able to put up a good show.
As far as the UPA government's performance is concerned, it is very
disappointing to say the least. If the Congress went to the polls last
year, when the Left parties had withdrawn their support, I think it
would have been better placed and politically it would have made much
more sense.
Q.: Did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stake too much on Indo-U.S. civil
nuclear agreement?
A.: The nuclear deal has failed to become an issue in these elections;
nobody is talking about it in the campaign. If the Congress was so keen
on it, politically it made a blunder in not going to polls at that time
on this issue and withdrawal of support by the Left. For us, the
strategic independence of India is important.
Q.: In the recent past, political life has seen much rancour, with
accusations and charges being hurled at one another by political
leaders. Would you say politics is touching a new low?
A.: I have been in public life since 1952. It was not so during the
times of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and I would say even Rajiv
Gandhi, [who] observed niceties and pleasantries and displayed utmost
dignity. I feel hurt to hear and see all these accusations. I would not
like to comment on it but will say that prominent political
personalities only belittle themselves by indulging in all this.
Q.: How would you compare the performance of the NDA and the UPA?
A.: Besides Pokhran-II, the biggest achievement of the NDA government
which concern the common man and middle classes was holding the price
line; the government ensured all through six years the price stability
of food items and commodities of everyday use. Then, our contribution to
building infrastructure - the golden quadrilateral linking North to
South and East to West cannot be ignored. The NDA government also
handled the economic situation well in the face of sanctions that came
after Pokhran-II, as well as cyclones and quakes that affected the
country. We also launched the Kisan Credit Card, pursued a policy of
technological advancement and took Information Technology ahead. As
against all this, the UPA talks about only NREGA scheme but it failed
miserably in preventing suicides of debt-ridden farmers in Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh. There have not been any
incidents of farmers' being driven to suicide in NDA and BJP-ruled
States.
Q.: The BJP is criticised for returning to the Ram Temple issue when
elections are round the corner.
A.: The issue of the Ram Temple has always been there, it touches the
faith of millions in our land. Our commitment remains to construct a
temple at the birthplace of Ram in Ayodhya. It finds prominent mention
in our manifesto and we are not apologetic about it. We have said in the
past also that the Ram Temple can be constructed either through a court
order or by discussions and agreement between Hindus and Muslim
community. And I am hopeful that the temple will be constructed with the
cooperation and agreement of the two communities. The sad part is that
Muslims have been victims of vote bank politics and that is the main
reason behind their social, economic and educational backwardness. The
Sachar Committee pointed it out after six decades of Independence.
Politicians deliberately kept alive symbols of separation from the time
of creation of Pakistan. Gross mishandling of Muslim community prevented
it from readily assimilating into the national mainstream. I would say
that we have slightly modified our slogan to "Justice for all,
discrimination towards none" instead of "appeasement of none."
Q.: After initial hiccups, the BJP is now backing Varun Gandhi after his
alleged speech at Pilibhit.
A.: For the first time in 60 years, the Election Commission gave advice
to a political party [BJP] not to give a ticket to Varun Gandhi.
Secondly, a draconian law like the National Security Act was slapped on
him. Whatever has been attributed to Varun Gandhi was denied by him and
he said the CD was doctored. The BJP disassociated itself from his
alleged comments, but invoking the NSA was a thoughtless action. It is
not that candidates have not won in the past because draconian laws were
invoked against them and they were under detention. Two examples are
George Fernandes and Nanaji Deshmukh.
Q.: Which States will provide you with a rich harvest of Lok Sabha
seats?
A.: I will say that the 2009 elections are mainly a contest between the
BJP and the Congress. And it is also for the first time that we are at a
disadvantage in not having Vajpayeeji campaigning for us. Also, the
advantage is that for the first time the BJP is not being seen as a
party of 'North India.' We have our own government in Karnataka for the
past 10 months and it is a major difference. I believe we will do well
in Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and
Bihar. In U.P. and Orissa also our position is not bad despite Kalyan
Singh leaving us and Naveen Patnaik's BJD snapping ties with us. On the
whole, the prospects of the NDA are bright, I am sure people of India
will give us the mandate once again.
RAHUL GANDHI: His M.Phil lies , what citizens say at Indian Express Blog
Anub: REDIFF IS FRAUD, CHEATED PUBLIC in 2004 REDIFF in 2004 published "Cambridge confirms Rahul's MPhil" --(rediff.com Newsdesk | April 20, 2004 16:44 IST) . saying ( rediff.com decided to check this and so got in touch by e-mail with the Old Records Office at Trinity College. The request was apparently forwarded to the press and publications office of Cambridge University, from where rediff.com received an official reply today. It said: 'Rahul Gandhi was a student at the University of Cambridge as a member of Trinity College from 1994 to 1995, and was awarded an MPhil in Development Economics.' ) PRESS RELEASE of Janata Party The revelation in New Indian Express, Chennai today of the false claim of Mr.Rahul Gandhi made in his sworn affidavit that he holds a M Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge University calls from an immediate Notice for perjury to be sent to him by the Election Commission. Otherwise, I shall move the Courts for acti
By Radhikasingh
4/10/2009 5:35:00 PM To "We the People" - Agree Akbar was illiterate but he did not produce False Certificates to claim that he was educated. Being illiterate is not the issue here . telling lies is
By raj
4/10/2009 12:19:00 AM //Akbar was illiterate- could not read anything by some accounts. So, since when we did start requiring kings to have Cambridge education? Rahul is a great great grandson of Motilal Nehru and great grand son of Jawaharlal Nehru. He is a grand son of Indira Gandhi. Why are we checking his certificates? // Mr. Bharat shah Akbar didnt said I am educated in Cambridge but Mr.Rahul did signed an affidavit saying he is having M.phil degree from the university which is not true by all means?? Why do he want to lie for this matter?? No voter asked him to be cambridge educated to vote him.. BTW great great grandson of Motilal Nehru and great grand son of Jawaharlal Nehru and grand son of Indira Gandhi is not a certificate of goodness or greatness??!! Man is valued by his deeds and not by his family background ... being an Indian we should start seeing the Values by deeds instead of family values... bcoz family values are just USELESS as dung!
By We The People India
4/9/2009 3:23:00 PM This is the ultimate realtly of the Gandhi family in studies as well as politics. I had not thought it in dream that rahul will do this, it is very unfortunate and disaster for gandhi's goodwill.
By shakti
4/9/2009 2:38:00 PM This is the real truth about the so called ethical, moral and secular Gandhi family. They had cheated and controlled India by hook or crook and the results are visible to all of us, the india's progress reflects their educational qualifications, BOGUS. It is time that we Indians understand these cheats and punish them by voting them out of power. You make them sit out for 5 years,they are finished and India will be much better without them
By Arun
4/9/2009 11:45:00 AM This NO surprise at ALL! In Nehru's family, except him NO BODY had an inclination for studies as they were assured of seat of POWER as any ROYALTY in olden times. Why would they waste their times in NOBLE activities like STUDIES. For the FIRST family of Congress, it is Sheer waste of TIME - spending in Universities!
By Ike
4/9/2009 7:18:00 AM After winning, BJP must also promise public to retrieve all of india's precious heritage and wealth that has been looted by the British colonizers including all the declared or undeclared items an gold ornaments and jewellery and gold bars lying in british museums or private collections,besides the black money deposited by corrupt congressmen and Nehru dynasty members including Sonia Maino and Rahul Maino in swiss and german banks.Although the looted items items now in England are classified cosmetically as gifts by the british, it is a fact that these are simply looted items done by british gangsters that looted us for 500 years and more. The unfortunate part is that after indepenence in 1947, the Nehru dynasty and crooked congress politicians and agents who have been looting Indians to the tune of trillions of dollars and deposited in swiss and german banks. Hope BJP and NDA show guts to retrieve our heritage items and promise hindu majority to make them first class citizens and
By V.Mehta
4/9/2009 12:53:00 AM I read all the comments on this story. I especially liked those of Krishna Sarma, particularly when he says that a high degree of schooling (being put through high fee charging public schools, colleges, institutes of management, etc.) does not necessarily lead to high degree of education which builds character, love for country and its heritage, etc. The discussion should be more based on whether Rahul is going to be open to ideas to change India wherever it needs change, courageously taking the benefit of all that has been great in its past - especially a living tradition of seclarism to welcome and assimilate with its own culture, much that is found to be good in alien religions, modern political notions, etc. Mr J Nehru subscribed to this view but he blundered in identifying what is good and what is bad in India's past, and in falling head over shoulder for universally discarded socialism-communism. Rahul or Varun or any people in his dynastic line with a bit of his blood should
By Kittappa SK
4/8/2009 11:45:00 PM IF RAHUL HAS NO ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS THAT IS GOOD.BECAUSE INDIA DESERVE ONLY A NEHRU FAMILY MEMBER. IF THERE IS NO HUMAN BEANING IN NEHRU FAMILY ,INDIA WILL SATISFY WITH A COW OR DOG OR CAT FROM THAT FAMILY TO LEAD THEM .BECAUSE BASICALLY WE ARE SLAVES STILL NOW !AND WE PROUD OF IT !!!!!!!!!!
By S.JAYASOORYAN
4/8/2009 11:01:00 PM Akbar was illiterate- could not read anything by some accounts. So, since when we did start requiring kings to have Cambridge education? Rahul is a great great grandson of Motilal Nehru and great grand son of Jawaharlal Nehru. He is a grand son of Indira Gandhi. Why are we checking his certificates? Ask the Prime Minister. He will verify he is son of Sonia Gandhi. Show me one eligible young man who has Nehru-Gandhi blood in his veins. And about being not truthful - If anyone plans to vote for a truthful politician, he will be better served staying home. Politics is the game of compromise. And the first casualty of compromise is truth. So forget this charade of who is holier than thou. Let the elections begin.
By Bharat Shah
4/8/2009 8:40:00 PM Our culture & Heritage is Ancient, we respect our guest"Atithi Devo Bhavah" but if someone tries foul with my nation, we will not tolerate..........if you want, say ITALY IS SONIA, SONIA IS ITALY, we are least bothered..............
By Dinesh Parikh
4/8/2009 5:58:00 PM Kash have you named your kids after SONIA MAINO, You are an 100% sycophant than the real Congress neta's, What ever happens in USA need not take place here, I think you will advocate for GAY marriage too, in India..... You are not fit to be called a Desh Premi , you may be affiliated to any party, that's not a problem, that's every Individuals right, but do not be so carried away that you yourself don't know what you are talking!! If we have to Call India with some other Name certainly it can only be BHARAT..... By your this comment you have insulted all the freedom fighters of India and even to your Patriotic great grandfather's too.... It's Shameul on your part to degrade our Great Nation like this.. Sonia can't even be like a pinch of My Great Nation's Dust.... My Nation has History too not alone Geography,we can say lineage of our parents with full confidence, will sonia be able to say her Grandfather's name with that certainity.... Our culture & Heritage is Ancient, we respect our
By Dinesh Parikh
4/8/2009 5:56:00 PM Can even a 'sound' knowledge with 'perfect' mastery of development studies help the future Finance or Prime Minister or, in general, the future, elected government of India to size up the antinational phenomenon of black money economy and the "contribution" to the country's GDP of the huge mountains of money stashed away by politicians and businessmen (not to speak of the rest of Indian citizens) and harboured in safe havens like Swiss accounts, AND enable those resources to be legally pumped back for India's economic and social development, in a timebound manner with a time horizon until 2012 ? Highly Improbable that this can be done : insurmountable obstructions will be laid by the international laws and the network of evil political forces at work abroad and within India, especially the politicians whose chief aim is power, and partly also for party and leaders' illgotten riches. THERE CAN ONLY BE A GLOBAL ATTACK ON THESE ANTISOCIAL PHENOMENA LIKE THE WAR ON TERRORISM INVOLVING
By KP Sundaram, BM Karuppan
4/8/2009 5:24:00 PM (Correction in my earlier comments) I had written "These men are the ones who are blowing up Varun Gandhi's details of affidavit for election nomination." I meant to write Rahul Gandhi who is at the focus of this report. It was an inadvertent mitake, which I regret. Of course, it is another matter, it is immaterial, for the purpose of the comments, even if had been the news that Varun Gandhi had committed such errors. Both the Gandhis would need to unlearn much of dry developmental economics/ studies since they mostly do not come to grips with the India-specific realities on the ground in detail, the expectation being that the graduates would need to that work themselves. We see how great Nobel prize economics played such a role in bringing the Western economies to such a horrible mess !
By KRISHNA SARMA
4/8/2009 5:12:00 PM INDIA HAS HAD SEVERAL HIGHLY SCHOOLED PRIME MINISTERS WHO NEVER QUITE SUCCEEDED IN MOBILIZING ALL INDIANS TO UNITY AND DETERMINED ACTION FOR INDIA'S UPLIFT ESPECIALLY WITH SPECIAL MEASURES FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE POORER AND THE UNPRIVILEGED. These men canNOT be considered highly EDUCATED, since high level of academic achievement with degrees and diplomas without a sound grounding in our culture and ethos and native genius, or without a fiery and youthful enthusiasm (not to be confused with young calendar years) and love of the country, is going to be of no use to the society. Our English media are a typical example of highly schooled but little educated men dabbling in pointless and useless jugglery of words and often writing contorted articles aimed at merely sales maximisation of their cheap magazines. These men are the ones who are blowing up Varun Gandhi's details of affidavit for election nomination. If deviations are there, the EC will look into them.The media should correct th
By KRISHNA SARMA
4/8/2009 4:34:00 PM Another media conspericy is going on ....they called slumdog millionare a great film and all the congress sang together ....they made a great sensationalisation of 26\11 as if all other attacks never been seem as important as it is .....now where is the guts of media to sensationalisation of the $1.5 trillion dollers in tax havens where india comesfirst in list and have a share more than all combined together, when government all over the world made an agreement to tackle the econmic situation Indian leaders are quite and media acting so unaware of these black money in tax havens and white collar criminals....nothing seems to go in this direction....if anbody have the guts to moblise against this anybody who constantly throw mud on eachother ....if any action in this direction goes it will show the credablity of all those comments in this site and who claim nationationalist and secularist...it is well said by Obama....it is the poverty u indians should be conserned about right now..
By indiancitizen
4/8/2009 2:55:00 PM after seeing big cash deposit in swiss account i dont feel UN should provied any aid to India.Both claims to be nationalist and secularist and leader of poor must form a mass movement tovers this direction to show their crediablity...otherwise no one should belive wat the press claim to be they are and leaders to be they are ...all have vested intrest to squeze the common man and throw them in slums and a forigner makes Oscars out of it ...it is going to be the furture thamasha....i now dont tell about india to forigners and tell the greatness of our culture and heritage etc...etc...i will tell them we ar slumdogs but we have more than 2 trillion in swiss banks ...what a hypocratic country and leaders and myself used to fell proud to corelate india with china and its growth...it is all illusion nobody cares for anyone in this country.
By indiancitizen
4/8/2009 2:54:00 PM Another media conspericy is going on ....they called slumdog millionare a great film and all the congress sang together ....they made a great sensationalisation of 26\11 as if all other attacks never been seem as important as it is .....now where is the guts of media to sensationalisation of the $1.5 trillion dollers in tax havens where india comesfirst in list and have a share more than all combined together, when government all over the world made an agreement to tackle the econmic situation Indian leaders are quite and media acting so unaware of these black money in tax havens and white collar criminals....nothing seems to go in this direction....if anbody have the guts to moblise against this anybody who constantly throw mud on eachother ....if any action in this direction goes it will show the credablity of all those comments in this site and who claim nationationalist and secularist...it is well said by Obama....it is the poverty u indians should be conserned about right now..
By indiancitizen
4/8/2009 2:48:00 PM If what is reported is true, why is it that BJP is not appealing to the CEC to disqualify him? Why our friends Krishna and Co who seem to have no other business than monopolising the forums, writing to the election commission? Since they are not doing this, we have to only conclude this news is false.
By Raghu108
4/8/2009 1:20:00 PM I have to ask rahul gandhi ............ JOIN HANDS WITH CRIMINALS? Hey rahul gandhi you and your party( congress) have 'NO SENSE OF NATIONALISM'. Proofs are given below Terrorist afzal guru ( congress party stops even supreme court decision). Achyutanand and Antuley (gave very hate speech during the 26/11 attack for the two police officer and a commando who saved our mumbains' life and killed by terrorists). Jagdish tytler and sajjan kumar (accused of 84 anti punjab riots). The list is long........................................................................................... .
By paritosh
4/8/2009 12:42:00 PM PLAN TING SONIA WAS CONTINUATION OF THE BLACKMAILING OF NEHRU, TO GET FULL FREE ACCESS FOR THE CONVERSIONS OF NORTH EAST. SONIA IS A THREAT TO INDIA AND SO IS HER CHILDREN. WITH SONIA'S PRESENCE IN INDIA, OUR COINS ARE MINTED WITH CHRISTIAN CROSS. SONIA GAVE AN AFFIDAVIT THAT THERE IS NO RAM. IN SHORT THE PRESENCE OF EVERY CHRISTIAN IN INDIA IS A THREAT TO INDIA. CHRISTIANS ARE FIFTH COLUMN COMMUNITY IN INDIA AND THIS WAS REALISED IN 1857 AND EVERY CHRISTIAN WAS KILLED IN DELHI. AS PER INDIAN LAWS SONIA COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ELECTED BUT THE TRAITOR VAJPAYEE CHANGED THE LAW. IN ITALY NO NATURALISED INDIAN CAN STAND EVEN FOR A MUNICIPAL ELECTION
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:58:00 AM This will take away Vatican’s control over Church properties in Kerala and discourage christians from mindless reproduction. “Canonical papal control over Church properties in Kerala will be a new imperialism repugnant to the secular character and sovereign authority of ‘we the people of India’,” said Mr. Iyer, while asking the Church to withdraw a pastoral letter circulating in churches and chapels all over Kerala that trashed the Commission's recommendations. Mr. Iyer added, “The vast properties of the Church in the State were the product of parishioners' contributions and naturally the management of the estate must have democratic dimensions giving a voice to the Christian parishioners.”
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:53:00 AM Kerala Church is an exporter of menial female labour for European convents and Church institutions, and that their pay packets are entirely confiscated by the Church. It is very clear that Vithayathil’s mention of the pathetic nuns in his book is a last-minute knee-jerk response to Jesme’s “Amen”, hurriedly appended to a finished book intended for something else – to meddle in electoral politics to garner votes for christian congress candidates. The Church’s open call to vote against the Marxists is especially aimed at subverting secular reforms, which are very much needed in the state. It is evinced by the Cardinal’s tirade against the recommendations of the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, which advocated hundred percent secular reforms in religious institutions. One recommendation, pertains to the handover of Church properties to Christian trusts consisting of ordinary lay people based on “representations made by thinkers like Justice K.T. Thomas and Dr. K.V. Pylee, etc
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:52:00 AM Kerala's grand old christian extremist priest Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil two years ago exhorted the Kerala christians to reproduce like rats to combat the rising Muslim population. This rascal is now President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, released a book, “Straight from the Heart”. Straight from the Vatican’s Heart would have been more appropriate for its content. The 82-year-old Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil rues over the state of nuns and says they are compelled to do menial jobs for priests, but keeps mum on sexual exploitation. According to The Times of India, 17 March 2009, he writes, “I would say to a great extent our nuns are not emancipated women. They are often kept under submission by the fear of revenge by priests. That’s how the priests get away with whatever humiliation they heap upon them. It is a pitiable situation from which somebody has to liberate them.”
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:51:00 AM The Women’s Commission also could not act with any direction on the complaint of the nun from the Daughters of Mary Convent in Anchal who was forced into the mental asylum, even though its Chairperson had gone to meet her. There seems to be nothing the govt or the civilized world can do because these nuns are the possession of the richest private organisation in the world. 80% christians believe that they will go to hell if they are not buried by weirdo christian priests. All are worried about what their neighbours talk and leave everything, including dispensation of justice, to god. A small percentage believes that accusations against clergymen and Church are the workings of Satan.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:50:00 AM Slave nuns are garnering strength and slowly beginning to escape the church. Ex-sister Jesme’s autobiography, “Amen”, published by DC Books, is a revelation of the sexual exploitation of the vulnerable women in the possession of the Catholic Church. The publication of this book came close on the heels of an allegation by a nun in her 60s, from the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Convent in Anchal, accusing the Church of forced abortions of young nuns in the convent. According to her nephew, the nun is still being kept in a Church-owned mental hospital near Thodupuzha. Some nuns in Njarakal near Kochi openly rebelled against the Church in February 2009 for trying to move them forcibly from the convent where they have been living for years. Acting on complaints received by it, the Kerala State Women’s Commission submitted a recommendation to the government last year to stipulate the minimum age for joining nunnery at 18 years. The Church raised a furore.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:50:00 AM The sexual abuse of nuns by Catholic priests is no rare news and not restricted to Kerala. It is as common and virulent worldwide as Catholic paedophilia. In a report, quoted in the Catholic National Reporter in the USA in the 1990s, Sister Maura O’Donohue, a medical doctor, said the sexual abuse of nuns by priests had been documented in 23 countries. The detailed report would inspire only fantasy porno writers, for such is the ingenuity exercised by the sworn, supposedly ascetic, clergymen to satiate their perverted sexual urges with their helpless women slaves and wives of men congregating in the churches. Would you blame the hormone-driven human beneath the cassock, or the irrational, sexually aberrant Church, which is polluting the entire world with its perversions? No wonder, the head of the Church, Ratzinger alias Benedict, the present Pope, is blaming condoms for HIV/AIDS as condom is only 80% safe
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:49:00 AM The number of suicides of nuns in Kerala that never got reported in the press are very high. Only those cases in which the victims had some relative to question the unnatural death ever got into the newspapers. Otherwise there were just obituaries. Sr. Abhaya's case would have been written off as suicide, as many murders of nuns have been dismissed, but for her cousin, Jomon Puthenpurakal, who himself came close to becoming a victim. On 11 August 2008, Sr. Anupa Mary committed suicide in St. Mary's Convent, Kollam, leaving a suicide note that accused a senior nun in the convent of sexual harassment. A few days later, two girl inmates of an orphanage run by the Holy Cross Order in which Sr. Anupa was ordained, tried to commit suicide and later accused an apprentice priest Benedict of harassment. On 11 February 2009, Sr. Josephine who lived in the Daughters of Mary Convent in Thiruvananthapuram, committed suicide. Harassment was alleged initially, but that too went up in smoke.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:48:00 AM When I read Amen, I was not surprised. Kids are donated to church to become nuns and priests, with no right to property. Such donations of humans are tantamount to slavery which the christians practiced for long. In mid-1960s one Kerala priest killed a woman but escaped the noose due to India’s slack legal system. This Kerala’s infamous murder is known as Madatharuvi murder case. In Amen the book written by a nun a doctorate in English language, whom the church was trying to put in a mental asylam depicts the sexual deprivation of Christianity and church. A christian priest removed his dress in front of the nun and masturbated and produced the white liquid to show Jesse that it was the way to live. Women slaves called nuns are used by the priests in Africa to avoid AIDs.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:47:00 AM INDIA IS A GREAT COUNTRY. Before Obama, Sonia Gandhi, an immigrant won the election and could have been PM. Only in INDIA CAN AN IMMIGRANT BECOME A PM. Yet, in a selfless act, SONIA ABROGATED THE POSITION FOR AN INDIAN. Nehru was a freedom fighter. Nehru guided Indian democracy. If not for Nehru India would be a failed state today, like Pakistan. DON'T BE FOOLS, INDIANS, GANDHI IS INDIA, INDIA IS GANDHI. This family has sacrificed so much for India. NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD OWES AS MUCH TO ONE FAMILY AS INDIA DOES TO THE NEHRU/GANDHI FAMILY.
By kash
4/8/2009 10:36:00 AM KKK as your name suggest you are an Member of Xian terrorist outfit Ku klax Klan, kkk , james and Nanda you Perverts, hinduism does not need any certificate from Pigs like you, Just go thro today's express page no:6(Belgaum Edition) , see your Parish Priest from NEW LIFE,Mysore has been caught for Chain Snatching along with Eight of his colleagues, in Mangalore. You Perverts they snatched Six Mangal Sutras of Hindu females,four gold chains weighing 211gms.You talk So much about your christanity,.. As American money has stopped coming in for this pigs, they have resorted to robbery, this what Jesu taught you people, ..Nanda next time when you go to AMNESIA, be careful of your xian brothers they may snatch even your dress too, Nanda if you in need of Pink chaddi contact me i will give you a dozen..........................
By Somu
4/8/2009 9:55:00 AM What is the difference between LTTE and BJP? Nothing. Both are illiterate organization with pea sized brains. All they can thin about is Sonia. You remembering her so much has given her yawning sickness it seems. I am sure, you guys are thinking about her in your dreams too. Your hatred has made her a princes. Hindu WAS a peaceful religion. Now, they have no religion. Hindus = TERRORISTS. What is the difference between al quaeda and Hindu groups? Nothing.. India has only population. Indians have attitude problem and that is why India is so laid back.
By Nanda
4/8/2009 9:34:00 AM stupid venkat, come and see how many people attend Sunday services ? How many has re marriages. Second marriage people are not Catholics you stupid idiot venkat. What you know bout christianity being a Hindu. YOu get out of west and get back to yor stupid India. The talk.
By James
4/8/2009 9:24:00 AM It is clear that after failing first semester in core courses, Rahul dropped out. Raul Vinci was not going to get M.Phil. in Development Studies just after passing these four basic courses. All mistakes in election affidavit is due to the fact, he did not get a free certificate in English language from Lennox Cook School like his mom, so he could not read, what is written in Cambridge result card. I doubt if he really wrote any exam in Cambridge Univ., he might have hired someone with the birth name Raul Vinci. Regarding Sonia's English certificate, this is given free if you can't speak English and taught 2 hours per week by volunteers to help foreigners who want to work in UK - without any exam or test to check competency but a certificate of attendance. This is not the education, election affidavit is about, they want formal education, not the embroidery or milking certificate done by Rabri.
By Rahul Kumar
4/8/2009 9:07:00 AM Christian Albino pigs , occupiers of our land go back to your ghettos in Europe. Purveyors of child pornography, incest and homosexuality because of the unholy shit called the Bible GET OUT of the Americas. Ask that bloody self appointed homo jesus why his Jehovah never told him that the earth and universe were spherical and it was not flat as this shepherd with an IQ of minus 150 thought
By Aztec Indian
4/8/2009 8:52:00 AM If everything written here is true, why the print media is keeping quiet? They are equally responsible for withholding the information on the true identity of our leaders. If any of these people who hold the passport and citizenship of other countries try to become the executive head of our country, it is nothing less than foreign invasion of India. If any of these issues are true, media has a serious responsibility and they need to act responsibly and it is the time do it.
By Rajendra TK
4/8/2009 8:38:00 AM HINDUISM IS A TERRORITS RELIGION FULL OF THIEFS AND IMMORALES.
By KKK
4/8/2009 7:10:00 AM HINDUISM IS A TERRORITS RELIGION FULL OF THIEFS AND IMMORALES.
By KKK
4/8/2009 7:10:00 AM Indian dogs get out of USA.
By KKK
4/8/2009 7:06:00 AM Congress under Sonia is anti-national party. They have allowed Reddy and family to get thousands of crores from missionaries to fund conversions and politics. These missionaries have cheated/killed people of North America, South America, Africa and Australia and now they are targeting Andhra since more white people are leaving Christianity. Narasimha Rao brought financial reform. Narasimha Rao fixed Punjab. Vajpayee improved roads and ports and defense. What has Sonia done?
By Narain
4/8/2009 7:05:00 AM John who says Sonia is a Hindu, Was Rajiv a Hindu??? When a Hindu Indira marries a Parsi Feroz, then how come Rajiv be a Hindu instead of a Parsi?? Ok as per your argument he is a HIndu, then you mean to say Feroz converted himself to Hinduism!!!! And by Marrying Hindu Rajiv, Sonia too became a Hindu!!! My Dear friend, Rajiv too followed his father's footsteps and got himself converted into a Xian....John have you ever came a Hindu boy being named RAUL?? A hindu girl named Bianka??? John, Conversion is also another type of Terrorism, and which Vatican follows...John does KU KLAX KLAN belongs to Hindu???? John you have showed your Cheap Mentality by branding India as HELL, you are an example of Vatican mole in India along with Maino vinc.... Are you not Living in India, My Bharata has become HELL(AS branded by you) because of People like you,....
By Dinesh Parikh
4/8/2009 7:03:00 AM Is Raul Vinci a member of KU KLAX KLAN ............................................................
By vikas patel
4/8/2009 6:42:00 AM Rahul is a LIAR all along, her mother too lied about her educational qualification during 2004 elections, Her nomination papers’ affidavit claimed she obtained a certificate in English from Lennox Cook School, University of Cambridge, in 1965. After it was revealed that the school had no affiliation to the University, Sonia claimed that the error on the affidavit was the result of a secretarial typing mistake. So this LIE Virus are there in his GENE carrying from his Parents...A FAMILY FULL OF LIARS RIGHT FROM NEHRU TILL RAUL, ...... Kash, if not for Nehru India would not have been divided, please go thro the pages of History first, If not for Rajiv IPKF would not have gone to Srilanka, Sahbano case, Bofors, all these scandals would not have taken place,....
By vikas patel
4/8/2009 6:39:00 AM Mr Rajashekar who is making baseless allegations?? You mean to say Express has made baseless allegations!! Ok agreed we make baseless allegations, but your master's should have sued this paper, but why they are keeping quiet??? "SILENCE AMOUNTS TO ACCEPTANCE"!!! Sir It's you and not us, who needs very urgent admission in Mental asylum,... Ok agreed we are affliated to a political party or subscribe to a particular ideology or religion, but what about you??? We know where your Loyalty lies. It's like Tea calling kettle black, YOU ARE A SYCOPHANT..... You will be given one of the Padma Awards(whether you deserve it or not is Immaterial) by your masters......... follow their Sermon Blindly by killing your Soul and Self Esteem... Are you Glassmate of Raul Vinci?? oh Sorry I meant Classmate...................
By Dinesh parikh
4/8/2009 6:35:00 AM THIS FAKE GANDHI FAMILY IS CHEATING US FOR GENERATIONS. IT IS THE TIME NOW TO KICK THIS FAMILY FROM INDIA
By Krishna
4/8/2009 5:59:00 AM I congratulate ExpressBuzz for their boldness in publishing this article. Most of the indian media is acting like a congress party propagand machine. But you are different . It is assumed that Rahul Gandhi will be our future PM and we Indians have all the right to know about this person. Thanks for exposing our prince!
By Peter
4/8/2009 5:55:00 AM He is an italian dumb cow, Noooo way he could be our Prime minister!
By saurabh
4/8/2009 5:31:00 AM Making mindless allegations and charges against people, religions and communities are a sure sign of mental derangement! Some of you guys and gals should check into a mental hospital ,if you aren't already committed to one. What good it is to malign people without any basis because you are affliated to a political party or subscribe to a particular ideology or religion. Those whot thrive in spewing hatred and venom will one day reap a bounteous harvest of the same in return. Shame on you narrow minded Indians!
By Rajashekar
4/8/2009 5:08:00 AM Congress now has two identities one is the deputy of Muslim league - its spiritual arm and mafia group - that its spirit has morphed into to some distance. What do expect from those who are at its helm?
By Anil
4/8/2009 2:28:00 AM This sonia/rahul and nehru family are fraud,they are agents of italian mafia n vatican,eevryone knws vatican is a satanic place full of gays and greedy people.Lets throw these missionares and christian mafia out of india.missionaries have already terorized india a lot.lets throw this family out of india to dogs.
By amit
4/8/2009 1:10:00 AM Very good post except that Raul Vinci is not a pseudonym but his real name as per his Italian passport which he carries to travel abroad. He also failed his Hindi exam and is a three time college dropout. The facts are on web, please google it.
By Seema
4/8/2009 1:08:00 AM Chrisitnaity is a satanic cult,they belive in killing people and are adamant for conversion.They have killed billions in japan/iraq/afganistan and many places.Chrisitnaity is not a religion but a monarchical architecture to rule the world.The 10 commandmants of chritanity are frauds.Chrstains rape and rober,they convert ,they are terorrists who are killing millions around the world.
By amit
4/8/2009 1:06:00 AM Mr. Prabhu, Christians are not minority in West. Come to USA and see Atheist are less than 10 % and agnostics (neither deny nor accept the existence of God) and about 5 %. Peopel who claim to be Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others are less than 5%. The rest pretty much claims to be Christians and about 30 % of them are Evangelists who strongly believe it's their duty to propagate Christianity, which includes coverting poor Indians either by hook or crook. So, please stop spreading lies. (My numbers are based on recent census)
By Venkat
4/8/2009 12:36:00 AM Every body seems to ask how will BJP find money for all the schemes/Simple, BJP and NDA will hopefully do its best to get the 50 trillion dollars black money deposited by corrupt Nehru dynatsy and congress ministers and agents in swiss and german banks and get baclkall the looted gold and jewellery and ornaments that British colonizers had looted during the past 500 years.No party has presented such a wonderful manifesto as BJP for the past 60 years and during the past 60 years congress promised to eradiccate proverry, but they made majority hindus beggars and put all the corrption money of trillions $ in swiss banks and made as many slums to create a world record for wretched mis-rule of past 50 years and more. Voters and public are not fools and they know how NDA rule has helped the country to withstand the global meltdown and crisis, otherwise we could have been bankrupt now
By V.Mehta
4/8/2009 12:13:00 AM Looks like Krishna was Sonia's treasurer. And now he is sacked. Poor Krishna! Krishna, in this rate, you will have heart attack very soon and who is going to suffer, not Sonia or Rahul, but you and your family. Try to relax. If not soon, you will also join Mehta and both can be friends in mental hospital. Your birth was a mistake.
By Raghuveera
4/8/2009 12:12:00 AM Bharat is right, I think you are the perfect candidate with chicken brain to rule the country.
By Naresh
4/8/2009 12:07:00 AM The person does not follow the commandments written in the bible is not a christian at all. They are terrorists. There only 10 commandments and but is very hard to live according to them. That is why christian population is decreasing. If you want to have a liberal life, you can be a Hindu. In Hinduism, no regulation, you can rape someone, you can kill someone, you can cut someone's hand, you can do all the above and put a poor Christian's name. that is what is Hinduism. Christians are minority in the west too. What you find majority are atheists, with European names. They are European names, not Christian names. They are no Christians. Don't blame the minority religion for what atheists are doing. Don't punish minority Christians for the faults of atheists.
By Prabhu
4/8/2009 12:06:00 AM Mehta needs to be in Mental hospital. He is suffering from serious bouts of schizophrenia. He think Sonia has a place in Vatican. She is Hindu. She had married a Hindu. Mehta, I read somewhere that you are a Muslim and spying on Indians. Vatican does not need poor India. There is no place for Stupid idiot like you in heaven. You deserve India(hell). Vatican does not have agents. VAtican only is roman catholic organization. Vatican has regulations only for true believers. Who follow the ten commandments. Others are nto welcome there. Killing is not allowed in Christians and blood shed is the biggest sin for a catholic. Catholics are not allowed to marry second time. There is no divorce in Catholics. Catholics are not allowed to drink. What you are looking at isnot christians. They are terrorists like you.
By John
4/7/2009 11:58:00 PM The whole Italiano fascist clan is a fraud, imposed on this nation by the fraud Rajiv Khan fake gandhii. Those Bharatiya/Indians have self-respect and earned their education with hard work must wake up and not whitewash this. Why shall we allow such frauds to rule our naiton? Are we less eligible?
By Bharat
4/7/2009 11:45:00 PM We, the citizens of a country, which had the esteemed Mr. Chandrashekar as its Prime Minister in the past and is currently projecting Ms. Mayawati as a potential candidate, have issues related the discrepancies in the "educational" claims made by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi???....you gotto be kidding me...at least they are educated.
By An Indian
4/7/2009 11:29:00 PM These Italian idiots and liars have now come to rule India, the greatest country on earth. Is this a curse by some Gods?
By Nagesu Singam
4/7/2009 11:03:00 PM Sonia Gandhi got bofors bribe received by her husband Rajiv Gandhi, the bribe from submarine deal, missile deal with Israel, $2 billion KGB bribe, Rs 10000 crore from illegal smuggling of antique Hindu idols to her two shops in Italy, drug export money sent via coffin export that was done by Sonia, Saddam Hussains oil bribe money. The list is very long and she tops the list of politicians who stashed away black money in Swiss banks. Indian nationals top in Swiss Bank deposits, as of Year 2008 India $1891 billion, Russia $610 billion, China $213 billion, UK $210 billion, Ukraine $140 billion, Rest of the world $300 billion. scribd.com/doc/14047562/Sonia-Gandhis-Billions-in-Swiss-Banks
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 10:45:00 PM And Raul (aka Rahul) has hopes to be PM of my country someday. A liar running my country... a sad thought. But this is reality. Wake up my fellow youngsters of India and vote for change - let's repeat Obamamania in India. Lets find our own Obama in Modi who also talks of hope and development and security like Obama does. Lets vote for the party that may one day bring Modi to the centre and give him a chance to prove himself. Down with liars, down with the Gandhi dynasty, down with the party that supports these liars, down with the goondas and traitors like Lalu, Mulayam, Ram Vilas Paswan and the "teersa morcha". Vote for BJP!
By PatriotHindu
4/7/2009 10:24:00 PM Dear The truth man, truths often are stranger than fiction.Let us get facts right. LTTE is a christian organization funded by Vatican and christian nations. That is why Sonia Maino the vatican agent is ruling India like an empress using christains agents and robots and slaves like Manmohan Chidambram and so mnay thousands of power hungry money crazy agents.See how vatican and CIA did the conspircay to get their agent as empress of India, by first getting a damsel Sonia to trap the wpmanizer Rajeev Gandhi and then getting killed all the family including Rajeev using LTTE and eliminating all contenders for power like Rajesh Pilot,Scindia and so many others. Moronic majority hindus including BJP,RSS and VHP have no brains to see all these comspiracies.Now BJP must go for aggressive hinduvta and majority hindus must vote in large numbers for BJP and allies to kick out corrupt Nehru Dynasty forever
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 9:42:00 PM Mehta, Please open ur eyes and see the truth, Rajiv Gandhi was killed because Indian Government betrayed LTTE. Hope you know the detail that LTTE was patronised by Indian Government .They were trained by Indian Army . Suddenly Congress betrayed them and the LTTE which was sponsored by India was not only left alone but was also killed by same Indian Army (Peace Keeping Force)which trained them. What Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia did to India we all know. If you can tell the truth about others also it will be of great help. But remember Always spread genuine knowledge and not rumours. Else everyone will feel you are propogating BJP.
By The Truth
4/7/2009 8:44:00 PM Mehta, Please open ur eyes and see the truth, Rajiv Gandhi was killed because Indian Government betrayed LTTE. Hope you know the detail that LTTE was patronised by Indian Government .They were trained by Indian Army . Suddenly Congress betrayed them and the LTTE which was sponsored by India was not only left alone but was also killed by same Indian Army (Peace Keeping Force)which trained them. What Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia did to India we all know. If you can tell the truth about others also it will be of great help. But remember Always spread genuine knowledge and not rumours. Else everyone will feel you are propogating BJP.
By The Truth
4/7/2009 8:43:00 PM Mehta, Please open ur eyes and see the truth, Rajiv Gandhi was killed because Indian Government betrayed LTTE. Hope you know the detail that LTTE was patronised by Indian Government .They were trained by Indian Army . Suddenly Congress betrayed them and the LTTE which was sponsored by India was not only left alone but was also killed by same Indian Army (Peace Keeping Force)which trained them. What Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia did to India we all know. If you can tell the truth about others also it will be of great help. But remember Always spread genuine knowledge and not rumours. Else everyone will feel you are propogating BJP.
By The Truth
4/7/2009 8:26:00 PM After winning, BJP must also promise public to retrieve all of india's precious heritage and wealth that has been looted by the British colonizers including all the declared or undeclared items an gold ornaments and jewellery and gold bars lying in british museums or private collections,besides the black money deposited by corrupt congressmen and Nehru dynasy members including Sonia Maino and Rahul Maino in swiss and german banks.Although the looted items items now in England are classified cosmetically as gifts by the british, it is a fact that these are simply looted items done by british gangsters that looted us for 500 years and more. The unfortunate part is that after indepenence in 1947, the Nehru dynasty and crooked congress politicians and agents who have been looting Indians to the tune of trillions of dollars and deposited in swiss and german banks. Hope BJP and NDA show guts to retrieve our heritage items and promise hindu majority to make them first class citizens and a
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 7:57:00 PM Varun is a terrorist and you have to accept it. it is very sad that you guys are encouraging him and leading him towards terrorism and you guys are watching. Shame on you people! He seems to be intelligent and help him to use this intelligence towards better things not destruction. Because of your attitudes, India remains poor and will remain poor.
By Babu
4/7/2009 7:29:00 PM I think Krishna took major role in the gang rape of Sukanya Devi. If not, he will not not much details about it as anyone. Krisha should be handed over to Osama Bin Ladin. He is a religious extremists with no balls. He suits better to be a Talibanian than Indian.
By Babu
4/7/2009 7:23:00 PM This is beautiful and bold journalistic work by Newindpress team. Congratulations to newindpress team.Majority hindus and all patritic indians must wake up, unite and vote in large numbers for BJP and allies to kick out crroked and corrupt mafia and fraudulent Sonia Maino congress and UPA allies and communists from our land forver, in coming Lok Sabha elections.
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 7:17:00 PM This fraud by Rahul Maino is not surprising at all since that whole family if a mafia family and full of frauds. Now Sonia Maino is ruling like an empress due to wicked conpsiracy by Vatican and CIA, frst trapping Rajeev Gandhi using her charm and then like in a Hitchcovk move and by wicket steps, eliminate one by one in the family including the husband Rajeev with help of christian LTTE and their minority agents. The moronic hindus are just charmed by the "gora" or white skin and are unable to se all the deep rooted conspiracise and like the Brittsih colonial rule, there are hundreds of christian and church agents to advise Queen Sonia and there are thousands of slaves who are prepared to serve as door mats or robots to get some personal and family favours.Majority hindus must unite and vote in large numbers for BJP and allies to save the hindus from miserty and terror and eliminate all the anti-hindu congress mafia and crooked anti-nationals around them
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 7:12:00 PM This shows the calibre of this family and the person himself whom the media is hell bent on projecting as a youth ( ?) icon and the next PM. The whole family is beset with lies,crime and an embodiment of evil.
By Muthuveeran
4/7/2009 6:04:00 PM With The Exception of Varun, Therez None Who Studied Beyond High School in The Nehru Family after Jawaharlal Nehru
By RAJ
4/7/2009 4:21:00 PM These Gandhi family is full of lies! From Rajiv , Sonia to now Rahul. Just imgain if they can't tell the truth about their qulification are they going to tell the truth in politices? This only show their character, Ghandhi's are a bunch of liars and crooks.
By Ragu Pinto
4/7/2009 12:12:00 PM The cambridge university should clearly tell about Rahul's study on Developmental Economic. Otherwise, we Indian, have to doubt the credibility of the University.As discussions on Rahul Gandhi's MPhil degree is in the big debate and who will oneday rule India as PM. If he is not done MPhil who is botherd. To serve Inidian we need only VOTE BANKS of various Caste, Creed, Colour, and Money (unlawfully accumulated and Muscles of GOONS and GOONDAS. Why so much people bothered about Degrees?
By RAJEN PETER
4/7/2009 11:56:00 AM This is a typical Indian Express expose.The coming loksabha elections are a godsend opportunity to throw this italian mafia from our land.
By r vassudevan
4/7/2009 11:55:00 AM The cambridge university should clearly tell about Rahul's study on Developmental Economic. Otherwise, we Indian, have to doubt the credibility of the University.As discussions on Rahul Gandhi's MPhil degree is in the big debate and who will oneday rule India as PM.
By RAJEN PETER
4/7/2009 11:41:00 AM n.krishna, you are well informed!
By Arun
4/7/2009 11:27:00 AM It is said not to track the origin of R^ishhiH [the sage] or of nadi [river] but expressbuzz has stood up to its name. See the duplicity of name given - vinci for a Gandhi. It rings a more famous truth search - breaking da vinci code. Let expressbuzz search further on the madam and many a skeleton will fall out of the cupboard, for I suspect the madam has entered India with a purpose as she represents the opus dei.
By Jayaraman
4/7/2009 10:30:00 AM MANY NATIONALS IN THE GULF NATIONS OBTAIN US DEGREES BY PAYING MONEY. THIS FELLOW IS A FAKE IDIOT WHO WILL NOT GET A JOB OF A PEON IN INDIA. THE CONGRESS PARTY WAS TAKEN OVER BY CHRISTIAN GOONDAS LONG AGO. READ MY BLOG ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN TERRORIST YSR OR Y SAMUEL RAJASEKHAR REDDY. CHRISTIAN MAFIA WORKS IN TANDEM WITH MUSLIM TERRORISTS IN INDIA scribd.com/doc/13579318/YSR-the-Christian-Terrorist-CM-of-Andhrapradesh
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 10:00:00 AM The only sports Raul knows is gang rape. Rahul Gandhi has gang raped one Sukanya Devi on 3-12-2006 and the matter was hushed up using IB thugs sent by Ahamad Patel and needs to be investigated by CBI. Raul is his real name in the Italian passport. He was traveling with Italian passport along with his wife Juanita and was arrested at an airport in USA, by FBI, on September 27, 2001 for illegal possession of $200,000. Juanita and Raul Gandhi were released after CIA agent Brajesh Mishra, whose daughter was married to an Italian and working for the steroid filled Prime Minister Vajpayee’s office.
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 9:53:00 AM Rajiv Ghandi had converted to Christianity and changed the name to Roberto and married the Italian Christian Edvige Antonia Albina Maino who was presented in front of Rajiv Gandhi in Cambridge by Archbishop Paul Casimir Marcinkus alias Paul the Gorilla Marcinkus. Now She has the illegal name of Sonia Gandhi. Rajiv Ghandi and Antonia Maino had one daughter and one son by name Bianka and Raul. For the Indian public these names are presented as Prianka and Rahul. Rahul is also holding an Italian passport in the name of Raul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi married Juanita daughter of a Colombian heroin peddler. The marriage was conducted anonymously in the island of Tenerife in Canary Islands. Juanita holds a Venezuelan passport
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 9:47:00 AM Evict Italian mafia from our country ..we have enough swadeshi crooks of our own..no need to import these m-fcukering gandhis
By Jay
4/7/2009 9:38:00 AM Hope they did not get this degree from giving a donation or endowment to the college. I do not understand which sports would qualify for sports quota. They should just mark illiterate instead of getting into controversies with the details.In the name of garibhi hatao they have amassed huge wealth. Thanks to them India won an oscar for slumdog.
By rsahoo
4/7/2009 9:21:00 AM @ if u can call this sacrifice a cunning jackal or fox also does this to get its prey. fools like u have handed ur hand in these prople who were responsible for improper division of nation, loss of wealth, lands, water and people. Why is it cong hesitant about the swiss bank account, do u know when the first corruption of so called free india started even before independence after freedom in the first year when indian army needed jeeps immediately and we received so early that it took 1 yr, the very yr we lost half of kashmir, Nehru family to bangarappa family to moily everyone have a swiss bank account. do not be so foolish to decorate ur slavery to family who have been know to convert their faith every time to get something for them. also the person who traited nation for his love to others wife made J&K a burning problem till today
By lohit
4/7/2009 9:08:00 AM Rahul can not match up his mummy in mis-representing facts. His mamma could not even count the heads of her flock when she went to President Abdul Kalam and declared she had the majority support which in fact was far short of the magic figure. The Dynasty will do anything to keep themeselves in power as long as they have Congress slaves under their feet. She does not even know how many billions USD she has stashed away in Swiss Banks looted from the illiterate, poor Indians. But they claim that their total net worth is less than a total of Rs. 40 millions. Members of Election Commission will be fools if they do not verify and correct the statement.
By R.Krishnan
4/7/2009 9:07:00 AM If not for Nehru, India would be just like Pakistan today. Rajiv Gandhi walked away from decadent economic policies like the 5 year plans and introduced open market, Friedman policies to India. It was him who initialy appointed Manmohan Singhe to change the Indian economy, by asking him to study J.R.Jayewardenas economic policies. Manmohan Singhe has been part of the Indian economic wonder for the last 30 years. You should thank Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singhe for modern India. Sonia Gandhi won the election, and could have been PM, but instead of been a gready politician, she gave the mantle to a more suitable person. HOW MANY INDIAN POLITICIANS CAN CLAIM THAT? What India needs is selfless leaders. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singhe is the best you will get. By the way, thank JR Jayewardena for having a chat with Rajiv Gandhi about modern econmomics, because India is great because of that chat.
By kash
4/7/2009 8:56:00 AM There is nothing surprising in this news item. This is very much possible from the 'Ghanti' family. Their ability to distort facts is notorious. Look at their names. They like to add the magical word 'Gandhi' to their names. they know people will think that they are relatives of Mahatma Gandhi. In fact, they cleverly polished the surname of 'Firoz Ganti' as 'Firoz Gandhi' and started using the name of Mahatma with their names. What a dynastical way to fool the people ! They must be defeated at any cost.
By Indian
4/7/2009 8:41:00 AM And if he has got the degree in 2004-2005,then how he had claimed in year 2004 election affidavit that he has above degree.
By pk
4/7/2009 8:09:00 AM Not at all surprising! This rogue family has consistently falsefied their qualitfications. Perhaps the last one to be straight on qualifications was the grandfather Nehru. The rest are all claims in the air. This family has mocked affidavits time and again. They are confident of fooling Bharatiyas. No exception; whether it was Indira, Rajiv, Raul alias Rahul or Varun. Birds of the same feather showing their true colours. Bharatiyas, trash this family and ensure they are out of power forever. Only then can we live with self-respect and govern ourselves honestly.
By Bharata
4/7/2009 8:03:00 AM And if he has got the degree in 2004-2005,then how he had claimed in year 2004 election affidavit that he has above degree.
By pk
4/7/2009 8:01:00 AM And this illiterate Rahul Gandhi is our future PM. What a shame!, they don't have even a decent education. How can they rule billion people. He registered as Rahul Vinci (christian) and basically he did not take is sir name from Rajiv Gandhi. Then why now calling himself as a Gandhi? Is he fooling Hindus? Both mother and son are cheating and exploiting Indians and slave congress politicians licking their feet! This mother-son duo has robbed crores of wealth from Indians and deposited in Swiss bank. It is time to kick this robbers from India,
By Ramesh
4/7/2009 8:00:00 AM Was he not a member of the Lok Sabha during 2004-05. How could he be attending the college? There is something fishy.
By anbu
4/7/2009 7:33:00 AM
By Radhikasingh
4/10/2009 5:35:00 PM To "We the People" - Agree Akbar was illiterate but he did not produce False Certificates to claim that he was educated. Being illiterate is not the issue here . telling lies is
By raj
4/10/2009 12:19:00 AM //Akbar was illiterate- could not read anything by some accounts. So, since when we did start requiring kings to have Cambridge education? Rahul is a great great grandson of Motilal Nehru and great grand son of Jawaharlal Nehru. He is a grand son of Indira Gandhi. Why are we checking his certificates? // Mr. Bharat shah Akbar didnt said I am educated in Cambridge but Mr.Rahul did signed an affidavit saying he is having M.phil degree from the university which is not true by all means?? Why do he want to lie for this matter?? No voter asked him to be cambridge educated to vote him.. BTW great great grandson of Motilal Nehru and great grand son of Jawaharlal Nehru and grand son of Indira Gandhi is not a certificate of goodness or greatness??!! Man is valued by his deeds and not by his family background ... being an Indian we should start seeing the Values by deeds instead of family values... bcoz family values are just USELESS as dung!
By We The People India
4/9/2009 3:23:00 PM This is the ultimate realtly of the Gandhi family in studies as well as politics. I had not thought it in dream that rahul will do this, it is very unfortunate and disaster for gandhi's goodwill.
By shakti
4/9/2009 2:38:00 PM This is the real truth about the so called ethical, moral and secular Gandhi family. They had cheated and controlled India by hook or crook and the results are visible to all of us, the india's progress reflects their educational qualifications, BOGUS. It is time that we Indians understand these cheats and punish them by voting them out of power. You make them sit out for 5 years,they are finished and India will be much better without them
By Arun
4/9/2009 11:45:00 AM This NO surprise at ALL! In Nehru's family, except him NO BODY had an inclination for studies as they were assured of seat of POWER as any ROYALTY in olden times. Why would they waste their times in NOBLE activities like STUDIES. For the FIRST family of Congress, it is Sheer waste of TIME - spending in Universities!
By Ike
4/9/2009 7:18:00 AM After winning, BJP must also promise public to retrieve all of india's precious heritage and wealth that has been looted by the British colonizers including all the declared or undeclared items an gold ornaments and jewellery and gold bars lying in british museums or private collections,besides the black money deposited by corrupt congressmen and Nehru dynasty members including Sonia Maino and Rahul Maino in swiss and german banks.Although the looted items items now in England are classified cosmetically as gifts by the british, it is a fact that these are simply looted items done by british gangsters that looted us for 500 years and more. The unfortunate part is that after indepenence in 1947, the Nehru dynasty and crooked congress politicians and agents who have been looting Indians to the tune of trillions of dollars and deposited in swiss and german banks. Hope BJP and NDA show guts to retrieve our heritage items and promise hindu majority to make them first class citizens and
By V.Mehta
4/9/2009 12:53:00 AM I read all the comments on this story. I especially liked those of Krishna Sarma, particularly when he says that a high degree of schooling (being put through high fee charging public schools, colleges, institutes of management, etc.) does not necessarily lead to high degree of education which builds character, love for country and its heritage, etc. The discussion should be more based on whether Rahul is going to be open to ideas to change India wherever it needs change, courageously taking the benefit of all that has been great in its past - especially a living tradition of seclarism to welcome and assimilate with its own culture, much that is found to be good in alien religions, modern political notions, etc. Mr J Nehru subscribed to this view but he blundered in identifying what is good and what is bad in India's past, and in falling head over shoulder for universally discarded socialism-communism. Rahul or Varun or any people in his dynastic line with a bit of his blood should
By Kittappa SK
4/8/2009 11:45:00 PM IF RAHUL HAS NO ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS THAT IS GOOD.BECAUSE INDIA DESERVE ONLY A NEHRU FAMILY MEMBER. IF THERE IS NO HUMAN BEANING IN NEHRU FAMILY ,INDIA WILL SATISFY WITH A COW OR DOG OR CAT FROM THAT FAMILY TO LEAD THEM .BECAUSE BASICALLY WE ARE SLAVES STILL NOW !AND WE PROUD OF IT !!!!!!!!!!
By S.JAYASOORYAN
4/8/2009 11:01:00 PM Akbar was illiterate- could not read anything by some accounts. So, since when we did start requiring kings to have Cambridge education? Rahul is a great great grandson of Motilal Nehru and great grand son of Jawaharlal Nehru. He is a grand son of Indira Gandhi. Why are we checking his certificates? Ask the Prime Minister. He will verify he is son of Sonia Gandhi. Show me one eligible young man who has Nehru-Gandhi blood in his veins. And about being not truthful - If anyone plans to vote for a truthful politician, he will be better served staying home. Politics is the game of compromise. And the first casualty of compromise is truth. So forget this charade of who is holier than thou. Let the elections begin.
By Bharat Shah
4/8/2009 8:40:00 PM Our culture & Heritage is Ancient, we respect our guest"Atithi Devo Bhavah" but if someone tries foul with my nation, we will not tolerate..........if you want, say ITALY IS SONIA, SONIA IS ITALY, we are least bothered..............
By Dinesh Parikh
4/8/2009 5:58:00 PM Kash have you named your kids after SONIA MAINO, You are an 100% sycophant than the real Congress neta's, What ever happens in USA need not take place here, I think you will advocate for GAY marriage too, in India..... You are not fit to be called a Desh Premi , you may be affiliated to any party, that's not a problem, that's every Individuals right, but do not be so carried away that you yourself don't know what you are talking!! If we have to Call India with some other Name certainly it can only be BHARAT..... By your this comment you have insulted all the freedom fighters of India and even to your Patriotic great grandfather's too.... It's Shameul on your part to degrade our Great Nation like this.. Sonia can't even be like a pinch of My Great Nation's Dust.... My Nation has History too not alone Geography,we can say lineage of our parents with full confidence, will sonia be able to say her Grandfather's name with that certainity.... Our culture & Heritage is Ancient, we respect our
By Dinesh Parikh
4/8/2009 5:56:00 PM Can even a 'sound' knowledge with 'perfect' mastery of development studies help the future Finance or Prime Minister or, in general, the future, elected government of India to size up the antinational phenomenon of black money economy and the "contribution" to the country's GDP of the huge mountains of money stashed away by politicians and businessmen (not to speak of the rest of Indian citizens) and harboured in safe havens like Swiss accounts, AND enable those resources to be legally pumped back for India's economic and social development, in a timebound manner with a time horizon until 2012 ? Highly Improbable that this can be done : insurmountable obstructions will be laid by the international laws and the network of evil political forces at work abroad and within India, especially the politicians whose chief aim is power, and partly also for party and leaders' illgotten riches. THERE CAN ONLY BE A GLOBAL ATTACK ON THESE ANTISOCIAL PHENOMENA LIKE THE WAR ON TERRORISM INVOLVING
By KP Sundaram, BM Karuppan
4/8/2009 5:24:00 PM (Correction in my earlier comments) I had written "These men are the ones who are blowing up Varun Gandhi's details of affidavit for election nomination." I meant to write Rahul Gandhi who is at the focus of this report. It was an inadvertent mitake, which I regret. Of course, it is another matter, it is immaterial, for the purpose of the comments, even if had been the news that Varun Gandhi had committed such errors. Both the Gandhis would need to unlearn much of dry developmental economics/ studies since they mostly do not come to grips with the India-specific realities on the ground in detail, the expectation being that the graduates would need to that work themselves. We see how great Nobel prize economics played such a role in bringing the Western economies to such a horrible mess !
By KRISHNA SARMA
4/8/2009 5:12:00 PM INDIA HAS HAD SEVERAL HIGHLY SCHOOLED PRIME MINISTERS WHO NEVER QUITE SUCCEEDED IN MOBILIZING ALL INDIANS TO UNITY AND DETERMINED ACTION FOR INDIA'S UPLIFT ESPECIALLY WITH SPECIAL MEASURES FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE POORER AND THE UNPRIVILEGED. These men canNOT be considered highly EDUCATED, since high level of academic achievement with degrees and diplomas without a sound grounding in our culture and ethos and native genius, or without a fiery and youthful enthusiasm (not to be confused with young calendar years) and love of the country, is going to be of no use to the society. Our English media are a typical example of highly schooled but little educated men dabbling in pointless and useless jugglery of words and often writing contorted articles aimed at merely sales maximisation of their cheap magazines. These men are the ones who are blowing up Varun Gandhi's details of affidavit for election nomination. If deviations are there, the EC will look into them.The media should correct th
By KRISHNA SARMA
4/8/2009 4:34:00 PM Another media conspericy is going on ....they called slumdog millionare a great film and all the congress sang together ....they made a great sensationalisation of 26\11 as if all other attacks never been seem as important as it is .....now where is the guts of media to sensationalisation of the $1.5 trillion dollers in tax havens where india comesfirst in list and have a share more than all combined together, when government all over the world made an agreement to tackle the econmic situation Indian leaders are quite and media acting so unaware of these black money in tax havens and white collar criminals....nothing seems to go in this direction....if anbody have the guts to moblise against this anybody who constantly throw mud on eachother ....if any action in this direction goes it will show the credablity of all those comments in this site and who claim nationationalist and secularist...it is well said by Obama....it is the poverty u indians should be conserned about right now..
By indiancitizen
4/8/2009 2:55:00 PM after seeing big cash deposit in swiss account i dont feel UN should provied any aid to India.Both claims to be nationalist and secularist and leader of poor must form a mass movement tovers this direction to show their crediablity...otherwise no one should belive wat the press claim to be they are and leaders to be they are ...all have vested intrest to squeze the common man and throw them in slums and a forigner makes Oscars out of it ...it is going to be the furture thamasha....i now dont tell about india to forigners and tell the greatness of our culture and heritage etc...etc...i will tell them we ar slumdogs but we have more than 2 trillion in swiss banks ...what a hypocratic country and leaders and myself used to fell proud to corelate india with china and its growth...it is all illusion nobody cares for anyone in this country.
By indiancitizen
4/8/2009 2:54:00 PM Another media conspericy is going on ....they called slumdog millionare a great film and all the congress sang together ....they made a great sensationalisation of 26\11 as if all other attacks never been seem as important as it is .....now where is the guts of media to sensationalisation of the $1.5 trillion dollers in tax havens where india comesfirst in list and have a share more than all combined together, when government all over the world made an agreement to tackle the econmic situation Indian leaders are quite and media acting so unaware of these black money in tax havens and white collar criminals....nothing seems to go in this direction....if anbody have the guts to moblise against this anybody who constantly throw mud on eachother ....if any action in this direction goes it will show the credablity of all those comments in this site and who claim nationationalist and secularist...it is well said by Obama....it is the poverty u indians should be conserned about right now..
By indiancitizen
4/8/2009 2:48:00 PM If what is reported is true, why is it that BJP is not appealing to the CEC to disqualify him? Why our friends Krishna and Co who seem to have no other business than monopolising the forums, writing to the election commission? Since they are not doing this, we have to only conclude this news is false.
By Raghu108
4/8/2009 1:20:00 PM I have to ask rahul gandhi ............ JOIN HANDS WITH CRIMINALS? Hey rahul gandhi you and your party( congress) have 'NO SENSE OF NATIONALISM'. Proofs are given below Terrorist afzal guru ( congress party stops even supreme court decision). Achyutanand and Antuley (gave very hate speech during the 26/11 attack for the two police officer and a commando who saved our mumbains' life and killed by terrorists). Jagdish tytler and sajjan kumar (accused of 84 anti punjab riots). The list is long........................................................................................... .
By paritosh
4/8/2009 12:42:00 PM PLAN TING SONIA WAS CONTINUATION OF THE BLACKMAILING OF NEHRU, TO GET FULL FREE ACCESS FOR THE CONVERSIONS OF NORTH EAST. SONIA IS A THREAT TO INDIA AND SO IS HER CHILDREN. WITH SONIA'S PRESENCE IN INDIA, OUR COINS ARE MINTED WITH CHRISTIAN CROSS. SONIA GAVE AN AFFIDAVIT THAT THERE IS NO RAM. IN SHORT THE PRESENCE OF EVERY CHRISTIAN IN INDIA IS A THREAT TO INDIA. CHRISTIANS ARE FIFTH COLUMN COMMUNITY IN INDIA AND THIS WAS REALISED IN 1857 AND EVERY CHRISTIAN WAS KILLED IN DELHI. AS PER INDIAN LAWS SONIA COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ELECTED BUT THE TRAITOR VAJPAYEE CHANGED THE LAW. IN ITALY NO NATURALISED INDIAN CAN STAND EVEN FOR A MUNICIPAL ELECTION
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:58:00 AM This will take away Vatican’s control over Church properties in Kerala and discourage christians from mindless reproduction. “Canonical papal control over Church properties in Kerala will be a new imperialism repugnant to the secular character and sovereign authority of ‘we the people of India’,” said Mr. Iyer, while asking the Church to withdraw a pastoral letter circulating in churches and chapels all over Kerala that trashed the Commission's recommendations. Mr. Iyer added, “The vast properties of the Church in the State were the product of parishioners' contributions and naturally the management of the estate must have democratic dimensions giving a voice to the Christian parishioners.”
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:53:00 AM Kerala Church is an exporter of menial female labour for European convents and Church institutions, and that their pay packets are entirely confiscated by the Church. It is very clear that Vithayathil’s mention of the pathetic nuns in his book is a last-minute knee-jerk response to Jesme’s “Amen”, hurriedly appended to a finished book intended for something else – to meddle in electoral politics to garner votes for christian congress candidates. The Church’s open call to vote against the Marxists is especially aimed at subverting secular reforms, which are very much needed in the state. It is evinced by the Cardinal’s tirade against the recommendations of the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, which advocated hundred percent secular reforms in religious institutions. One recommendation, pertains to the handover of Church properties to Christian trusts consisting of ordinary lay people based on “representations made by thinkers like Justice K.T. Thomas and Dr. K.V. Pylee, etc
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:52:00 AM Kerala's grand old christian extremist priest Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil two years ago exhorted the Kerala christians to reproduce like rats to combat the rising Muslim population. This rascal is now President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, released a book, “Straight from the Heart”. Straight from the Vatican’s Heart would have been more appropriate for its content. The 82-year-old Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil rues over the state of nuns and says they are compelled to do menial jobs for priests, but keeps mum on sexual exploitation. According to The Times of India, 17 March 2009, he writes, “I would say to a great extent our nuns are not emancipated women. They are often kept under submission by the fear of revenge by priests. That’s how the priests get away with whatever humiliation they heap upon them. It is a pitiable situation from which somebody has to liberate them.”
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:51:00 AM The Women’s Commission also could not act with any direction on the complaint of the nun from the Daughters of Mary Convent in Anchal who was forced into the mental asylum, even though its Chairperson had gone to meet her. There seems to be nothing the govt or the civilized world can do because these nuns are the possession of the richest private organisation in the world. 80% christians believe that they will go to hell if they are not buried by weirdo christian priests. All are worried about what their neighbours talk and leave everything, including dispensation of justice, to god. A small percentage believes that accusations against clergymen and Church are the workings of Satan.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:50:00 AM Slave nuns are garnering strength and slowly beginning to escape the church. Ex-sister Jesme’s autobiography, “Amen”, published by DC Books, is a revelation of the sexual exploitation of the vulnerable women in the possession of the Catholic Church. The publication of this book came close on the heels of an allegation by a nun in her 60s, from the Congregation of Daughters of Mary Convent in Anchal, accusing the Church of forced abortions of young nuns in the convent. According to her nephew, the nun is still being kept in a Church-owned mental hospital near Thodupuzha. Some nuns in Njarakal near Kochi openly rebelled against the Church in February 2009 for trying to move them forcibly from the convent where they have been living for years. Acting on complaints received by it, the Kerala State Women’s Commission submitted a recommendation to the government last year to stipulate the minimum age for joining nunnery at 18 years. The Church raised a furore.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:50:00 AM The sexual abuse of nuns by Catholic priests is no rare news and not restricted to Kerala. It is as common and virulent worldwide as Catholic paedophilia. In a report, quoted in the Catholic National Reporter in the USA in the 1990s, Sister Maura O’Donohue, a medical doctor, said the sexual abuse of nuns by priests had been documented in 23 countries. The detailed report would inspire only fantasy porno writers, for such is the ingenuity exercised by the sworn, supposedly ascetic, clergymen to satiate their perverted sexual urges with their helpless women slaves and wives of men congregating in the churches. Would you blame the hormone-driven human beneath the cassock, or the irrational, sexually aberrant Church, which is polluting the entire world with its perversions? No wonder, the head of the Church, Ratzinger alias Benedict, the present Pope, is blaming condoms for HIV/AIDS as condom is only 80% safe
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:49:00 AM The number of suicides of nuns in Kerala that never got reported in the press are very high. Only those cases in which the victims had some relative to question the unnatural death ever got into the newspapers. Otherwise there were just obituaries. Sr. Abhaya's case would have been written off as suicide, as many murders of nuns have been dismissed, but for her cousin, Jomon Puthenpurakal, who himself came close to becoming a victim. On 11 August 2008, Sr. Anupa Mary committed suicide in St. Mary's Convent, Kollam, leaving a suicide note that accused a senior nun in the convent of sexual harassment. A few days later, two girl inmates of an orphanage run by the Holy Cross Order in which Sr. Anupa was ordained, tried to commit suicide and later accused an apprentice priest Benedict of harassment. On 11 February 2009, Sr. Josephine who lived in the Daughters of Mary Convent in Thiruvananthapuram, committed suicide. Harassment was alleged initially, but that too went up in smoke.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:48:00 AM When I read Amen, I was not surprised. Kids are donated to church to become nuns and priests, with no right to property. Such donations of humans are tantamount to slavery which the christians practiced for long. In mid-1960s one Kerala priest killed a woman but escaped the noose due to India’s slack legal system. This Kerala’s infamous murder is known as Madatharuvi murder case. In Amen the book written by a nun a doctorate in English language, whom the church was trying to put in a mental asylam depicts the sexual deprivation of Christianity and church. A christian priest removed his dress in front of the nun and masturbated and produced the white liquid to show Jesse that it was the way to live. Women slaves called nuns are used by the priests in Africa to avoid AIDs.
By n.krishna
4/8/2009 11:47:00 AM INDIA IS A GREAT COUNTRY. Before Obama, Sonia Gandhi, an immigrant won the election and could have been PM. Only in INDIA CAN AN IMMIGRANT BECOME A PM. Yet, in a selfless act, SONIA ABROGATED THE POSITION FOR AN INDIAN. Nehru was a freedom fighter. Nehru guided Indian democracy. If not for Nehru India would be a failed state today, like Pakistan. DON'T BE FOOLS, INDIANS, GANDHI IS INDIA, INDIA IS GANDHI. This family has sacrificed so much for India. NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD OWES AS MUCH TO ONE FAMILY AS INDIA DOES TO THE NEHRU/GANDHI FAMILY.
By kash
4/8/2009 10:36:00 AM KKK as your name suggest you are an Member of Xian terrorist outfit Ku klax Klan, kkk , james and Nanda you Perverts, hinduism does not need any certificate from Pigs like you, Just go thro today's express page no:6(Belgaum Edition) , see your Parish Priest from NEW LIFE,Mysore has been caught for Chain Snatching along with Eight of his colleagues, in Mangalore. You Perverts they snatched Six Mangal Sutras of Hindu females,four gold chains weighing 211gms.You talk So much about your christanity,.. As American money has stopped coming in for this pigs, they have resorted to robbery, this what Jesu taught you people, ..Nanda next time when you go to AMNESIA, be careful of your xian brothers they may snatch even your dress too, Nanda if you in need of Pink chaddi contact me i will give you a dozen..........................
By Somu
4/8/2009 9:55:00 AM What is the difference between LTTE and BJP? Nothing. Both are illiterate organization with pea sized brains. All they can thin about is Sonia. You remembering her so much has given her yawning sickness it seems. I am sure, you guys are thinking about her in your dreams too. Your hatred has made her a princes. Hindu WAS a peaceful religion. Now, they have no religion. Hindus = TERRORISTS. What is the difference between al quaeda and Hindu groups? Nothing.. India has only population. Indians have attitude problem and that is why India is so laid back.
By Nanda
4/8/2009 9:34:00 AM stupid venkat, come and see how many people attend Sunday services ? How many has re marriages. Second marriage people are not Catholics you stupid idiot venkat. What you know bout christianity being a Hindu. YOu get out of west and get back to yor stupid India. The talk.
By James
4/8/2009 9:24:00 AM It is clear that after failing first semester in core courses, Rahul dropped out. Raul Vinci was not going to get M.Phil. in Development Studies just after passing these four basic courses. All mistakes in election affidavit is due to the fact, he did not get a free certificate in English language from Lennox Cook School like his mom, so he could not read, what is written in Cambridge result card. I doubt if he really wrote any exam in Cambridge Univ., he might have hired someone with the birth name Raul Vinci. Regarding Sonia's English certificate, this is given free if you can't speak English and taught 2 hours per week by volunteers to help foreigners who want to work in UK - without any exam or test to check competency but a certificate of attendance. This is not the education, election affidavit is about, they want formal education, not the embroidery or milking certificate done by Rabri.
By Rahul Kumar
4/8/2009 9:07:00 AM Christian Albino pigs , occupiers of our land go back to your ghettos in Europe. Purveyors of child pornography, incest and homosexuality because of the unholy shit called the Bible GET OUT of the Americas. Ask that bloody self appointed homo jesus why his Jehovah never told him that the earth and universe were spherical and it was not flat as this shepherd with an IQ of minus 150 thought
By Aztec Indian
4/8/2009 8:52:00 AM If everything written here is true, why the print media is keeping quiet? They are equally responsible for withholding the information on the true identity of our leaders. If any of these people who hold the passport and citizenship of other countries try to become the executive head of our country, it is nothing less than foreign invasion of India. If any of these issues are true, media has a serious responsibility and they need to act responsibly and it is the time do it.
By Rajendra TK
4/8/2009 8:38:00 AM HINDUISM IS A TERRORITS RELIGION FULL OF THIEFS AND IMMORALES.
By KKK
4/8/2009 7:10:00 AM HINDUISM IS A TERRORITS RELIGION FULL OF THIEFS AND IMMORALES.
By KKK
4/8/2009 7:10:00 AM Indian dogs get out of USA.
By KKK
4/8/2009 7:06:00 AM Congress under Sonia is anti-national party. They have allowed Reddy and family to get thousands of crores from missionaries to fund conversions and politics. These missionaries have cheated/killed people of North America, South America, Africa and Australia and now they are targeting Andhra since more white people are leaving Christianity. Narasimha Rao brought financial reform. Narasimha Rao fixed Punjab. Vajpayee improved roads and ports and defense. What has Sonia done?
By Narain
4/8/2009 7:05:00 AM John who says Sonia is a Hindu, Was Rajiv a Hindu??? When a Hindu Indira marries a Parsi Feroz, then how come Rajiv be a Hindu instead of a Parsi?? Ok as per your argument he is a HIndu, then you mean to say Feroz converted himself to Hinduism!!!! And by Marrying Hindu Rajiv, Sonia too became a Hindu!!! My Dear friend, Rajiv too followed his father's footsteps and got himself converted into a Xian....John have you ever came a Hindu boy being named RAUL?? A hindu girl named Bianka??? John, Conversion is also another type of Terrorism, and which Vatican follows...John does KU KLAX KLAN belongs to Hindu???? John you have showed your Cheap Mentality by branding India as HELL, you are an example of Vatican mole in India along with Maino vinc.... Are you not Living in India, My Bharata has become HELL(AS branded by you) because of People like you,....
By Dinesh Parikh
4/8/2009 7:03:00 AM Is Raul Vinci a member of KU KLAX KLAN ............................................................
By vikas patel
4/8/2009 6:42:00 AM Rahul is a LIAR all along, her mother too lied about her educational qualification during 2004 elections, Her nomination papers’ affidavit claimed she obtained a certificate in English from Lennox Cook School, University of Cambridge, in 1965. After it was revealed that the school had no affiliation to the University, Sonia claimed that the error on the affidavit was the result of a secretarial typing mistake. So this LIE Virus are there in his GENE carrying from his Parents...A FAMILY FULL OF LIARS RIGHT FROM NEHRU TILL RAUL, ...... Kash, if not for Nehru India would not have been divided, please go thro the pages of History first, If not for Rajiv IPKF would not have gone to Srilanka, Sahbano case, Bofors, all these scandals would not have taken place,....
By vikas patel
4/8/2009 6:39:00 AM Mr Rajashekar who is making baseless allegations?? You mean to say Express has made baseless allegations!! Ok agreed we make baseless allegations, but your master's should have sued this paper, but why they are keeping quiet??? "SILENCE AMOUNTS TO ACCEPTANCE"!!! Sir It's you and not us, who needs very urgent admission in Mental asylum,... Ok agreed we are affliated to a political party or subscribe to a particular ideology or religion, but what about you??? We know where your Loyalty lies. It's like Tea calling kettle black, YOU ARE A SYCOPHANT..... You will be given one of the Padma Awards(whether you deserve it or not is Immaterial) by your masters......... follow their Sermon Blindly by killing your Soul and Self Esteem... Are you Glassmate of Raul Vinci?? oh Sorry I meant Classmate...................
By Dinesh parikh
4/8/2009 6:35:00 AM THIS FAKE GANDHI FAMILY IS CHEATING US FOR GENERATIONS. IT IS THE TIME NOW TO KICK THIS FAMILY FROM INDIA
By Krishna
4/8/2009 5:59:00 AM I congratulate ExpressBuzz for their boldness in publishing this article. Most of the indian media is acting like a congress party propagand machine. But you are different . It is assumed that Rahul Gandhi will be our future PM and we Indians have all the right to know about this person. Thanks for exposing our prince!
By Peter
4/8/2009 5:55:00 AM He is an italian dumb cow, Noooo way he could be our Prime minister!
By saurabh
4/8/2009 5:31:00 AM Making mindless allegations and charges against people, religions and communities are a sure sign of mental derangement! Some of you guys and gals should check into a mental hospital ,if you aren't already committed to one. What good it is to malign people without any basis because you are affliated to a political party or subscribe to a particular ideology or religion. Those whot thrive in spewing hatred and venom will one day reap a bounteous harvest of the same in return. Shame on you narrow minded Indians!
By Rajashekar
4/8/2009 5:08:00 AM Congress now has two identities one is the deputy of Muslim league - its spiritual arm and mafia group - that its spirit has morphed into to some distance. What do expect from those who are at its helm?
By Anil
4/8/2009 2:28:00 AM This sonia/rahul and nehru family are fraud,they are agents of italian mafia n vatican,eevryone knws vatican is a satanic place full of gays and greedy people.Lets throw these missionares and christian mafia out of india.missionaries have already terorized india a lot.lets throw this family out of india to dogs.
By amit
4/8/2009 1:10:00 AM Very good post except that Raul Vinci is not a pseudonym but his real name as per his Italian passport which he carries to travel abroad. He also failed his Hindi exam and is a three time college dropout. The facts are on web, please google it.
By Seema
4/8/2009 1:08:00 AM Chrisitnaity is a satanic cult,they belive in killing people and are adamant for conversion.They have killed billions in japan/iraq/afganistan and many places.Chrisitnaity is not a religion but a monarchical architecture to rule the world.The 10 commandmants of chritanity are frauds.Chrstains rape and rober,they convert ,they are terorrists who are killing millions around the world.
By amit
4/8/2009 1:06:00 AM Mr. Prabhu, Christians are not minority in West. Come to USA and see Atheist are less than 10 % and agnostics (neither deny nor accept the existence of God) and about 5 %. Peopel who claim to be Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others are less than 5%. The rest pretty much claims to be Christians and about 30 % of them are Evangelists who strongly believe it's their duty to propagate Christianity, which includes coverting poor Indians either by hook or crook. So, please stop spreading lies. (My numbers are based on recent census)
By Venkat
4/8/2009 12:36:00 AM Every body seems to ask how will BJP find money for all the schemes/Simple, BJP and NDA will hopefully do its best to get the 50 trillion dollars black money deposited by corrupt Nehru dynatsy and congress ministers and agents in swiss and german banks and get baclkall the looted gold and jewellery and ornaments that British colonizers had looted during the past 500 years.No party has presented such a wonderful manifesto as BJP for the past 60 years and during the past 60 years congress promised to eradiccate proverry, but they made majority hindus beggars and put all the corrption money of trillions $ in swiss banks and made as many slums to create a world record for wretched mis-rule of past 50 years and more. Voters and public are not fools and they know how NDA rule has helped the country to withstand the global meltdown and crisis, otherwise we could have been bankrupt now
By V.Mehta
4/8/2009 12:13:00 AM Looks like Krishna was Sonia's treasurer. And now he is sacked. Poor Krishna! Krishna, in this rate, you will have heart attack very soon and who is going to suffer, not Sonia or Rahul, but you and your family. Try to relax. If not soon, you will also join Mehta and both can be friends in mental hospital. Your birth was a mistake.
By Raghuveera
4/8/2009 12:12:00 AM Bharat is right, I think you are the perfect candidate with chicken brain to rule the country.
By Naresh
4/8/2009 12:07:00 AM The person does not follow the commandments written in the bible is not a christian at all. They are terrorists. There only 10 commandments and but is very hard to live according to them. That is why christian population is decreasing. If you want to have a liberal life, you can be a Hindu. In Hinduism, no regulation, you can rape someone, you can kill someone, you can cut someone's hand, you can do all the above and put a poor Christian's name. that is what is Hinduism. Christians are minority in the west too. What you find majority are atheists, with European names. They are European names, not Christian names. They are no Christians. Don't blame the minority religion for what atheists are doing. Don't punish minority Christians for the faults of atheists.
By Prabhu
4/8/2009 12:06:00 AM Mehta needs to be in Mental hospital. He is suffering from serious bouts of schizophrenia. He think Sonia has a place in Vatican. She is Hindu. She had married a Hindu. Mehta, I read somewhere that you are a Muslim and spying on Indians. Vatican does not need poor India. There is no place for Stupid idiot like you in heaven. You deserve India(hell). Vatican does not have agents. VAtican only is roman catholic organization. Vatican has regulations only for true believers. Who follow the ten commandments. Others are nto welcome there. Killing is not allowed in Christians and blood shed is the biggest sin for a catholic. Catholics are not allowed to marry second time. There is no divorce in Catholics. Catholics are not allowed to drink. What you are looking at isnot christians. They are terrorists like you.
By John
4/7/2009 11:58:00 PM The whole Italiano fascist clan is a fraud, imposed on this nation by the fraud Rajiv Khan fake gandhii. Those Bharatiya/Indians have self-respect and earned their education with hard work must wake up and not whitewash this. Why shall we allow such frauds to rule our naiton? Are we less eligible?
By Bharat
4/7/2009 11:45:00 PM We, the citizens of a country, which had the esteemed Mr. Chandrashekar as its Prime Minister in the past and is currently projecting Ms. Mayawati as a potential candidate, have issues related the discrepancies in the "educational" claims made by Rahul and Sonia Gandhi???....you gotto be kidding me...at least they are educated.
By An Indian
4/7/2009 11:29:00 PM These Italian idiots and liars have now come to rule India, the greatest country on earth. Is this a curse by some Gods?
By Nagesu Singam
4/7/2009 11:03:00 PM Sonia Gandhi got bofors bribe received by her husband Rajiv Gandhi, the bribe from submarine deal, missile deal with Israel, $2 billion KGB bribe, Rs 10000 crore from illegal smuggling of antique Hindu idols to her two shops in Italy, drug export money sent via coffin export that was done by Sonia, Saddam Hussains oil bribe money. The list is very long and she tops the list of politicians who stashed away black money in Swiss banks. Indian nationals top in Swiss Bank deposits, as of Year 2008 India $1891 billion, Russia $610 billion, China $213 billion, UK $210 billion, Ukraine $140 billion, Rest of the world $300 billion. scribd.com/doc/14047562/Sonia-Gandhis-Billions-in-Swiss-Banks
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 10:45:00 PM And Raul (aka Rahul) has hopes to be PM of my country someday. A liar running my country... a sad thought. But this is reality. Wake up my fellow youngsters of India and vote for change - let's repeat Obamamania in India. Lets find our own Obama in Modi who also talks of hope and development and security like Obama does. Lets vote for the party that may one day bring Modi to the centre and give him a chance to prove himself. Down with liars, down with the Gandhi dynasty, down with the party that supports these liars, down with the goondas and traitors like Lalu, Mulayam, Ram Vilas Paswan and the "teersa morcha". Vote for BJP!
By PatriotHindu
4/7/2009 10:24:00 PM Dear The truth man, truths often are stranger than fiction.Let us get facts right. LTTE is a christian organization funded by Vatican and christian nations. That is why Sonia Maino the vatican agent is ruling India like an empress using christains agents and robots and slaves like Manmohan Chidambram and so mnay thousands of power hungry money crazy agents.See how vatican and CIA did the conspircay to get their agent as empress of India, by first getting a damsel Sonia to trap the wpmanizer Rajeev Gandhi and then getting killed all the family including Rajeev using LTTE and eliminating all contenders for power like Rajesh Pilot,Scindia and so many others. Moronic majority hindus including BJP,RSS and VHP have no brains to see all these comspiracies.Now BJP must go for aggressive hinduvta and majority hindus must vote in large numbers for BJP and allies to kick out corrupt Nehru Dynasty forever
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 9:42:00 PM Mehta, Please open ur eyes and see the truth, Rajiv Gandhi was killed because Indian Government betrayed LTTE. Hope you know the detail that LTTE was patronised by Indian Government .They were trained by Indian Army . Suddenly Congress betrayed them and the LTTE which was sponsored by India was not only left alone but was also killed by same Indian Army (Peace Keeping Force)which trained them. What Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia did to India we all know. If you can tell the truth about others also it will be of great help. But remember Always spread genuine knowledge and not rumours. Else everyone will feel you are propogating BJP.
By The Truth
4/7/2009 8:44:00 PM Mehta, Please open ur eyes and see the truth, Rajiv Gandhi was killed because Indian Government betrayed LTTE. Hope you know the detail that LTTE was patronised by Indian Government .They were trained by Indian Army . Suddenly Congress betrayed them and the LTTE which was sponsored by India was not only left alone but was also killed by same Indian Army (Peace Keeping Force)which trained them. What Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia did to India we all know. If you can tell the truth about others also it will be of great help. But remember Always spread genuine knowledge and not rumours. Else everyone will feel you are propogating BJP.
By The Truth
4/7/2009 8:43:00 PM Mehta, Please open ur eyes and see the truth, Rajiv Gandhi was killed because Indian Government betrayed LTTE. Hope you know the detail that LTTE was patronised by Indian Government .They were trained by Indian Army . Suddenly Congress betrayed them and the LTTE which was sponsored by India was not only left alone but was also killed by same Indian Army (Peace Keeping Force)which trained them. What Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia did to India we all know. If you can tell the truth about others also it will be of great help. But remember Always spread genuine knowledge and not rumours. Else everyone will feel you are propogating BJP.
By The Truth
4/7/2009 8:26:00 PM After winning, BJP must also promise public to retrieve all of india's precious heritage and wealth that has been looted by the British colonizers including all the declared or undeclared items an gold ornaments and jewellery and gold bars lying in british museums or private collections,besides the black money deposited by corrupt congressmen and Nehru dynasy members including Sonia Maino and Rahul Maino in swiss and german banks.Although the looted items items now in England are classified cosmetically as gifts by the british, it is a fact that these are simply looted items done by british gangsters that looted us for 500 years and more. The unfortunate part is that after indepenence in 1947, the Nehru dynasty and crooked congress politicians and agents who have been looting Indians to the tune of trillions of dollars and deposited in swiss and german banks. Hope BJP and NDA show guts to retrieve our heritage items and promise hindu majority to make them first class citizens and a
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 7:57:00 PM Varun is a terrorist and you have to accept it. it is very sad that you guys are encouraging him and leading him towards terrorism and you guys are watching. Shame on you people! He seems to be intelligent and help him to use this intelligence towards better things not destruction. Because of your attitudes, India remains poor and will remain poor.
By Babu
4/7/2009 7:29:00 PM I think Krishna took major role in the gang rape of Sukanya Devi. If not, he will not not much details about it as anyone. Krisha should be handed over to Osama Bin Ladin. He is a religious extremists with no balls. He suits better to be a Talibanian than Indian.
By Babu
4/7/2009 7:23:00 PM This is beautiful and bold journalistic work by Newindpress team. Congratulations to newindpress team.Majority hindus and all patritic indians must wake up, unite and vote in large numbers for BJP and allies to kick out crroked and corrupt mafia and fraudulent Sonia Maino congress and UPA allies and communists from our land forver, in coming Lok Sabha elections.
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 7:17:00 PM This fraud by Rahul Maino is not surprising at all since that whole family if a mafia family and full of frauds. Now Sonia Maino is ruling like an empress due to wicked conpsiracy by Vatican and CIA, frst trapping Rajeev Gandhi using her charm and then like in a Hitchcovk move and by wicket steps, eliminate one by one in the family including the husband Rajeev with help of christian LTTE and their minority agents. The moronic hindus are just charmed by the "gora" or white skin and are unable to se all the deep rooted conspiracise and like the Brittsih colonial rule, there are hundreds of christian and church agents to advise Queen Sonia and there are thousands of slaves who are prepared to serve as door mats or robots to get some personal and family favours.Majority hindus must unite and vote in large numbers for BJP and allies to save the hindus from miserty and terror and eliminate all the anti-hindu congress mafia and crooked anti-nationals around them
By V.Mehta
4/7/2009 7:12:00 PM This shows the calibre of this family and the person himself whom the media is hell bent on projecting as a youth ( ?) icon and the next PM. The whole family is beset with lies,crime and an embodiment of evil.
By Muthuveeran
4/7/2009 6:04:00 PM With The Exception of Varun, Therez None Who Studied Beyond High School in The Nehru Family after Jawaharlal Nehru
By RAJ
4/7/2009 4:21:00 PM These Gandhi family is full of lies! From Rajiv , Sonia to now Rahul. Just imgain if they can't tell the truth about their qulification are they going to tell the truth in politices? This only show their character, Ghandhi's are a bunch of liars and crooks.
By Ragu Pinto
4/7/2009 12:12:00 PM The cambridge university should clearly tell about Rahul's study on Developmental Economic. Otherwise, we Indian, have to doubt the credibility of the University.As discussions on Rahul Gandhi's MPhil degree is in the big debate and who will oneday rule India as PM. If he is not done MPhil who is botherd. To serve Inidian we need only VOTE BANKS of various Caste, Creed, Colour, and Money (unlawfully accumulated and Muscles of GOONS and GOONDAS. Why so much people bothered about Degrees?
By RAJEN PETER
4/7/2009 11:56:00 AM This is a typical Indian Express expose.The coming loksabha elections are a godsend opportunity to throw this italian mafia from our land.
By r vassudevan
4/7/2009 11:55:00 AM The cambridge university should clearly tell about Rahul's study on Developmental Economic. Otherwise, we Indian, have to doubt the credibility of the University.As discussions on Rahul Gandhi's MPhil degree is in the big debate and who will oneday rule India as PM.
By RAJEN PETER
4/7/2009 11:41:00 AM n.krishna, you are well informed!
By Arun
4/7/2009 11:27:00 AM It is said not to track the origin of R^ishhiH [the sage] or of nadi [river] but expressbuzz has stood up to its name. See the duplicity of name given - vinci for a Gandhi. It rings a more famous truth search - breaking da vinci code. Let expressbuzz search further on the madam and many a skeleton will fall out of the cupboard, for I suspect the madam has entered India with a purpose as she represents the opus dei.
By Jayaraman
4/7/2009 10:30:00 AM MANY NATIONALS IN THE GULF NATIONS OBTAIN US DEGREES BY PAYING MONEY. THIS FELLOW IS A FAKE IDIOT WHO WILL NOT GET A JOB OF A PEON IN INDIA. THE CONGRESS PARTY WAS TAKEN OVER BY CHRISTIAN GOONDAS LONG AGO. READ MY BLOG ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN TERRORIST YSR OR Y SAMUEL RAJASEKHAR REDDY. CHRISTIAN MAFIA WORKS IN TANDEM WITH MUSLIM TERRORISTS IN INDIA scribd.com/doc/13579318/YSR-the-Christian-Terrorist-CM-of-Andhrapradesh
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 10:00:00 AM The only sports Raul knows is gang rape. Rahul Gandhi has gang raped one Sukanya Devi on 3-12-2006 and the matter was hushed up using IB thugs sent by Ahamad Patel and needs to be investigated by CBI. Raul is his real name in the Italian passport. He was traveling with Italian passport along with his wife Juanita and was arrested at an airport in USA, by FBI, on September 27, 2001 for illegal possession of $200,000. Juanita and Raul Gandhi were released after CIA agent Brajesh Mishra, whose daughter was married to an Italian and working for the steroid filled Prime Minister Vajpayee’s office.
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 9:53:00 AM Rajiv Ghandi had converted to Christianity and changed the name to Roberto and married the Italian Christian Edvige Antonia Albina Maino who was presented in front of Rajiv Gandhi in Cambridge by Archbishop Paul Casimir Marcinkus alias Paul the Gorilla Marcinkus. Now She has the illegal name of Sonia Gandhi. Rajiv Ghandi and Antonia Maino had one daughter and one son by name Bianka and Raul. For the Indian public these names are presented as Prianka and Rahul. Rahul is also holding an Italian passport in the name of Raul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi married Juanita daughter of a Colombian heroin peddler. The marriage was conducted anonymously in the island of Tenerife in Canary Islands. Juanita holds a Venezuelan passport
By n.krishna
4/7/2009 9:47:00 AM Evict Italian mafia from our country ..we have enough swadeshi crooks of our own..no need to import these m-fcukering gandhis
By Jay
4/7/2009 9:38:00 AM Hope they did not get this degree from giving a donation or endowment to the college. I do not understand which sports would qualify for sports quota. They should just mark illiterate instead of getting into controversies with the details.In the name of garibhi hatao they have amassed huge wealth. Thanks to them India won an oscar for slumdog.
By rsahoo
4/7/2009 9:21:00 AM @ if u can call this sacrifice a cunning jackal or fox also does this to get its prey. fools like u have handed ur hand in these prople who were responsible for improper division of nation, loss of wealth, lands, water and people. Why is it cong hesitant about the swiss bank account, do u know when the first corruption of so called free india started even before independence after freedom in the first year when indian army needed jeeps immediately and we received so early that it took 1 yr, the very yr we lost half of kashmir, Nehru family to bangarappa family to moily everyone have a swiss bank account. do not be so foolish to decorate ur slavery to family who have been know to convert their faith every time to get something for them. also the person who traited nation for his love to others wife made J&K a burning problem till today
By lohit
4/7/2009 9:08:00 AM Rahul can not match up his mummy in mis-representing facts. His mamma could not even count the heads of her flock when she went to President Abdul Kalam and declared she had the majority support which in fact was far short of the magic figure. The Dynasty will do anything to keep themeselves in power as long as they have Congress slaves under their feet. She does not even know how many billions USD she has stashed away in Swiss Banks looted from the illiterate, poor Indians. But they claim that their total net worth is less than a total of Rs. 40 millions. Members of Election Commission will be fools if they do not verify and correct the statement.
By R.Krishnan
4/7/2009 9:07:00 AM If not for Nehru, India would be just like Pakistan today. Rajiv Gandhi walked away from decadent economic policies like the 5 year plans and introduced open market, Friedman policies to India. It was him who initialy appointed Manmohan Singhe to change the Indian economy, by asking him to study J.R.Jayewardenas economic policies. Manmohan Singhe has been part of the Indian economic wonder for the last 30 years. You should thank Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singhe for modern India. Sonia Gandhi won the election, and could have been PM, but instead of been a gready politician, she gave the mantle to a more suitable person. HOW MANY INDIAN POLITICIANS CAN CLAIM THAT? What India needs is selfless leaders. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singhe is the best you will get. By the way, thank JR Jayewardena for having a chat with Rajiv Gandhi about modern econmomics, because India is great because of that chat.
By kash
4/7/2009 8:56:00 AM There is nothing surprising in this news item. This is very much possible from the 'Ghanti' family. Their ability to distort facts is notorious. Look at their names. They like to add the magical word 'Gandhi' to their names. they know people will think that they are relatives of Mahatma Gandhi. In fact, they cleverly polished the surname of 'Firoz Ganti' as 'Firoz Gandhi' and started using the name of Mahatma with their names. What a dynastical way to fool the people ! They must be defeated at any cost.
By Indian
4/7/2009 8:41:00 AM And if he has got the degree in 2004-2005,then how he had claimed in year 2004 election affidavit that he has above degree.
By pk
4/7/2009 8:09:00 AM Not at all surprising! This rogue family has consistently falsefied their qualitfications. Perhaps the last one to be straight on qualifications was the grandfather Nehru. The rest are all claims in the air. This family has mocked affidavits time and again. They are confident of fooling Bharatiyas. No exception; whether it was Indira, Rajiv, Raul alias Rahul or Varun. Birds of the same feather showing their true colours. Bharatiyas, trash this family and ensure they are out of power forever. Only then can we live with self-respect and govern ourselves honestly.
By Bharata
4/7/2009 8:03:00 AM And if he has got the degree in 2004-2005,then how he had claimed in year 2004 election affidavit that he has above degree.
By pk
4/7/2009 8:01:00 AM And this illiterate Rahul Gandhi is our future PM. What a shame!, they don't have even a decent education. How can they rule billion people. He registered as Rahul Vinci (christian) and basically he did not take is sir name from Rajiv Gandhi. Then why now calling himself as a Gandhi? Is he fooling Hindus? Both mother and son are cheating and exploiting Indians and slave congress politicians licking their feet! This mother-son duo has robbed crores of wealth from Indians and deposited in Swiss bank. It is time to kick this robbers from India,
By Ramesh
4/7/2009 8:00:00 AM Was he not a member of the Lok Sabha during 2004-05. How could he be attending the college? There is something fishy.
By anbu
4/7/2009 7:33:00 AM
India Elections 2009 - Letter to Jairam Ramesh
Source: OFFSTUMPED
India Elections 2009 - Letter to Jairam Ramesh
Dear Dr. Ramesh
Since it is the season for open letters here goes from an Aam Admi.I have always been amused at how a fellow IIT Mumbai alumnus like yourself could dumb down your intellect on a daily basis to survive the sycophancy of the Congress Party.
But really your defense of Rahul Gandhi’s perjury by lending credibility to his claim of having studied for a MPhil in a program that doesnt exist is really the limit.
It is shocking coming from someone who prides himself as an alumnus of India’s premier Institute that you should provide cover to perjury on academic qualifications.
To put it bluntly, Dr. Ramesh you were lying in 2004 when you gave this interview to Amulya Ganguly in The Frontline Magazine of The Hindu when you asserted that
”in 1995, he got an M.Phil. in the economics of developing countries from Trinity College, Cambridge”.
There is no such thing as a MPhil in the economics of developing countries at Cambridge and that fact has been exposed by this front page article in the New Indian Express after being contradicted by Cambridge University itself in this press release dated 11th October 2006.
That there is a MPhil in Development Studies at Cambridge is incontrovertible. There is also no dispute that Rahul Gandhi did study for a MPhil between 1994-1995.
But I would like to ask you a straight question.
In the 5 years since you provided legitimacy to Rahul Gandhi’s dishonesty on his academic qualifications, why havent you shown the courage and the conviction to set the record straight on the matter of his actual academic performance and the truth about his MPhil ?
Your defense of Rahul Gandhi’s academic qualification is completely bogus.
I think you may very well be referring to MPhil from Cambridge College Cumbala, on G. Deshmukh Marg, Peddar Road Cumbala Hill Mumbai which by the way is opposite to the Film Division and perhaps may have contributed to this brilliant act of subterfuge.
Goebbels believed that if you keep repeating a lie several times, people will begin to believe it. Your sycophantic worship and service to the NehruGandhi parivar has perfected this dictum.
regards
an Aam Admi
Russia, Brazil to cooperate on fifth-generation fighter program
18:14 | 09/ 04/ 2009
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - Russia continues to look for partners to help implement its fifth-generation fighter program, also known as PAK FA - Prospective (promising) Aircraft System of the Frontline Aviation.
Apart from India, which has agreed to cooperate with Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), now working on the fifth-generation fighter program, Brazil could also join in. Alexander Fomin, Deputy Director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Moscow and Brasilia were negotiating technology exchanges and the possibility of assembling PAK FA fighters in Brazil under a Russian license.
The new warplane is to replace the Russian Air Force's fourth-generation fighters in the next decade.
The Soviet Union launched fifth-generation fighter programs in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, the Mikoyan Design Bureau developed the Project 1.44/1.42 warplane, also known as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG MFI. MiG is now using this designation for an advanced MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter. Despite the non-production status of the 1.44/1.42 program, NATO assigned the reporting name Flatpack to it.
The Sukhoi Aviation Corporation came up with the S-37/Su-47 Berkut -- Golden Eagle/Firkin experimental supersonic forward swept-wing jet fighter. The S-37/Su-47 aircraft is an advanced technology demonstrator prototype not intended to be mass-produced.
Due to the lack of allocations, the Project 1.44/1.42 aircraft was not streamlined and never entered production.
By the late 1990s, it became obvious that existing fifth-generation fighter projects were becoming obsolete, that their production versions would be inferior to the brand-new Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor air-superiority fighter, and that the Air Force would receive such warplanes a decade too late.
In the early 2000s, the Russian government decided to develop an entirely new fifth-generation fighter. Sukhoi, Mikoyan and Yakovlev design bureaus boasting a reputation for their hard-hitting fighters offered several warplane versions.
The Sukhoi Aviation Corporation received project manager status and was placed in charge of the new T-50 fifth-generation fighter program.
Various maiden flight and supply deadlines were discussed from the very beginning. The T-50 was scheduled to perform its first flight in 2008-2010. In late 2008, Colonel General Alexander Zelin, Commander of the Russian Air Force, said the plane would take off for the first time in August 2009.
In the summer of 2008, the officials involved said the T-50 design had been approved and prototype aircraft blueprints sent to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KNAAPO) in Russia's Far East where production will apparently be sited. KNAAPO is currently building three prototype T-50 fighters for subsequent tests, due to last five to six years, while mass production will not get underway before 2015.
Although T-50 specifications remain undisclosed, prototypes and the first production aircraft will be fitted with 117S (AL-41F1A) turbofan engines, a major upgrade of the AL-31F engine from Russian aircraft engine manufacturer NPO Saturn.
Consequently, the T-50 will be a heavy fighter with a take-off weight of more than 30 metric tons and will have the same dimensions as the well-known Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. The Tikhomirov Instrument Engineering Research Institute which had invented the Irbis radar for the Su-35BM Flanker-E 4.5generation air-superiority/strike fighter is currently working on the T-50 radar.
It appears that the new fighter's radar and fire-control system will be developed on the basis of the Su-35BM's systems.
A search for foreign partners in the development and production of the fifth-generation aircraft has been caused by the desire to share a very high financial burden involved in it. The United States has opted for this road in the F-35 aircraft program.
Apart from investing in the fifth-generation fighter program, Brazil could provide Russia with state-of-the-art aviation technology. Notably, Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer manufactures EMB-312 Tucano turboprop basic trainers and EMB-314 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft designed for light attack, counter-insurgency (COIN) and pilot-training missions.
Many analysts think both planes are especially adapted for low-intensity conflicts and are just as popular as fighters. Quire possibly, Russia will manufacture such planes using Brazilian technology.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - Russia continues to look for partners to help implement its fifth-generation fighter program, also known as PAK FA - Prospective (promising) Aircraft System of the Frontline Aviation.
Apart from India, which has agreed to cooperate with Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), now working on the fifth-generation fighter program, Brazil could also join in. Alexander Fomin, Deputy Director of Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Moscow and Brasilia were negotiating technology exchanges and the possibility of assembling PAK FA fighters in Brazil under a Russian license.
The new warplane is to replace the Russian Air Force's fourth-generation fighters in the next decade.
The Soviet Union launched fifth-generation fighter programs in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, the Mikoyan Design Bureau developed the Project 1.44/1.42 warplane, also known as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG MFI. MiG is now using this designation for an advanced MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter. Despite the non-production status of the 1.44/1.42 program, NATO assigned the reporting name Flatpack to it.
The Sukhoi Aviation Corporation came up with the S-37/Su-47 Berkut -- Golden Eagle/Firkin experimental supersonic forward swept-wing jet fighter. The S-37/Su-47 aircraft is an advanced technology demonstrator prototype not intended to be mass-produced.
Due to the lack of allocations, the Project 1.44/1.42 aircraft was not streamlined and never entered production.
By the late 1990s, it became obvious that existing fifth-generation fighter projects were becoming obsolete, that their production versions would be inferior to the brand-new Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor air-superiority fighter, and that the Air Force would receive such warplanes a decade too late.
In the early 2000s, the Russian government decided to develop an entirely new fifth-generation fighter. Sukhoi, Mikoyan and Yakovlev design bureaus boasting a reputation for their hard-hitting fighters offered several warplane versions.
The Sukhoi Aviation Corporation received project manager status and was placed in charge of the new T-50 fifth-generation fighter program.
Various maiden flight and supply deadlines were discussed from the very beginning. The T-50 was scheduled to perform its first flight in 2008-2010. In late 2008, Colonel General Alexander Zelin, Commander of the Russian Air Force, said the plane would take off for the first time in August 2009.
In the summer of 2008, the officials involved said the T-50 design had been approved and prototype aircraft blueprints sent to the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KNAAPO) in Russia's Far East where production will apparently be sited. KNAAPO is currently building three prototype T-50 fighters for subsequent tests, due to last five to six years, while mass production will not get underway before 2015.
Although T-50 specifications remain undisclosed, prototypes and the first production aircraft will be fitted with 117S (AL-41F1A) turbofan engines, a major upgrade of the AL-31F engine from Russian aircraft engine manufacturer NPO Saturn.
Consequently, the T-50 will be a heavy fighter with a take-off weight of more than 30 metric tons and will have the same dimensions as the well-known Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. The Tikhomirov Instrument Engineering Research Institute which had invented the Irbis radar for the Su-35BM Flanker-E 4.5generation air-superiority/strike fighter is currently working on the T-50 radar.
It appears that the new fighter's radar and fire-control system will be developed on the basis of the Su-35BM's systems.
A search for foreign partners in the development and production of the fifth-generation aircraft has been caused by the desire to share a very high financial burden involved in it. The United States has opted for this road in the F-35 aircraft program.
Apart from investing in the fifth-generation fighter program, Brazil could provide Russia with state-of-the-art aviation technology. Notably, Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer manufactures EMB-312 Tucano turboprop basic trainers and EMB-314 Super Tucano turboprop aircraft designed for light attack, counter-insurgency (COIN) and pilot-training missions.
Many analysts think both planes are especially adapted for low-intensity conflicts and are just as popular as fighters. Quire possibly, Russia will manufacture such planes using Brazilian technology.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
Japanese Navy Hits Somali Seas
The Japanese navy moves to join the fight against pirates in the increasingly dangerous Gulf of Aden, amid much of the usual controversy about the country’s pacifist constitution, Dr Axel Berkofsky writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Axel Berkofsky for ISN Security Watch
Japan’s Security Council in mid-March moved to deploy two destroyers heading toward Somalia where they will contribute to an international anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Two Japanese destroyers equipped with two patrol helicopters, carrying 400 soldiers including members of the navy’s special force unit as well as the Japanese Coast Guard left Japan on 15 March.
The legal basis for the multinational mission is a December 2008 UN Security Council resolution authorizing foreign vessels to enter Somalia’s territorial waters with advance notice to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea.
On 30 March, Japan joined the multinational mission against piracy, which includes vessels from the US, South Korea Britain, Iran, the US, France, Germany and China.
Sailing with the 'big boys'
“The maritime anti-piracy operation is a case of Japan wanting to be out there with the big boys and not wanting to be left behind, particularly in the wake of China’s participation,” Professor Aurelia George Mulgan from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, told ISN Security Watch.
“It was China’s engagement that triggered Japan’s; so the primary driver is political, relating to Japan’s international image and not allowing China to get the jump on them.”
This time around, Ren Xia, research professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, told ISN Security Watch that China, for its part, was not worried about the Japanese military deployment.
“This time, the reactions in China to the Japanese deployment overseas were more moderate and more relaxed than before. We ourselves have sent anti-piracy naval ships there and I would welcome it if the Chinese and Japanese navy cooperated in the waters off the coast of Somalia,” he said.
It “could be useful to start working together in Asian waters in the future,” he added, referring to the long-standing Sino-Japanese dispute over the ownership of a chain of unpopulated islets in the East China Sea.
Capacity conundrum
The Japanese navy’s first assignment was to escort three Japanese vessels carrying cars and two tankers on their way from Oman to the Gulf of Aden. But this is only the very modest beginning of what lies ahead.
According to Japan’s Shipowners’ Association, roughly 2,100 Japan-related vessels are estimated to be in need of protection from Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyers in the Gulf of Aden this year. However, the Japanese navy has the capacity to guard only some 730 ships annually, based on Defense Ministry calculations, which hold that two destroyers are capable of providing security for five ships per operation, or 10 ships in five days.
As such, unless Japan decides in the coming months to deploy additional destroyers to area, these vessels will have to rely on protection from the navies of other countries - above all in the route connecting the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. On 22 March, the need for additional protection was demonstrated when a vehicle-carrying vessel belonging to Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd was fired on by pirates about 1,500 kilometers south of the zone in which the MSDF destroyers are currently operating.
To strengthen the navy’s surveillance capabilities, the government plans to send an MSDF P-3C patrol aircraft to the region to cover this wider stretch of sea. The government envisages that the aircraft will monitor the movement of pirates from the air and provide information to navies participating in the anti-piracy missions off Somalia.
Controversies and contradictions
Predictably, the Japanese naval deployment was preceded by long and cumbersome debates centered on the issue of whether the move would violate the Japanese Constitution’s “pacifist” Article 9.
Although Article 9 does not allow Japan to have armed forces in the first place, the country maintains armed forces - though they are referred to as “Self-Defense Forces” or “Jietai” - equipped with an annual budget of US$46 billion, and their presence is increasing in conflict areas or at least close to them.
Since 2001, Japan’s navy has provided logistical support in the Indian Ocean for US and other warships engaged in the war in Afghanistan, and in 2004 deployed a 1,000-strong contingent to southern Iraq, where it stayed until 2006 providing, among other things, infrastructure, medical and humanitarian aid.
Still, doubts about the constitutionality of the newest mission did not appear to be a major concern for the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso, which ordered the deployment with cabinet approval on the basis of Japan’s so-called Self-Defense Law. In accordance with that law, the two destroyers deployed to Somalia will only be allowed to escort vessels directly linked to Japan: Japanese-registered ships or foreign ships with Japanese nationals or cargo on board.
What’s more, due to the absence of a law authorizing the use of force other than for individual self-defense, Japan’s navy is only allowed to use weapons for issuing a warning, in self-defense or to make an emergency evacuation.
Grey areas
But there are plenty of grey areas, according to George Mulgan.
“The legal authority for the MSDF to use force is pretty ad hoc. There could be issues when a pirate boat approaches a Japanese vessel about whether or not firing at them constitutes self-defense or whether the Japanese vessel has to be attacked first,” she said.
To circumvent the ambiguity, the Japanese cabinet approved an anti-piracy bill on 13 March, which will provide the navy with a legal framework to protect not only Japanese but also foreign vessels and fire at pirate ships if they ignore warning shots.
The bill will be submitted to the parliament in the coming weeks. But it will meet with strong opposition. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPF) is expected to use its majority in the Upper House to delay the adoption of the bill for a few months. Still, it is expected to become law when push comes to shove, many analysts agree.
Prime Minister Aso’s Liberal-Democratic Party will likely use its two-thirds majority in Japan’s Lower House to make a law out of a bill as stipulated by the constitution. In cases of “national emergency,” the constitution states that the government party commanding a two-thirds majority in the Lower House can adopt a bill with or without the opposition’s approval.
A year ago, when the opposition sought to block the extension of the law authorizing Japan’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, the government did exactly that and there is little doubt that also the mission in Somalia is a “national emergency” as far Aso and his and followers are concerned.
Constitutional revision always on the agenda
Advocates of constitutional revision will use, as they have in the past, Japan’s missions abroad and the legal ambiguities as proof that the country must revise its constitution - meaning the troublesome Article 9.
Constitutional revision has been on Japan’s agenda for years, but realistically it is unlikely that Article 9 will be revised any time soon. In order to change the constitution, a two-thirds majority is needed in both chambers of the parliament. This is impossible to achieve under Japan’s current political constellation, which is increasingly characterized by an emerging two-party system, with the LDP and DPJ commanding roughly equal shares of the popular vote.
A two-thirds majority in the parliament would then have to be followed a popular referendum, and although the Japanese public is increasingly in favor of more visible and concrete contributions to global peace and security, opting to officially end what is left of Japanese pacifism is still a different matter for the electorate.
Constitutional issues aside, “The deployment is significant, but hardly a major step in the evolution of Japan’s defense and security policy,” George Mulgan said. “It could be described as a new role for Japan’s military, but because it’s being undertaken under existing legislation, it is not really not breaking much new ground.”
Indeed. The issues and controversies surrounding the deployment of the Japanese military abroad will continue to be same in the years ahead: violation or non-violation of the constitution, the use of force and the question of whether or not to allow the armed forces to execute the right to collective self-defense.
No more free rides
Despite a recent financial scandal involving the DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, the party is still expected to win upcoming Lower House elections (to take place in October at the latest) and realpolitik suggests that the DPJ could turn out to be less opposed to Japan protecting commercial interests in Gulf of Aden once in power.
Either way, there is a growing consensus in Japan that leaving the protection of 2,100 Japanese commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden up to others while hiding behind half-hearted pacifism and constitutional debates is increasingly becoming less of an option for Japanese policymakers.
“So far, Japan has been enjoying a free ride and had other countries protect Japanese ships,” Hidekazu Kawai, emeritus professor at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, said in a recent interview with the Japanese press. “It would not be natural for Japan not to send forces to protect civilian ships.”
Dr Axel Berkofsky is Adjunct Professor at the University of Milan and Co-Head of the Research Unit 'Chinese investments in Europe 'at the Centre of Advanced Studies on Contemporary China (CASCC), Turin, Italy.
By Axel Berkofsky for ISN Security Watch
Japan’s Security Council in mid-March moved to deploy two destroyers heading toward Somalia where they will contribute to an international anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Two Japanese destroyers equipped with two patrol helicopters, carrying 400 soldiers including members of the navy’s special force unit as well as the Japanese Coast Guard left Japan on 15 March.
The legal basis for the multinational mission is a December 2008 UN Security Council resolution authorizing foreign vessels to enter Somalia’s territorial waters with advance notice to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea.
On 30 March, Japan joined the multinational mission against piracy, which includes vessels from the US, South Korea Britain, Iran, the US, France, Germany and China.
Sailing with the 'big boys'
“The maritime anti-piracy operation is a case of Japan wanting to be out there with the big boys and not wanting to be left behind, particularly in the wake of China’s participation,” Professor Aurelia George Mulgan from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, told ISN Security Watch.
“It was China’s engagement that triggered Japan’s; so the primary driver is political, relating to Japan’s international image and not allowing China to get the jump on them.”
This time around, Ren Xia, research professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, told ISN Security Watch that China, for its part, was not worried about the Japanese military deployment.
“This time, the reactions in China to the Japanese deployment overseas were more moderate and more relaxed than before. We ourselves have sent anti-piracy naval ships there and I would welcome it if the Chinese and Japanese navy cooperated in the waters off the coast of Somalia,” he said.
It “could be useful to start working together in Asian waters in the future,” he added, referring to the long-standing Sino-Japanese dispute over the ownership of a chain of unpopulated islets in the East China Sea.
Capacity conundrum
The Japanese navy’s first assignment was to escort three Japanese vessels carrying cars and two tankers on their way from Oman to the Gulf of Aden. But this is only the very modest beginning of what lies ahead.
According to Japan’s Shipowners’ Association, roughly 2,100 Japan-related vessels are estimated to be in need of protection from Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyers in the Gulf of Aden this year. However, the Japanese navy has the capacity to guard only some 730 ships annually, based on Defense Ministry calculations, which hold that two destroyers are capable of providing security for five ships per operation, or 10 ships in five days.
As such, unless Japan decides in the coming months to deploy additional destroyers to area, these vessels will have to rely on protection from the navies of other countries - above all in the route connecting the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. On 22 March, the need for additional protection was demonstrated when a vehicle-carrying vessel belonging to Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd was fired on by pirates about 1,500 kilometers south of the zone in which the MSDF destroyers are currently operating.
To strengthen the navy’s surveillance capabilities, the government plans to send an MSDF P-3C patrol aircraft to the region to cover this wider stretch of sea. The government envisages that the aircraft will monitor the movement of pirates from the air and provide information to navies participating in the anti-piracy missions off Somalia.
Controversies and contradictions
Predictably, the Japanese naval deployment was preceded by long and cumbersome debates centered on the issue of whether the move would violate the Japanese Constitution’s “pacifist” Article 9.
Although Article 9 does not allow Japan to have armed forces in the first place, the country maintains armed forces - though they are referred to as “Self-Defense Forces” or “Jietai” - equipped with an annual budget of US$46 billion, and their presence is increasing in conflict areas or at least close to them.
Since 2001, Japan’s navy has provided logistical support in the Indian Ocean for US and other warships engaged in the war in Afghanistan, and in 2004 deployed a 1,000-strong contingent to southern Iraq, where it stayed until 2006 providing, among other things, infrastructure, medical and humanitarian aid.
Still, doubts about the constitutionality of the newest mission did not appear to be a major concern for the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso, which ordered the deployment with cabinet approval on the basis of Japan’s so-called Self-Defense Law. In accordance with that law, the two destroyers deployed to Somalia will only be allowed to escort vessels directly linked to Japan: Japanese-registered ships or foreign ships with Japanese nationals or cargo on board.
What’s more, due to the absence of a law authorizing the use of force other than for individual self-defense, Japan’s navy is only allowed to use weapons for issuing a warning, in self-defense or to make an emergency evacuation.
Grey areas
But there are plenty of grey areas, according to George Mulgan.
“The legal authority for the MSDF to use force is pretty ad hoc. There could be issues when a pirate boat approaches a Japanese vessel about whether or not firing at them constitutes self-defense or whether the Japanese vessel has to be attacked first,” she said.
To circumvent the ambiguity, the Japanese cabinet approved an anti-piracy bill on 13 March, which will provide the navy with a legal framework to protect not only Japanese but also foreign vessels and fire at pirate ships if they ignore warning shots.
The bill will be submitted to the parliament in the coming weeks. But it will meet with strong opposition. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPF) is expected to use its majority in the Upper House to delay the adoption of the bill for a few months. Still, it is expected to become law when push comes to shove, many analysts agree.
Prime Minister Aso’s Liberal-Democratic Party will likely use its two-thirds majority in Japan’s Lower House to make a law out of a bill as stipulated by the constitution. In cases of “national emergency,” the constitution states that the government party commanding a two-thirds majority in the Lower House can adopt a bill with or without the opposition’s approval.
A year ago, when the opposition sought to block the extension of the law authorizing Japan’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, the government did exactly that and there is little doubt that also the mission in Somalia is a “national emergency” as far Aso and his and followers are concerned.
Constitutional revision always on the agenda
Advocates of constitutional revision will use, as they have in the past, Japan’s missions abroad and the legal ambiguities as proof that the country must revise its constitution - meaning the troublesome Article 9.
Constitutional revision has been on Japan’s agenda for years, but realistically it is unlikely that Article 9 will be revised any time soon. In order to change the constitution, a two-thirds majority is needed in both chambers of the parliament. This is impossible to achieve under Japan’s current political constellation, which is increasingly characterized by an emerging two-party system, with the LDP and DPJ commanding roughly equal shares of the popular vote.
A two-thirds majority in the parliament would then have to be followed a popular referendum, and although the Japanese public is increasingly in favor of more visible and concrete contributions to global peace and security, opting to officially end what is left of Japanese pacifism is still a different matter for the electorate.
Constitutional issues aside, “The deployment is significant, but hardly a major step in the evolution of Japan’s defense and security policy,” George Mulgan said. “It could be described as a new role for Japan’s military, but because it’s being undertaken under existing legislation, it is not really not breaking much new ground.”
Indeed. The issues and controversies surrounding the deployment of the Japanese military abroad will continue to be same in the years ahead: violation or non-violation of the constitution, the use of force and the question of whether or not to allow the armed forces to execute the right to collective self-defense.
No more free rides
Despite a recent financial scandal involving the DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, the party is still expected to win upcoming Lower House elections (to take place in October at the latest) and realpolitik suggests that the DPJ could turn out to be less opposed to Japan protecting commercial interests in Gulf of Aden once in power.
Either way, there is a growing consensus in Japan that leaving the protection of 2,100 Japanese commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden up to others while hiding behind half-hearted pacifism and constitutional debates is increasingly becoming less of an option for Japanese policymakers.
“So far, Japan has been enjoying a free ride and had other countries protect Japanese ships,” Hidekazu Kawai, emeritus professor at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, said in a recent interview with the Japanese press. “It would not be natural for Japan not to send forces to protect civilian ships.”
Dr Axel Berkofsky is Adjunct Professor at the University of Milan and Co-Head of the Research Unit 'Chinese investments in Europe 'at the Centre of Advanced Studies on Contemporary China (CASCC), Turin, Italy.
The Politics Of North Korea’s Missile Test
By Bhaskar Roy
The West may call it a rogue state, hermit Kingdom or a nation caught in a time warp of under development, but the Pyongyang regime has survived all efforts to bring it down. It continues to remain in the same place while one of its allies, the Soviet Union, collapsed and the other ally, China, opened up to the world and espoused market economy. The only area Pyongyang, however, marked progress is in its military. The country developed on the old Soviet era scud missiles to produce the Rondong and Taepodong series. Much of this technology was transferred to Pakistan and Iran. In its pursuit to achieve nuclear weapons capability, it received some substantial advice and technology from Pakistan. Some of this was admitted by the late Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.
These were clandestine deals, proliferation. Pyongyang needed foreign exchange and nuclear technology to round up its long distance military capability, in its perception, to keep its enemies at bay and strengthen its bargaining capability with the USA. North Korea’s worst critics stood by and watched silently as they wanted Pakistan at times to acquire such muscle for geopolitical reasons, one being India. Had the USA so desired, it could have stopped at least Pakistan from these illegal deals and Pyongyang would have been deprived of nuclear weapons capability.
China was no innocent player in this game. Apart from its own proliferation and through Pakistani and some on its own, it was the facilitator in the North Korea-Pakistan exchanges. Most of these exchanges, including travel of personnel, transfer of technology and missile parts and components took place through China. The Shaheen Airlines of Pakistan, controlled by now in famous Dr. A.Q. Khan, used to refuel in China on the way to and from Pyongyang. Payment to the Chinese for fuel and services was paid in cash to cover tracks with no flight manifest on open record. All four countries including the USA had their agenda.
On the other hand, all US administrations since Harry Truman have been acting, hoping and praying for the collapse of North Korea. Different things have been tried but everything fell short since changing geo-political situations from Washington’s point of view stayed progress in mid-course. Foreign policy, especially in difficult areas, being personality driven have not stayed on a single course, with changes in critical personnel in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.
North Korea is in dire need of food and energy. China supplements these to an extent politically acceptable. South Korea’s relations with the North witnessed seismic shifts, with Pyongyang mainly and deliberately responsible. The US-North Korean agreement for supply of light water reactors in exchange for Pyongyang giving up its nuclear reactor ambitions fell apart. George W. Bush achieved something by persuading Pyongyang and its leader Kim Jong-Il to dismantle their nuclear reactor. But Vice President Dick Cheney and his team of regime changers, which included Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield, decided to squeeze the North Koreans even through humiliation. US interlocutors stopped shaking hands with their North Korean counterparts, and would not drink a toast with them at dinners. The exchanges became humiliating. The six-party talks became meaningless. The neo-conservatives forgot that in interactions between nations there is also an interaction between human beings. Each nation has its pride which is translated by the citizens.
A senior North Korean official told a visiting foreign journalist in 2003 that after studying what happened to Saddam Hussain, they were not going to give up on their missiles and nuclear weapons. Saddam was persuaded by the US and the western community to discard his WMD programme and long range missiles, and then attacked on false or manufactured intelligence. The official was not confiding state secrets to a foreign friend. Pyongyang wanted the message to go out to the right quarters.
There has been so much American propaganda about North Korea, especially Kim Jong-Il that it is difficult to discern between fact and fiction. Over decades it has been spread that Kim Jong-Il was eccentric, unbalanced mentally, and a sexual pervert. North Korea was about to collapse. They had information about the junior Kim’s bedroom but not about the country’s nuclear programme. Therefore, it is difficult to come to any reliable conclusion how far Pyongyang is from fabricating a real bomb, or whether they have a number of nuclear weapons in the basement. A. Q. Khan added to the confusion a few years ago remarking that the North Koreans had shown him a nuclear bomb, but he was not certain if it was real or a dummy!
Naturally, therefore, a large question looms whether Kim suffered a stroke at all, and if he had, how serious it was. He seems to be firmly on both feet and in control, if the April 5 missile test proves anything.
With the paucity of any official information from Pyongyang, it is difficult to say how successful the April 5 missile or carrier rocket test of the two stage booster, which the North Koreans call Unha-2, was. The South Koreans have confirmed the Unha-2 carried a small satellite payload, but it did not reach orbit stage. The North Koreans claim the test was successful, but that would be more for internal consumption. Western analysts claim the test was a failure.
The question is whether the test flight was really for a satellite launch or a test for the 6,500 km Taepodong missile capable of carrying a 500 to 1000 kg. war head. The initial study of the rocket’s trajectory does not confirm either, yet. But on the other hand, the Chinese developed their long range missiles and satellite boosters on the same technological plane initially to save costs.
There are indications that the test was a political statement from Pyongyang. They indicated this test sometime in mid-February, this year, just before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Japan for her maiden visit to East Asia, including China, in her new position. From there to April 5, Pyongyang whipped up their propaganda about where they could be going because of the positions adopted by South Korea and Japan. They wanted to draw the maximum international attention, that they were being forced to take this path. This is akin to their so-called nuclear weapons test in 2006 which may have been a poof in the laboratory. That was a shout to the world that North Korea was no push over.
Pyongyang has been desperate to establish a full fledged relationship with the USA. But the other parties concerned oppose it for their own pressing reasons. Japan and South Korea see that such an eventuality could downgrade their own strategic relationship with the USA. China does not want to lose the North Korean card, and a North Korea-US normal relationship could lead to North-South unification, which is not in China’s interest. The Russians see North Korea as a kind of Cuba in East Asia. The USA still suffers from a fixation decades old. So much for peace, security and stability in East Asia.
The bottom line is if the Unha-2 was a Taepodong-2, it raises concerns not only for the USA but for India also. Given the record of North Korea’s missile transfers to Pakistan, it is well within the realm of possibility that the Taepodeong-2 technology could be transferred to Pakistan if Islamabad can pay for it. President Barack Obama may well keep this in consideration when pushing more military assistance to Pakistan in his new policy.
(The writer is an experienced analyst on issues relating to security)
The West may call it a rogue state, hermit Kingdom or a nation caught in a time warp of under development, but the Pyongyang regime has survived all efforts to bring it down. It continues to remain in the same place while one of its allies, the Soviet Union, collapsed and the other ally, China, opened up to the world and espoused market economy. The only area Pyongyang, however, marked progress is in its military. The country developed on the old Soviet era scud missiles to produce the Rondong and Taepodong series. Much of this technology was transferred to Pakistan and Iran. In its pursuit to achieve nuclear weapons capability, it received some substantial advice and technology from Pakistan. Some of this was admitted by the late Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.
These were clandestine deals, proliferation. Pyongyang needed foreign exchange and nuclear technology to round up its long distance military capability, in its perception, to keep its enemies at bay and strengthen its bargaining capability with the USA. North Korea’s worst critics stood by and watched silently as they wanted Pakistan at times to acquire such muscle for geopolitical reasons, one being India. Had the USA so desired, it could have stopped at least Pakistan from these illegal deals and Pyongyang would have been deprived of nuclear weapons capability.
China was no innocent player in this game. Apart from its own proliferation and through Pakistani and some on its own, it was the facilitator in the North Korea-Pakistan exchanges. Most of these exchanges, including travel of personnel, transfer of technology and missile parts and components took place through China. The Shaheen Airlines of Pakistan, controlled by now in famous Dr. A.Q. Khan, used to refuel in China on the way to and from Pyongyang. Payment to the Chinese for fuel and services was paid in cash to cover tracks with no flight manifest on open record. All four countries including the USA had their agenda.
On the other hand, all US administrations since Harry Truman have been acting, hoping and praying for the collapse of North Korea. Different things have been tried but everything fell short since changing geo-political situations from Washington’s point of view stayed progress in mid-course. Foreign policy, especially in difficult areas, being personality driven have not stayed on a single course, with changes in critical personnel in the White House, State Department and the Pentagon.
North Korea is in dire need of food and energy. China supplements these to an extent politically acceptable. South Korea’s relations with the North witnessed seismic shifts, with Pyongyang mainly and deliberately responsible. The US-North Korean agreement for supply of light water reactors in exchange for Pyongyang giving up its nuclear reactor ambitions fell apart. George W. Bush achieved something by persuading Pyongyang and its leader Kim Jong-Il to dismantle their nuclear reactor. But Vice President Dick Cheney and his team of regime changers, which included Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield, decided to squeeze the North Koreans even through humiliation. US interlocutors stopped shaking hands with their North Korean counterparts, and would not drink a toast with them at dinners. The exchanges became humiliating. The six-party talks became meaningless. The neo-conservatives forgot that in interactions between nations there is also an interaction between human beings. Each nation has its pride which is translated by the citizens.
A senior North Korean official told a visiting foreign journalist in 2003 that after studying what happened to Saddam Hussain, they were not going to give up on their missiles and nuclear weapons. Saddam was persuaded by the US and the western community to discard his WMD programme and long range missiles, and then attacked on false or manufactured intelligence. The official was not confiding state secrets to a foreign friend. Pyongyang wanted the message to go out to the right quarters.
There has been so much American propaganda about North Korea, especially Kim Jong-Il that it is difficult to discern between fact and fiction. Over decades it has been spread that Kim Jong-Il was eccentric, unbalanced mentally, and a sexual pervert. North Korea was about to collapse. They had information about the junior Kim’s bedroom but not about the country’s nuclear programme. Therefore, it is difficult to come to any reliable conclusion how far Pyongyang is from fabricating a real bomb, or whether they have a number of nuclear weapons in the basement. A. Q. Khan added to the confusion a few years ago remarking that the North Koreans had shown him a nuclear bomb, but he was not certain if it was real or a dummy!
Naturally, therefore, a large question looms whether Kim suffered a stroke at all, and if he had, how serious it was. He seems to be firmly on both feet and in control, if the April 5 missile test proves anything.
With the paucity of any official information from Pyongyang, it is difficult to say how successful the April 5 missile or carrier rocket test of the two stage booster, which the North Koreans call Unha-2, was. The South Koreans have confirmed the Unha-2 carried a small satellite payload, but it did not reach orbit stage. The North Koreans claim the test was successful, but that would be more for internal consumption. Western analysts claim the test was a failure.
The question is whether the test flight was really for a satellite launch or a test for the 6,500 km Taepodong missile capable of carrying a 500 to 1000 kg. war head. The initial study of the rocket’s trajectory does not confirm either, yet. But on the other hand, the Chinese developed their long range missiles and satellite boosters on the same technological plane initially to save costs.
There are indications that the test was a political statement from Pyongyang. They indicated this test sometime in mid-February, this year, just before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Japan for her maiden visit to East Asia, including China, in her new position. From there to April 5, Pyongyang whipped up their propaganda about where they could be going because of the positions adopted by South Korea and Japan. They wanted to draw the maximum international attention, that they were being forced to take this path. This is akin to their so-called nuclear weapons test in 2006 which may have been a poof in the laboratory. That was a shout to the world that North Korea was no push over.
Pyongyang has been desperate to establish a full fledged relationship with the USA. But the other parties concerned oppose it for their own pressing reasons. Japan and South Korea see that such an eventuality could downgrade their own strategic relationship with the USA. China does not want to lose the North Korean card, and a North Korea-US normal relationship could lead to North-South unification, which is not in China’s interest. The Russians see North Korea as a kind of Cuba in East Asia. The USA still suffers from a fixation decades old. So much for peace, security and stability in East Asia.
The bottom line is if the Unha-2 was a Taepodong-2, it raises concerns not only for the USA but for India also. Given the record of North Korea’s missile transfers to Pakistan, it is well within the realm of possibility that the Taepodeong-2 technology could be transferred to Pakistan if Islamabad can pay for it. President Barack Obama may well keep this in consideration when pushing more military assistance to Pakistan in his new policy.
(The writer is an experienced analyst on issues relating to security)
Pirates Or Naval Al Qaeda Or Both?
By B. Raman
I have been in receipt of the following message on April 8,2009, from ECOTERRA International, which disseminates a periodic "Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor": "Danish owned and US-American operated MV MAERSK ALABAMA, a container ship of 14,120 gross tonnage under US-American flag with a 21 men crew of at least 20 U.S.-American nationals, who are said to be all unharmed according to the company that owns the vessel, had been sea-jacked this morning at 07h30 on the Indian Ocean off the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu and about 280 miles (450 kilometers) south-east of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia. The vessel was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 kilometers (310 miles) off Somalia's coast, the statement issued by Maersk Line Ltd. said. The 20 unarmed crew members fought back against the four hijackers and hours later regained control of their vessel, according to second mate Ken Quinn. Quinn, sounding harried in a terse mobile phone call to CNN, said the crew had released one of the pirates they had tied up for 12 hours. But the hijackers were refusing to return Captain Richard Phillips. "Right now, they want to hold our captain for ransom and we're trying to get him back," Quinn told the US network. "He's in the ship's lifeboat," he said, explaining the four pirates had taken the lifeboat off the Maersk Alabama and that Phillips was in touch with his crew via ship's radio. "So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it's not working too good." Quinn added: "We have a coalition (vessel) that will be here in three hours. So we're just trying to hold them off for three more hours and then we'll have a warship here to help us."
2. The message continues: "Quinn said that all four pirates were on the lifeboat, after sinking their own boat after they seized the container vessel. Earlier, the crew took one pirate hostage, trying to swap him for their captain, but the deal went wrong, he told the American CNN news channel. Though the ship is the sixth seized within a week in the dangerous region around Africa, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory." No American merchant vessel has been attacked by pirates since 1804 during the North African Barbary Wars. US President Barack Obama's chief spokesman said the White House was assessing a course of action. Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that officials there monitoring the incident closely. Said Gibbs: "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board." The White House offered no other immediate details about what actions it was considering. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there has not yet been any communications from the pirates for ransom. But he would not go into military plans. "I'm not going to speculate on any future military actions," Whitman said, when asked what the U.S. military may do. Whitman said there are still no U.S. Navy ships within view of the vessel, and instead they are still "hundreds of miles away. "The nearest U.S. Navy warship was about 300 nautical miles away at the time of the hijacking," other U.S.-American government sources said. No action has been taken so far, a spokesman for the U.S. military's 5th Fleet in Bahrain said first, according to CNN. "There is a task force present in the region to deter any type of piracy, but the challenge remains that the area is so big and it is hard to monitor all the time," 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said. US Army Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Hibner, a Pentagon spokesperson, said later on Wednesday that the US Navy destroyer Bainbridge was en route to the scene. The cargo ship is directly owned and operated by a Maersk subsidiary in Norfolk, Virginia, Maersk spokesman Michael Storgaard said. "We have very strict policies on the vessel ... crews are trained to handle these types of situations," Storgaard said from Maersk's headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark."
3. The message further adds: '5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said U.S.-flagged ships are not normally escorted by the military, unless they request it from the U.S. Navy. The 155-metre (511-foot) vessel had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on April 16. The hijacked boxship is run out of the huge merchant and naval base of Norfolk by Maersk Line Ltd., a division of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, but analysts wondered, since relief food is usually shipped as bulk and not by a rather expensive container-ship. Though the shipping company has had some Defense Department contracts it was said this time not to be on a Pentagon job when attacked, a governmental statement read. The high seas standoff drew an expression of concern from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, who called on the world to unite to "end the scourge of piracy". "
4. The message clarifies that the information contained in it came from "own sources, AFP, AP, Al-Jazeera, Pentagon, White House et al". An earlier message of April 6,2009, from ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL had said: "With the latest captures and releases now, still at least 17 (18 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) foreign vessels with a total of not less than 297 crew members accounted for (of which 110 are confirmed to be Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidents (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 52 averted or abandoned attacks and 14 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire on the side of the naval forces. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures. "
5. Despite the deployment of anti-piracy patrols from a number of countries including India, China and Japan, the Somali pirates continue to operate with virtual impunity and have been collecting millions of dollars in ransom money. The vast area involved, the inability of the international community----due to legal and operational reasons---to undertake land-based operations against the pirates in Somalian territory and the suspected (by me) lack of co-ordination among anti-piracy patrols from different countries have come in the way of effective and deterrent action against the pirates, who are becoming more and more audacious and innovative.
6. A number of questions remain unanswered: Are different pirate groups operating autonomously of each other or is there a common command and control? Who are the leaders of the different pirate groups and where are they based? Apart from the pirates themselves and their leaders, are there any other beneficiaries of the ransom money? Since Al Qaeda has been very active in Somalia for over a decade, does it have any links with the pirates and is it financially benefiting from the ransom payments?
7. The possibility of links between Al Qaeda and at least some of the pirate groups needs to be taken seriously. Ever since 9/11, Al Qaeda has been wanting to organise a major act of maritime terrorism to disrupt word trade and movement of energy supplies. Many of these pirates----if well-trained and well-motivated by Al Qaeda---- could provide a new source of oxygen to it. The time has come to treat the campaign against the Somali pirates as seriously as the campaign against Al Qaeda.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
I have been in receipt of the following message on April 8,2009, from ECOTERRA International, which disseminates a periodic "Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor": "Danish owned and US-American operated MV MAERSK ALABAMA, a container ship of 14,120 gross tonnage under US-American flag with a 21 men crew of at least 20 U.S.-American nationals, who are said to be all unharmed according to the company that owns the vessel, had been sea-jacked this morning at 07h30 on the Indian Ocean off the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu and about 280 miles (450 kilometers) south-east of Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region of Somalia. The vessel was en route to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 kilometers (310 miles) off Somalia's coast, the statement issued by Maersk Line Ltd. said. The 20 unarmed crew members fought back against the four hijackers and hours later regained control of their vessel, according to second mate Ken Quinn. Quinn, sounding harried in a terse mobile phone call to CNN, said the crew had released one of the pirates they had tied up for 12 hours. But the hijackers were refusing to return Captain Richard Phillips. "Right now, they want to hold our captain for ransom and we're trying to get him back," Quinn told the US network. "He's in the ship's lifeboat," he said, explaining the four pirates had taken the lifeboat off the Maersk Alabama and that Phillips was in touch with his crew via ship's radio. "So now we're just trying to offer them whatever we can. Food. But it's not working too good." Quinn added: "We have a coalition (vessel) that will be here in three hours. So we're just trying to hold them off for three more hours and then we'll have a warship here to help us."
2. The message continues: "Quinn said that all four pirates were on the lifeboat, after sinking their own boat after they seized the container vessel. Earlier, the crew took one pirate hostage, trying to swap him for their captain, but the deal went wrong, he told the American CNN news channel. Though the ship is the sixth seized within a week in the dangerous region around Africa, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it was the first pirate attack "involving U.S. nationals and a U.S.-flagged vessel in recent memory." No American merchant vessel has been attacked by pirates since 1804 during the North African Barbary Wars. US President Barack Obama's chief spokesman said the White House was assessing a course of action. Press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that officials there monitoring the incident closely. Said Gibbs: "Our top priority is the personal safety of the crew members on board." The White House offered no other immediate details about what actions it was considering. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there has not yet been any communications from the pirates for ransom. But he would not go into military plans. "I'm not going to speculate on any future military actions," Whitman said, when asked what the U.S. military may do. Whitman said there are still no U.S. Navy ships within view of the vessel, and instead they are still "hundreds of miles away. "The nearest U.S. Navy warship was about 300 nautical miles away at the time of the hijacking," other U.S.-American government sources said. No action has been taken so far, a spokesman for the U.S. military's 5th Fleet in Bahrain said first, according to CNN. "There is a task force present in the region to deter any type of piracy, but the challenge remains that the area is so big and it is hard to monitor all the time," 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said. US Army Lieutenant Colonel Elizabeth Hibner, a Pentagon spokesperson, said later on Wednesday that the US Navy destroyer Bainbridge was en route to the scene. The cargo ship is directly owned and operated by a Maersk subsidiary in Norfolk, Virginia, Maersk spokesman Michael Storgaard said. "We have very strict policies on the vessel ... crews are trained to handle these types of situations," Storgaard said from Maersk's headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark."
3. The message further adds: '5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen said U.S.-flagged ships are not normally escorted by the military, unless they request it from the U.S. Navy. The 155-metre (511-foot) vessel had been due to dock in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on April 16. The hijacked boxship is run out of the huge merchant and naval base of Norfolk by Maersk Line Ltd., a division of Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and was carrying emergency relief to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was hijacked, said Peter Beck-Bang, spokesman for the Copenhagen-based container shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk, but analysts wondered, since relief food is usually shipped as bulk and not by a rather expensive container-ship. Though the shipping company has had some Defense Department contracts it was said this time not to be on a Pentagon job when attacked, a governmental statement read. The high seas standoff drew an expression of concern from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, who called on the world to unite to "end the scourge of piracy". "
4. The message clarifies that the information contained in it came from "own sources, AFP, AP, Al-Jazeera, Pentagon, White House et al". An earlier message of April 6,2009, from ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL had said: "With the latest captures and releases now, still at least 17 (18 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) foreign vessels with a total of not less than 297 crew members accounted for (of which 110 are confirmed to be Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidents (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 52 averted or abandoned attacks and 14 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire on the side of the naval forces. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures. "
5. Despite the deployment of anti-piracy patrols from a number of countries including India, China and Japan, the Somali pirates continue to operate with virtual impunity and have been collecting millions of dollars in ransom money. The vast area involved, the inability of the international community----due to legal and operational reasons---to undertake land-based operations against the pirates in Somalian territory and the suspected (by me) lack of co-ordination among anti-piracy patrols from different countries have come in the way of effective and deterrent action against the pirates, who are becoming more and more audacious and innovative.
6. A number of questions remain unanswered: Are different pirate groups operating autonomously of each other or is there a common command and control? Who are the leaders of the different pirate groups and where are they based? Apart from the pirates themselves and their leaders, are there any other beneficiaries of the ransom money? Since Al Qaeda has been very active in Somalia for over a decade, does it have any links with the pirates and is it financially benefiting from the ransom payments?
7. The possibility of links between Al Qaeda and at least some of the pirate groups needs to be taken seriously. Ever since 9/11, Al Qaeda has been wanting to organise a major act of maritime terrorism to disrupt word trade and movement of energy supplies. Many of these pirates----if well-trained and well-motivated by Al Qaeda---- could provide a new source of oxygen to it. The time has come to treat the campaign against the Somali pirates as seriously as the campaign against Al Qaeda.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Baloch Leader GhUlam Mohmmad Baloch killed by Pak ISI
PROFILE
Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, is the president of Balochistan National movement (BNM), an organization struggling for the freedom of Balochistan from Pakistani and Iranian illegal occupation. He was born in a small village called Mand (Mekran), in Eastern occupied Balochistan. Politically he grew up as a member of Baloch Student Organization (BSO) and later became the chairman of BSO. In 1999, Pakistani ISI agents infiltrated the BNM and broke the organization into Pakistan National Party (PNP) and BNM. Ghulam Mohammad Baloch took the charge of BNM to carry out the Baloch National struggle to the next level, to meet the Baloch Nation's aspiration of an independent free and united Balochistan. He became very popular in a short span of time. He is respected by all Baloch people both inside Balochistan and worldwide. Ghulam Mohammad Baloch believes in armed struggle against the Pakistani and Iranian occupying forces to liberate Balochistan.
From: Munir Mengal < mengal_11@ yahoo.com >
Subject: PAKISTAN: Three political activists are found murdered after daylight abduction
To: webmaster@ infopak.gov.pk
Date: Thursday, April 9, 2009, 8:53 PM
Dear Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani,
PAKISTAN: Three political activists are found murdered after daylight abduction
Name of victims:
1. Mr. Ghulam Mohammad, 45, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement
2. Mr. Sher Mohammad Baloch, 35, Vice President of Balochistan Republican Party
3. Mr. Lala Munir Baloch, 50, General Secretary of the Baloch National Front
Date of the Incident: 3 April, 2009
I am shocked and disturbed to hear of the abduction and murder of three political activists in Balochistan, allegedly by military or paramilitary forces. I am also concerned at the way the efforts of the men̢۪s lawyers and friends were hampered by police and the judiciary, and by the lack of effort made to rescue of the men. I hear that the local police force is currently illegally pressuring Baloch civilians not to protest the murders in public.
According to those dealing with the case, Mr. Ghulam Mohammad, 45, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement, Mr. Sher Mohammad Baloch, 35, Vice President of Balochistan Republican Party and Mr. Lala Munir Baloch, 50, General Secretary of Baloch National Front, had attended a Session Court in Turbat district, Balochistan province on 3 April to arrange interim bail, relating to charges in shooting and bomblast cases last year.. After being granted bail the men were accompanied by their lawyer, Mr. Kachkol Ali to his chamber at around noon. Ali is a former opposition leader in the Balochistan assembly. According to the lawyer, more than a dozen persons in civilian dress then entered the office, ransacked it and abducted the men, driving away in four vehicles which bore no registration numbers. The attackers refused to identify themselves, or to tell Ali where his clients were being taken.
Ali immediately filed an application at the Turbat Police Station accusing military intelligence (M.I.) and Inter services Intelligence (I.S.I) persons of the abduction. The application mentioned his fear that the men would be tortured and killed by the military. However police refused to file a first information report (FIR), the basic document for police investigation; they said that they would consult their superiors in the police force.
Kachkol Ali then filed an application of Habeas Corpus for the three activists under section 491 CRPC. However the Judge of the Turbat session court, Mr. Pazeer Ahmed Baloch, refused to accept it, claiming it did not come under his jurisdiction, and told them to file in the Balochistan High Court. The lawyers, which included Mr. Fida Hussain, the president of Turbat Bar Association, then sent an application for Sou Moto to Mr Iftekhar Choudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan̢۪s Supreme Court.
According to the lawyers, the three men̢۪s bodies were found five days later on 8 April in Pidrak, 35 km from the place of arrest. They were almost unrecognizable due to the chemically-aided decomposition, but medical officers have concluded that the men were killed on the day of their arrest, and possibly thrown from a high place, such as a helicopter.
According to sources Chief Justice Balochistan Sanaullah Yaseen of the Balochistan High Court has just taken the case, suo moto. I call on you to support this motion by launching an immediate investigation into the murder of these three men, and the violation of their rights to life, to arbitrary detention and to free speech. The failure of the men̢۪s lawyers and friend̢۪s to solicit help from the police or the legal system shows a malfunction in the complaint-receiving mechanism in Turbat district, Balochistan province, which must be immediately addressed. The difficulties experienced by the lawyers, and the political activism of the victims also points to a government-sponsored abduction and murder, which must be given serious attention. In order to safeguard the political freedom and right to safety of those in Balochistan, the collusion between the police and illegal operations by military agencies in Balochistan warrants very close and public scrutiny.
Yours sincerely,
Munir Mengal
France
Kashmiri-Canadian Condemns the murder of Baloch leaders by ISI
Kashmiri-Canadian has expressed shock over the brutal killing of Baluchistan National Movement President GhUlam Mohmmad Baloch, Vice President Lala Munir Baloch, and SHer Momammad Baloch by the Pakistan secret intelligence ISI. These three Baloch leaders had been kidnapped by the ISI in the office of Kackol Ali Advocate, former Opposition leader of Balochsitan, few days ago, according to Senator `Mir Hasil Bizinjo Vice President of National Party, and were killed same day whose dead bodies were found yesterday. Mr. Kachkol Ali Said that writ petition had already been filed in the Court against the kidnapping of these murdered leaders.
Mumtaz Khan said that grisly murders of three Baloch leaders by Pakistan ISI, is has shocked and horrified whole our community over this cowardice, inhuman and despicable act against the Baloch nation. He said that such cowardice acts of gruesome killing of Baloch leaders can’t weaken the resolve of Baloch nation but will advance their cause of freedom and deepen the hatred against the Pakistan’s ongoing injustice and exploitation. If mass murder of Begali people by Pakistan Army couldn’t stop them from achieving their freedom, such killings will only deepen the disbelief among Balochi people towards Pakistan and strengthen their movement and views which are widely held in Balochsitan.
We strongly condemn this act and demand to the international community, human rights organizations must take notice of such brutal acts of extrajudicial killings by Pakistan secret agencies of freedom loving and secular leader of Balochistan. The Pakistan military which had killed Nawab Akbar Bugti, Balach Marri, and now killed another three Baloch leaders, while thousands are disappeared for many years including hundreds of women. It is serious violations of human rights, right to life, civil and political rights of people of Balochistan. The Baloch secular voices are being suppressed in order to promote Talibanization and extremism there.But in the presence of secular Baloch parties, ISI agenda is bogged down and now they have chosen to eliminate all secular and nationalist voices to implement their agenda.
Irony is that Pakistan ISI protects Taliban and extremist in NWFP and Pakistan, and government signs agreement with Taliban but killing liberal and secular leaders that exposes their real face and agenda.
Mumtaz Khan
Toronto
Press Release
We Strongly Condemn the Cold Blooded Murders of Baloch Political Activists
Balochi Human Rights Council (BHRC) strongly condemns the cold blooded murders of Baloch political activists Waja Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Waja Sher Mohammad Baloch and Lala Muneer Baloch by the Pakistani Military Intelligence Agency. They were picked up by security personnel on 3rdApril, 2009 from the office of their solicitor in Turbat Balochistan.
Waja Ghulam Mohammad, Waja Sher Mohammad and Lala Muneer have steadfastly been in the forefront of the political mobilisation for the genuine rights of the Baloch people. Last year, they have been arrested by the security agencies, tortured, kept in solitary confinement for long period before releasing them. It is being reported by reliable sources that after picking them up from the office of Mr. Kachkol Ali Advocate on 3rd of this month, the Baloch leaders were blind folded and taken to an unknown destination. It is believed that they were thrown from a military helicopter after being tortured to death in Peedark hills next day 20 miles away from Turbat.
Balochistan is under a brutal military operation for the last five years in which a large number of prominent social, intellectual and political figures have been targeted and eliminated by the state security agencies of Pakistan. The state establishment of Pakistan has always remained very keen to silence the voice of reason raised for the genuine rights of the Baloch people.
This disgusting act of the intelligence agencies of Pakistan reminds us of the inhuman acts of brutalities on the Bengali political leadership during the last days of East Pakistan. It also reminds us how immoral and shameless an enemy Baloch are facing.
This is high time for the international human rights organisations and the international community to take serious notice of the crimes against humanity being committed by the Pakistani state in Balochistan. We are writing memorandums at this respect to UN Secretary General, president of European Union and many other international humanitarian organisations.
Issued By:
Samad Baloch
General Secretary
Baloch Human Rights Council London 9 April 2009
info@bhrc.co.yahoo.uk
April 09, 2009
The Real Story of AIG
April 5, 2009
By Vincent Gioia
http://www.rightsidenews.com/200904054279/editorial/the-real-story-of-aig.html
AIG has been in the news a lot these days. At the beginning of the AIG saga the Fed said it was too big to allow it to fail and so billions were given to "save" the company. Of course this failed and still more money was thrown their way. When it was "discovered" that AIG had contractual obligations to give serious bonuses to key employees, congress was irate. Even after it became known that a Democrat, Senator Chris Dodd, inserted a provision in the Stimulus bill to protect these bonuses at the request of the Treasury Department, the jackals that passed, but didn't read, the bill were still furious.
With all the attention given to AIG I think it is interesting to learn a little more about the company.
First of all, some may be surprised to learn that AIG is a subsidiary of American International Corporation (AIC) and the parent has a most interesting history. AIC has succeeded in remaining invisible and does that by relying on secrecy because that's how its founders liked it. John D. Rockefeller, Sr., of Robber Baron fame, started the company in 1910. Other Barons of industry joined John D.; Andrew Mellon, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. Other American industrialists and bankers also joined the AIC venture. The reason such an illustrious group of giants came together was that knew the financial clout they could exert together would bring them even more wealth, but more importantly, power; at a time when there were few government restrictions interfering with business.
Rockefeller, the oil man, knew that Russia would become of major importance because of the discovery of oil in Baku near the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan. The oil field was the largest known oil strike in the world at the time. However, the Baku oil field was controlled entirely by the Swiss munitions manufacturers Alfred and Robert Nobel and Tsar Nicholas II's banker, Baron Alphonse Rothschild, who had gotten there earlier. As early as 1884 Rothschild and Nobel were pumping as much oil from the Baku Oil Fields as Rockefeller was from all of his holdings in the United States and Rockefeller wanted to get in on the action. By 1870 Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled 85% of the refining and distribution of oil in the entire world but by 1880 he lost most of his distribution rights in Europe to Rothschild.
In order to succeed in Russia Rockefeller realized the Tsar had to go.
Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon and their banker friends were already well on their way to creating a central federal bank owned by them and getting the US to enact a national income tax to repay what the United States would soon owe to that privately-owned central bank. Taking over Russian oil was something else.
The Rockefeller group of business giants met in New York with Bolshevik Leon Trotsky between 1907 and 1910. Rockefeller, his banker friends, Mellon and Morgan, and steel man Andrew Carnegie, along with others of equal rank in the business world pooled their resources and put up $50 million to form the American International Corporation, AIC, which they announced was created to stimulate world trade. However the real purpose was to get the Bolsheviks to overthrow Tsar Nicholas II. They made a deal with Trotsky and his partner in crime Vladimir Ulyanov, whom the world would get to know as Lenin. In exchange for financing the Bolshevik Revolution Rockefeller and his robber Baron friends would be allowed to take over the Russian oil fields. But what actually happened is that Trotsky and Lenin double crossed AIC after they helped topple the Tsar.
It is an unfortunate reality that but for the interference of the Robber Barons the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution would not have succeeded. With the help of Rockefeller and his equally greedy merry men the Tsar was overthrown. To cement their power the Bolsheviks shot and killed the Tsar and his family enabling the well-financed Bolsheviks to depose the Romanov dynasty.
After this bit of history it may be asked who, or what, exactly, is American International Corporation? Jon Christian Ryter has written:
"AIC is one of the two largest corporations ever formed. The other is Standard Oil, which was broken apart by US District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis on August 3, 1907. At 4 p.m. on May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the Landis judgment, and what was one behemoth oil giant became seven behemoth oil giants-with the Rockefeller family as the primary shareholders in all of them (otherwise known as 'the seven sisters'). The government would ultimately learn from its Standard Oil mistake because when the Reagan-era Supreme Court broke up Ma Bell, AT&T was forced to sell-off the breakaway companies."
AIC personnel comprised executives brought into the company who were trusted associates from each partner's own commercial ventures. Rockefeller, Mellon, Morgan and Carnegie masterminded the creation of AIC and built the corporation similar to Standard Oil with secrecy layers that made it very difficult to be scrutinized.
Among those brought into AIC was Frank Vanderlip from Rockefeller's National City Bank, one of the seven people who would not only help write the Federal Reserve Act legislation, but he would also be instrumental in getting congress to enact the 16th Amendment* by promising them fame and fortune, or threatening them with failure if they didn't go along. Vanderlip was on the board of AIC along with such luminaries who served at various points of time throughout AIC's century-old life, like Thomas Vail, CEO of AT&T, Percy Rockefeller (one of John D.'s brothers), James A. Stillman (a Rockefeller in-law), Pierre DuPont, and George H. Walker, maternal grandfather of George H.W. Bush.
At one point Robert S. Lovett joined the board and became a key advisor to President John F. Kennedy. Lovett advocated ignoring the 2nd Amendment and disarming the American people as the first step in creating global government.
"Other founding directors included manufacturer Cyrus McCormick; railroad executive James J. Hill; Edwin S. Webster (Stone's partner); investment banker Otto Kahn, meat-packer Ogden Armour; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Taft, Beekman Winthrop; Henry Smith Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Corporation; and Joseph P. Grace, then a Standard Oil chemist. He developed petrochemical products from crude oil. Also, banker Charles H. Sabin; W.E. Corey, head of US Steel; James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney; and Charles A. Coffin, who replaced Thomas Edison as CEO of General Electric." (Jon Christian Ryter)
"In 1918, Forbes published his first list of the 30 richest America. Heading the list were the invisible rich whose wealth is never supposed to be mentioned by the media. Among them, alphabetically, were J. Ogden Armour, Vincent Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Pierre DuPont, Henry Clay Frick, Daniel Guggenheim, Cyrus McCormick, John Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Russell Sage, Jacob Schiff, Charles M. Schwab, and William Vanderbilt. Since all but a few of these names own shares of the Federal Reserve, it is unlikely that any of them became "less rich" over time. The business holdings of these men included oil, coal, railroads, steel, gold and silver mining, and investment banking. Rockefeller headed the Forbes list. His wealth in 1918 was conservatively estimated at $1.2 billion by Forbes in an age when a bank president who earned $5,000.00 per year and was considered to be an extremely wealthy man."
The Robber Barons wanted a world without borders with a common currency with which to trade anywhere in the world; a global economy with a global government. Does this sound familiar?
*The 16th Amendment is the Income Tax Amendment
Vincent Gioia is a retired patent attorney living in Palm Desert, California. His articles may be read at www.vincentgioia.com and he may be contacted at gioia@gte.netThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
By Vincent Gioia
http://www.rightsidenews.com/200904054279/editorial/the-real-story-of-aig.html
AIG has been in the news a lot these days. At the beginning of the AIG saga the Fed said it was too big to allow it to fail and so billions were given to "save" the company. Of course this failed and still more money was thrown their way. When it was "discovered" that AIG had contractual obligations to give serious bonuses to key employees, congress was irate. Even after it became known that a Democrat, Senator Chris Dodd, inserted a provision in the Stimulus bill to protect these bonuses at the request of the Treasury Department, the jackals that passed, but didn't read, the bill were still furious.
With all the attention given to AIG I think it is interesting to learn a little more about the company.
First of all, some may be surprised to learn that AIG is a subsidiary of American International Corporation (AIC) and the parent has a most interesting history. AIC has succeeded in remaining invisible and does that by relying on secrecy because that's how its founders liked it. John D. Rockefeller, Sr., of Robber Baron fame, started the company in 1910. Other Barons of industry joined John D.; Andrew Mellon, J.P. Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. Other American industrialists and bankers also joined the AIC venture. The reason such an illustrious group of giants came together was that knew the financial clout they could exert together would bring them even more wealth, but more importantly, power; at a time when there were few government restrictions interfering with business.
Rockefeller, the oil man, knew that Russia would become of major importance because of the discovery of oil in Baku near the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan. The oil field was the largest known oil strike in the world at the time. However, the Baku oil field was controlled entirely by the Swiss munitions manufacturers Alfred and Robert Nobel and Tsar Nicholas II's banker, Baron Alphonse Rothschild, who had gotten there earlier. As early as 1884 Rothschild and Nobel were pumping as much oil from the Baku Oil Fields as Rockefeller was from all of his holdings in the United States and Rockefeller wanted to get in on the action. By 1870 Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled 85% of the refining and distribution of oil in the entire world but by 1880 he lost most of his distribution rights in Europe to Rothschild.
In order to succeed in Russia Rockefeller realized the Tsar had to go.
Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon and their banker friends were already well on their way to creating a central federal bank owned by them and getting the US to enact a national income tax to repay what the United States would soon owe to that privately-owned central bank. Taking over Russian oil was something else.
The Rockefeller group of business giants met in New York with Bolshevik Leon Trotsky between 1907 and 1910. Rockefeller, his banker friends, Mellon and Morgan, and steel man Andrew Carnegie, along with others of equal rank in the business world pooled their resources and put up $50 million to form the American International Corporation, AIC, which they announced was created to stimulate world trade. However the real purpose was to get the Bolsheviks to overthrow Tsar Nicholas II. They made a deal with Trotsky and his partner in crime Vladimir Ulyanov, whom the world would get to know as Lenin. In exchange for financing the Bolshevik Revolution Rockefeller and his robber Baron friends would be allowed to take over the Russian oil fields. But what actually happened is that Trotsky and Lenin double crossed AIC after they helped topple the Tsar.
It is an unfortunate reality that but for the interference of the Robber Barons the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution would not have succeeded. With the help of Rockefeller and his equally greedy merry men the Tsar was overthrown. To cement their power the Bolsheviks shot and killed the Tsar and his family enabling the well-financed Bolsheviks to depose the Romanov dynasty.
After this bit of history it may be asked who, or what, exactly, is American International Corporation? Jon Christian Ryter has written:
"AIC is one of the two largest corporations ever formed. The other is Standard Oil, which was broken apart by US District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis on August 3, 1907. At 4 p.m. on May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the Landis judgment, and what was one behemoth oil giant became seven behemoth oil giants-with the Rockefeller family as the primary shareholders in all of them (otherwise known as 'the seven sisters'). The government would ultimately learn from its Standard Oil mistake because when the Reagan-era Supreme Court broke up Ma Bell, AT&T was forced to sell-off the breakaway companies."
AIC personnel comprised executives brought into the company who were trusted associates from each partner's own commercial ventures. Rockefeller, Mellon, Morgan and Carnegie masterminded the creation of AIC and built the corporation similar to Standard Oil with secrecy layers that made it very difficult to be scrutinized.
Among those brought into AIC was Frank Vanderlip from Rockefeller's National City Bank, one of the seven people who would not only help write the Federal Reserve Act legislation, but he would also be instrumental in getting congress to enact the 16th Amendment* by promising them fame and fortune, or threatening them with failure if they didn't go along. Vanderlip was on the board of AIC along with such luminaries who served at various points of time throughout AIC's century-old life, like Thomas Vail, CEO of AT&T, Percy Rockefeller (one of John D.'s brothers), James A. Stillman (a Rockefeller in-law), Pierre DuPont, and George H. Walker, maternal grandfather of George H.W. Bush.
At one point Robert S. Lovett joined the board and became a key advisor to President John F. Kennedy. Lovett advocated ignoring the 2nd Amendment and disarming the American people as the first step in creating global government.
"Other founding directors included manufacturer Cyrus McCormick; railroad executive James J. Hill; Edwin S. Webster (Stone's partner); investment banker Otto Kahn, meat-packer Ogden Armour; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Taft, Beekman Winthrop; Henry Smith Pritchett, president of the Carnegie Corporation; and Joseph P. Grace, then a Standard Oil chemist. He developed petrochemical products from crude oil. Also, banker Charles H. Sabin; W.E. Corey, head of US Steel; James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney; and Charles A. Coffin, who replaced Thomas Edison as CEO of General Electric." (Jon Christian Ryter)
"In 1918, Forbes published his first list of the 30 richest America. Heading the list were the invisible rich whose wealth is never supposed to be mentioned by the media. Among them, alphabetically, were J. Ogden Armour, Vincent Astor, Andrew Carnegie, Pierre DuPont, Henry Clay Frick, Daniel Guggenheim, Cyrus McCormick, John Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Russell Sage, Jacob Schiff, Charles M. Schwab, and William Vanderbilt. Since all but a few of these names own shares of the Federal Reserve, it is unlikely that any of them became "less rich" over time. The business holdings of these men included oil, coal, railroads, steel, gold and silver mining, and investment banking. Rockefeller headed the Forbes list. His wealth in 1918 was conservatively estimated at $1.2 billion by Forbes in an age when a bank president who earned $5,000.00 per year and was considered to be an extremely wealthy man."
The Robber Barons wanted a world without borders with a common currency with which to trade anywhere in the world; a global economy with a global government. Does this sound familiar?
*The 16th Amendment is the Income Tax Amendment
Vincent Gioia is a retired patent attorney living in Palm Desert, California. His articles may be read at www.vincentgioia.com and he may be contacted at gioia@gte.netThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
April 08, 2009
Truth about Rahul Gandhi M.Phil
Source:
Source: http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2009/04/07/INDEX.SHTML
PRESS RELEASE of Janata Party
The revelation in New Indian Express, Chennai today of the false claim of Mr.Rahul Gandhi made in his sworn affidavit that he holds a M Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge University calls from an immediate Notice for perjury to be sent to him by the Election Commission. Otherwise, I shall move the Courts for action.
The revelation confirms the disclosure I made after a visit to the Department of Development Studies, University of Cambridge in 2005. I was informed by the Department’s library and revealed in its computer, that Mr.Gandhi did not complete his M Phil degree because he had failed the National Economic Planning and Policy exam and hence could not fulfil the mandatory requirement of writing a M Phil thesis (much less defend it). Also, Trinity College does not award M Phil degrees, and Development Studies Department has nothing to do with the Economics Department.
Moreover, according to University records Mr.Gandhi asRaul Vinci had given his citizenship as ‘Italian citizen by birth since born to an Italian mother”, and holds an Italian passport in that name. He also paid his fees from a numbered account in a tax-haven bank.
Incidentally, Mr.Gandhi had failed the first year B,A in St.Stephan’s College in Delhi because, as his sister had in Jesus and Mary College, he failed the Hindi
compulsory course exam.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
Source: http://epaper.expressbuzz.com/NE/NE/2009/04/07/INDEX.SHTML
PRESS RELEASE of Janata Party
The revelation in New Indian Express, Chennai today of the false claim of Mr.Rahul Gandhi made in his sworn affidavit that he holds a M Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge University calls from an immediate Notice for perjury to be sent to him by the Election Commission. Otherwise, I shall move the Courts for action.
The revelation confirms the disclosure I made after a visit to the Department of Development Studies, University of Cambridge in 2005. I was informed by the Department’s library and revealed in its computer, that Mr.Gandhi did not complete his M Phil degree because he had failed the National Economic Planning and Policy exam and hence could not fulfil the mandatory requirement of writing a M Phil thesis (much less defend it). Also, Trinity College does not award M Phil degrees, and Development Studies Department has nothing to do with the Economics Department.
Moreover, according to University records Mr.Gandhi asRaul Vinci had given his citizenship as ‘Italian citizen by birth since born to an Italian mother”, and holds an Italian passport in that name. He also paid his fees from a numbered account in a tax-haven bank.
Incidentally, Mr.Gandhi had failed the first year B,A in St.Stephan’s College in Delhi because, as his sister had in Jesus and Mary College, he failed the Hindi
compulsory course exam.
(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)
April 06, 2009
OBAMA & AF-PAK REGION: POLICY NIGHTMARES,BUT NO POLICY OPTIONS
WHAT I WROTE ON NOVEMBER 10,2001
B.RAMAN
Richard Holbrooke, President Barrack Obama's special envoy for Pakistan and Affghanistan, starts his second visit to the region with a halt in Pakistan from April 6,2009. He will be accompanied by Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, who reportedly made before a Congressional committee recently the astonishing remark that he felt "comfortable" with the security arrangements made by the Pakistan Government for its nuclear arsenal. He is not the only one to feel so comfortable with the security outside Pakistan's nuclear establishments. So do Osama bin Laden and Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They feel comfortable too because they know that penetrating them with the help of their accomplices would be as easy for them as the recent penetration of the police training school in Manawan in the Lahore area and of the barracks of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) in Islamabad on April 4 was. It is no longer a question of whether they will organise a commando-style raid into Pakistan's nuclear establishments, but when and how .
2. I am reproducing below an article on Pakistan & the Taliban written by me on November 10,2001. It is available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers4/paper358.html (6-4-09)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
10-11-2001
PAKISTAN & THE TALIBAN
by B. Raman
In its keenness to assert the primacy of its national interests and strategic objectives through any means, the US has over the years made heroes out of surrogates, whose only qualification was that they were prepared to do its bidding. Ultimately, it ended up with the mortification of seeing these heroes of yesterday becoming the Frankensteins of today, endangering the very US national interests to protect which they were initially created.
Afghanistan provides a good case study of this. The dramatis personae in the more than two-decade-old Afghan tragedy --whether Osama bin Laden and his terrorists' mafia, Mullah Mohammed Omar Akhund and his Taliban Shoora or the innumerable "Mujahideen" commanders and Pakistani jehadis playing havoc in different parts of the country in the name of Islam--- were all the original creations of the CIA, ably assisted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Through their depredations, they have made Afghanistan perhaps the only country in the world to register a decline in population with that of Kabul reduced by half and with the largest proportion, anywhere in the world, of widows with no male relatives.
They have turned Afghanistan into a breeding ground of medieval obscurantist forces which have been spreading their tentacles to Dagestan and Chechnya in Russia, the Central Asian Republics (CARs), Xinjiang in China, Pakistan itself, Jammu & Kashmir in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southern Philippines.
And the Americans have created for themselves a situation where the choice is not among various policy options, but policy nightmares.
The way the Taliban, which was backed by the US from its creation in July,1994, to its capture of Kabul in September,1996, has heaped indignities on the women of Afghanistan and reduced them to less than human beings in the name of Islam, is without parallel anywhere else in the world.
While justifying the attitude of the Taliban towards women's role in society, the then Taliban Ambassador in Islamabad, Maulvi Saeedur Rahman Haqqani, said at a seminar at Islamabad on May 2, 1999: "In Muslim societies, we respect and cherish our women. We treat them like precious jewels and keep them in an ornamental box."
What is the ground reality?
Under the pre-1992 Najibullah Government, 70 per cent of the academics--members of the teaching faculties of schools and colleges--- 60 per cent of the medical personnel and 30 per cent of the Government servants in Afghanistan were women. They played an active role in politics and diplomacy too.
This high percentage was due to the spread of higher education amongst women and also due to the shortage of men to occupy civilian jobs because of the enlistment of a large number of men in the army to fight the "mujahideen".
After its capture of Kabul in 1996, the Taliban removed all girls from educational institutions, banned any fresh induction and sacked all women from jobs where they might have to interact with men. They are now allowed only in those jobs in which their interaction would be only with other women. Wearing of burqa was made obligatory.
The Taliban promised to at least partially restore the educational rights of women after the war against the Northern Alliance ended and after the economic situation improved. One doesn't know when that would be, now that it is facing two wars---one against the Northern Alliance and the other against the US-led international coalition.
The results since 1996:
* An Increase in the instances of suicide by war widows unable to support their children.
* Before 1992, Kabul did not have a single woman beggar. In 1999, the figures for which are available, it had an estimated 35,000, most of them widows with children--former academics, doctors, nurses and government servants--with no other means of feeding their children. Visitors to Kabul had remarked on their shock and indignation at the Taliban when they discovered that behind many a burqa of beggars approaching them for alms stood an English or French or Russian-speaking woman, highly educated with a sophisticated and cultured mind. They were heartlessly sacked for no other reason than that they were women. The Mullahs' anger was particularly directed at women who had their higher education in Hindu India, Communist USSR or the "decadent" West, where, according to the Mullahs, women were allowed to "run around like wild animals."
* Some Western non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) started a vocational training centre where the children of these widows could be trained in some craft so that they could support themselves and their mothers. The Taliban banned the enrollment of girls in this centre. As a Pakistani columnist remarked: " It would seem that for the Taliban, training boys and girls together would be unislamic, but letting them beg together in the streets is not so." It is many of these begging women and children who have now been killed by the US air strikes. They had no place where they could take cover from the air strikes.
* Women were banned from witnessing any sports meet. The only public gathering at which their presence was allowed and even encouraged was to witness the stoning to death of convicts for adultery.
The anti-woman attitude of the Taliban was evident even from October,1994, onwards when it started curtailing the rights of women in town after town captured by it, but the outside world, particularly the US and West Europe, reacted against it only after the Mullahs started enforcing their orders not only against Afghan women in the entire territory under their control, but also against foreign women working in the offices of international organisations and NGOs after the capture of Kabul.
Next to women, the Shias were a major target of the brutalities and indignities of the Wahabi-Sunni-dominated Taliban Shoora and its militia called Lashkar Mohammadi. Public observance of Moharrum was banned. So too the Shia tradition of their women joining the men in prayers during Moharrum and visits to graves of their relatives.
The "News" of Pakistan (April 26,1999) quoted Mr.Ghulam Mohiuddin, a Shia leader of Afghanistan, as stating as follows: " Even the Hindus in India allow the Shias to practise their religion, but the Taliban are denying us this basic right."
After the Taliban captured Herat on the Iran border and, subsequently, the Bamiyan province, there were reportedly large-scale massacres of the Shias and forcible re-settlement of the Shias in the Sunni-majority villages in the rest of Afghanistan and their replacement by Sunnis brought to Herat and Bamiyan from other provinces. This was done to reduce the Shias to a minority in their traditional homelands.
Before October 7,2001,the Taliban had only three achievements to its credit---improvement of law and order, restoration of electricity supply in towns and resumption of farming in 70 per cent of the cultivable land in the country.
Better law and order was through rigorous enforcement of Islamic punishments such as amputation of arms and stoning and crushing to death. Some Pakistani analysts pointed out that such punishments were more frequent against non-Pashtoons and Shias than against Pashtoons and Sunnis.
The Taliban's agricultural policy benefitted poppy cultivation more, through priority in fertiliser distribution to poppy farmers than to cultivators of other agricultural products.
While offences such as theft, housebreaking, murder, rape, adultery, sodomy etc were immediately punished after a sham of a trial, there was no Islamic punishment for heroin production and smuggling.
There was a strongly suspected nexus involving the poppy farmers, all of them Afghan citizens, the heroin producers, all of them Pakistani drug barons resident in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and 30 Mullahs constituting the Kandahar-based Taliban Shoora with Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Amir, at the top.
The only effective arm of the Taliban administration was the militia, which brought 90 per cent of the country under its control within five years, and the Ministry for the Promotion of Islamic Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. A new intelligence agency, largely officered and headed by serving and retired ISI officers, was created and placed under the direct control of the Amir.
The militia was a hotchpotch of students from the madrasas in the NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh, former Pashtoon officers and soldiers of the late Najibullah's Soviet-trained armed forces and Pakistani ex-servicemen and serving military personnel, given leave of absence by the Pakistani military, to enable them assist the Taliban. The Pakistanis constituted about 70 per cent plus of the strength of the Taliban militia.
During important battles, the militia was also assisted by Pakistani militant organisations such as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the virulently anti-Shia Sipah-e- Sahaba Pakistan, the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami and the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Arab volunteers of bin Laden's Al Quaeda (055 Brigade).
Despite its hotchpotch character, the discipline and religious motivation of the militia have remained surprisingly strong. It fought extremely well against the forces of the Northern Alliance led by the late Gen. Ahmed Shah Masood and is now withstanding the US onslaught with no apparent signs of demoralisation as yet.
The large casualties suffered by the militia during the battles for Mazar-e-Sharif in 1997 and 1998 and the battles in Bamiyan in 1998 and 1999 did not affect its morale. However, there were reports of difficulties being faced by the Taliban in making fresh recruitment to make up for the losses--particularly from the Durrani sub-tribe of the Pashtoons, which was the main recruiting ground in Afghanistan. These shortages were, however, made up by a fresh influx of madrasa jehadis and ex-servicemen from Pakistan.
The rest of the administration was in a chaotic state. There was no functioning central bank; nor were there any gold reserves and officially accounted for foreign exchange reserves. The tax collection machinery was ineffective.
There was no public scrutiny of Government policies, decisions and actions, no open discussion of the state budget, no policy and decision making infrastructure. Policy and decision options were not examined for their likely impact on Afghanistan's future and on its relations with the rest of the world before being adopted.
The Amir and his associates in the Shoora look upon themselves as on a divine mission and there is a touching, but disturbing faith in divine intervention to help them out of problems. Since they have convinced themselves that they have been the beneficiaries of divine guidance, they do not feel the need for human guidance and advice from the non-clerical, civilian bureaucracy, which has consequently been reduced to merely an instrument for carrying out the decisions of the clerics, without any voice in policy and decision-making.
This delusion of a divine mission also made the Amir insensitive to public opinion not only inside the country, but also in the rest of the world. The Amir is strongly motivated by the Pashtoon concept of "izzat" (self-respect) and tends to look upon any suggestion of concessions to international opinion as an affront to his "izzat".
This should explain his obstinate refusal to respond to outside pressures for controlling the spread of terrorism, to expel bin Laden and to control heroin production and smuggling.
Afghanistan, under the Taliban, has two capitals --the administrative capital at Kabul, which is the seat of the Government which interacts with foreign interlocutors, and the spiritual capital at Kandahar, where the Amir, his Shoora and the intelligence agency headquarters were located before October 7,2001. The Amir was hoping that Kandahar would one day become the spiritual capital of triumphant Wahabi-Sunni forces in Dagestan, Chechnya, Xinjiang, Pakistan, Kashmir in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southern Philippines.
The Amir hails from village Nodeh and grew up in village Singesar in the Mewand District near Kandahar. Mewand is as holy and historic a place for the Pashtoons of Afghanistan as Kosovo is for the Serbs. According to Afghan historians, it was at Mewand that the Pashtoons trounced the advancing British troops.
Malalai, a Pashtoon woman of Mewand, earned a heroic reputation by fighting shoulder to shoulder with her male brethren and rallying them against the British troops. What an irony of fate that the descendants of this heroic woman should find themselves chained inside a burqa by the descendants of her male brethren!
It was as a protector of women's honour that the Amir won the admiration of the Pashtoons of Kandahar in July, 1994, when he gathered a group of boys from the local madrasas, raided the house of a local "Mujahideen" commander, who had become notorious as a rapist, and killed him. From a protector, he degenerated into an oppressor of women's rights.
The fact that the about 40-year-old Amir hailed from the legendary Mewand District gave him a halo in the eyes of the simple, God-fearing, proud Pashtoons and they followed his commands implicitly.
Instead of leading them into the new millennium to make Afghanistan once again a tolerant, progressive Islamic state with equal rights for women and men, for Muslims and non-Muslims, for Pashtoons and non-Pashtoons, for Sunnis and Shias, he chose to lead them back to the middle ages in the name of God.
The Amir is a man with little exposure to the world outside Kandahar and its environs. It is said that he has never travelled to the non-Pashtoon areas. Many say he had never been to Kabul since it was captured by the Taliban in September,1996, but some others assert that he had visited it once. He hardly knows Pakistan outside Peshawar and Quetta.
He lets the Mullahs of the Government in Kabul interact with domestic as well as foreign interlocutors. Since they do not know the Amir's mind while negotiating, one had the strange spectacle of the interlocutors from Kabul reaching agreements in principle to subsequently find these agreements rejected by the Amir. This was happening repeatedly.
Before October 7,2001, the Pakistan Government's predominant influence in Taliban-controlled territory was mainly in the civilian administration, which had and continues to have many Pakistani advisers, the intelligence agency and the militia. Its influence in matters religious was limited. However, Pakistani religious leaders such as Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Maulana Samiul Haq had and continue to have very strong influence over the Amir and the other members of the Taliban leadership.
The former Prime Minister, Mr.Nawaz Sharif, was intelligent and rational enough to realise that the obstinacy of the Amir and his Kandahar-based Shoora in dealing with issues such as the deportation of bin Laden, women's rights etc was creating serious difficulties for Pakistan in its relations with the US, that the anti-Shia and anti-Iran policies had caused a set-back to Pakistan's relations with Iran and that the Taliban's obscurantism had frustrated Pakistani aspirations of emerging as the gateway of Central Asia.
However, he was unable to assert himself because there were---just as there are still--- too many Pakistani cooks spoiling the Afghan broth. These included the religious fundamentalist parties with Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the Jamaat-ul- Ulema Islam (JUI) in the forefront egging on the Amir and his Shoora to stick to their hard line, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the ISI, the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and his then Chief of the General Staff (CGS), Lt.Gen. Mohammad Aziz, who is now a full General and is the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
During her second tenure as Prime Minister (1993-96), Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, who distrusted the ISI, let the IB working under the supervision of her Interior Minister, Maj.Gen. (retd) Nasirullah Babar, handle the Amir and his Taliban. Maj.Gen. Babar, a trusted officer of her father, the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, was the head of the Afghan desk of the ISI under her father and used to claim that he could make the Afghan Pashtoons dance to Pakistan's tune. He used Musharraf, then Director-General of Military Operations (DGMI) and Mohammad Aziz in his Taliban operations despite Aziz's association with the ISI, which was distrusted by Benazir.
On coming back to power in February, 1997,Sharif transferred the responsibility back to the ISI. The then Maj.Gen. Mohammad Aziz, who was the No.2 in the ISI, also directly supervised the Afghan desk.
When Sharif appointed Lt.Gen. Khwaja Ziauddin, who comes from a family of Pakistan Muslim League loyalists, as the DG of the ISI in October,1998, Musharraf, who distrusted Ziauddin, had Maj.Gen.Aziz, then Deputy DG,ISI, promoted as Lt.Gen. and posted as the CGS instead of posting an already serving Lt.Gen. to this important post as was the tradition. Simultaneously, he had the responsibility for handling the Taliban transferred to the DMI and reportedly ordered that Lt.Gen. Aziz would continue to supervise this work.
Addressing the English-speaking Union of Pakistan at Karachi on April 13,1999, Musharraf said that the collapse of the Taliban would lead to a disintegration of Afghanistan, which would not be in Pakistan's interest. He was of the view that Pakistan should continue to back the Taliban unmindful of US pressures and let time moderate the policies of the Mullahs.
Since the middle of 1998, there were indications of unhappiness amongst the Mullahs of the administration in Kabul, who had to bear the brunt of the international criticism regarding the Taliban's policies on bin Laden and women's rights, over the unbending obstinacy of the Amir and his Mullahs of Kandahar. The Shoora was even reported to have foiled a coup attempt and made a number of arrests.
The late Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, the then head of the interim ruling council in Kabul, who occupied the No 2 position in the Shoora and who was projected as the most trusted man of the Amir, was reported to have developed differences with the Amir when the latter rebuked him for not taking a strong line during the visit of Mr.Bill Richardson, the then US Permanent Representative to the UN, to Kabul in April, 1998 to discuss the terrorism issue.
Thereafter, Mullah Rabbani did not enjoy the trust of the Amir and spent more time in Dubai for medical treatment than for doing his job in Kabul. He died of cancer in April last. The Amir has not so far appointed a regular head of Government in his place.
The Shias of not only Afghanistan, but also Pakistan have been seething with anger against the Amir for the massacres of the Shias of Herat and Bamiyan. The Shias have a long memory for atrocities perpetrated on them as one saw in the death of Zia-ul-Haq in the plane crash of August,1988.
The NWFP has many Hazaras, the same tribe to which the Shias of Bamiyan belong, and the Hazaras are known to bide their time, even if it meant years, before avenging atrocities committed on them.
On August 24, 1999, there was an unsuccessful attempt by unidentified elements allegedly to kill the Taliban Amir at Kandahar through an explosion outside his house. The explosion killed some bystanders, including a close relative of the Amir, but the Amir himself escaped. The Shias were suspected of having organised the explosion.
Under Musharraf:
After Musharraf seized power on October 12,1999, the presence of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment in the Taliban-controlled territory increased and Afghanistan became a veritable Pakistani colony. This was facilitated by the past nexus of many of the Mullahs of the Taliban with Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment.
Certain common characteristics define these Mullahs:
* Many of them, though stated to be Kandahari Pashtoons, feel more comfortable talking in Urdu, the Pakistani official language, than in Pushtoo, their mother tongue, or Dari or Farsi, taught in the schools of Afghanistan before 1992 and used for official purposes by the then Government of the country. This is attributable to the fact that they were either born in Pakistan or grew up there.
* Few of them except some like the Amir and Jalaluddin Haqqani had distinguished themselves in the jehad against the troops of the erstwhile USSR and of the then President Najibullah before 1992. Accounts by Taliban spokesmen and its supporters in Pakistan project the Amir as having played a legendary role in the jehad against the Soviet troops, during which, according to them, he lost an eye. However, these accounts are unverifiable and his detractors allege that he actually lost his eye as a child while playing with other children.
* Many of them started their career as clerics in Pakistan Army units. The late Zia-ul-Haq, a devout Deobandi, had a large number of clerics inducted into the Education Department to teach the Holy Koran and the Arabic language to school students and in Army units to teach the Holy Koran and to conduct the daily prayers. This policy was continued by the subsequent civilian Governments too under pressure from the military- intelligence establishment and the religious parties. Thus, even before their capture of power in Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad and Kabul between 1994 and 1996, many of these clerics had a long history of association with Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment, having been paid Government servants of Pakistan.
* Having spent a large part of their lives in Pakistan, few of them knew Afghanistan outside Kandahar before they were placed in power by Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment.
* Not having fought before 1994, few of them had any military experience and hardly ever having lived in the country before 1994, none of them had any political and administrative acumen. The post-1994 battles, which led to the Taliban ostensibly assuming control over 90 per cent of the country's territory, were largely waged by militias, consisting of Pakistani servicemen and ex-servicemen, trained jehadists of Pakistan's Islamic parties and the dregs of Najibullah's army and of the various Pashtoon-dominant Mujahideen groups, which had distinguished themselves in the battles against the Soviet troops in the 1980s. Since the Taliban has had no experience of running the administration, the administrative chores in the capital Kabul and in the rest of the country were largely performed by retired Pakistani civil servants assisted by the civil administrators of Najibullah.
Before October 7, 2001, there was a clear division of responsibilities between the clerics of the Taliban on the one side and the serving and retired public servants of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment and civilian Government services on the other. While retaining a strict control over political, military and administrative affairs, Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment had left considerable autonomy of functioning to the Taliban in religious matters.
As a result, the obscurantist fervour of the Taliban assumed an autonomous momentum of its own as was seen in its suppression of the political, economic and social rights of women, its export of terrorism in the name of jehad to the Central Asian Republics (CARs), Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia and even Xinjiang in China, much to the discomfiture of Pakistan, and its destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan in the beginning of this year.
The Taliban rejected foreign allegations that it was running training camps for Islamic terrorists in its territory. It did admit, however, that there were camps where Muslims from different nations studied the Holy Koran and the Sharia, learnt to live, work and eat together and were trained in the use of weapons of self-defence so that they could protect themselves and their religion. It compared such camps to the Israeli kibbutz and criticised what it described as the hypocrisy of the non-Islamic world in accepting the kibbutz as legitimate centres for community living and self-defence, but denouncing similar camps in its territory as terrorist training camps.
It did not deny that Osama bin Laden, reportedly related by marriage to the Amir, had been given sanctuary and hospitality in its territory. It pointed out that the decision to let him come and live in Afghan territory was taken by the Burhanuddin Rabbani Government, in consultation with the Benazir Bhutto Government, before the Taliban captured Kabul in September, 1996, and criticised the US for campaigning against the presence of bin Laden only after the fall of the Rabbani Government. It asserted that it kept a tight watch over his activities to prevent him from indulging in terrorism and said that it was prepared to hand him over for a trial only if the trial was to be held according to the Sharia in an Islamic country.
The Taliban's obscurantist fervour started threatening to infect the civil society in Pakistan itself, aggravating the sectarian divide between the Sunnis and the Shias and the medievalisation and the warlordisation of the die-hard Islamic elements, particularly in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). This consequently gave rise to the oft-expressed fears of a possible Talibanisation and medievalisation of Pakistan itself.
Pakistan is not the first country to be affected by the contagion of Islamic fundamentalism. Many other Islamic countries had earlier seen the rise and, sometimes, even triumph of fundamentalist elements. But, what distinguishes Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan from that in other countries is the irrational mindset of those in the forefront of the fundamentalist drive.
This irrational mindset is seen in their words and actions such as their emphasis on the religious duty of the Muslims to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD) not only to defend the Islamic State of which they form part, but also their religion, their oft-expressed willingness to consider using WMD, if necessary, to defend Islam, their chattelisation of women etc.
The Pakistani madrasas, which have been the breeding ground of this religious irrationality, had infected the clerics too, whom Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment had constituted into the Taliban. The establishment turned a blind eye to it in its eagerness to use the Mullahs to assume control over Afghanistan, but its folly came home to roost, post September 11,2001.
The action of the Taliban earlier this year in dynamiting the statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan was but one more expression of this irrationality inherited by the Mullahs of the Taliban from their mentors and masters in Pakistan. Earlier, they enslaved the women of Afghanistan in the name of Allah, looted the Buddhist cultural treasures in the Kabul museum in 1996 in the name of Allah, massacred the Uzbecks of Mazar-e-Sharif and the Shias of Bamiyan in the name of Allah and then sought to destroy Allah Himself or rather a manifestation of Allah in the name of Allah.
However, the destruction of the statues of the Buddha was not the first act of cultural and religious vandalism in Afghanistan. An equally outrageous act of vandalism was seen after Najibullah was overthrown in April 1992 and after the Pakistani led and staffed militias captured Kabul in September, 1996.
In April 1992, after the Mujahideen captured power in Kabul, Lt.Gen. (retd) Hamid Gul, Ms.Benazir Bhutto's Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in her first tenure, Lt.Gen. (retd) Javed Nasir, DG, ISI, under Mr.Nawaz Sharif, and many other senior officers of the military- intelligence establishment rushed to Kabul to take possession of the Soviet-supplied Scud missiles from the armoury of the fallen Najibullah's army. After doing so, they helped themselves to whatever Buddhist artifacts they could lay hands on in the Kabul museum.
Those left behind by them were loaded into Pakistani army trucks by Pakistani military and intelligence officers in September 1996 and shifted to Pakistan for being sold to international art smugglers.
Major-General Babar and Musharraf justified the shifting of the artifacts to Pakistan by saying that they would be kept in the safe custody of the Pakistan Government and restored to Afghanistan once the fighting ended and a Government enjoying the support of all ethnic groups was set up in Kabul.
International media and public opinion closed their eyes to this cultural vandalism reminiscent of the vandalism perpetrated by the Nazis in the occupied territories during the World War till the "Guardian" of the UK and the "Sydney Morning Herald" of Australia exposed it in articles published last year.
Against this background, the absence of feelings of outrage in large sections of Pakistani society and in the regime itself and the muted reactions of Musharraf over the destruction of the Buddha statues was not a matter of surprise.
What was a matter of surprise and concern to all right-thinking persons was that after the initial expression of outrage, the rest of the world tried to rationalise, in retrospect, the Taliban's act of vandalism with the argument that the isolation of the Taliban and the lack of engagement with it might have contributed to its outrageous act. This was exactly what Pakistan and the Taliban wanted the world to believe.
Since taking over as the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) in October, 1998, Musharraf's conduct in relation to the bin Laden issue was anything but straight. On seizing power on October 12,1999, he countermanded the orders of Sharif to the ISI to co-operate with the CIA in a commando operation to capture bin Laden and take him away to the US just as it had co-operated in the capture and the whisking away to the US of Mir Aimal Kansi, who assassinated two CIA officers in Langley in January, 1993, and Ramzi Yousef, involved in the explosion in the New York World Trade Centre in February, 1993.
When the then President Clinton visited Pakistan in March, 2000, Musharraf assured him that he would himself visit Kandahar and persuade the Amir to co-operate with the US in the bin Laden case. He went back on this assurance. Instead, he sent to Kandahar his Interior Minister, Lt.Gen.(retd) Moinudeen Haider, to meet the Amir. Haider came back and reported the failure of his mission. Musharraf thereupon advised the US to interact directly with the Taliban since, according to him, the Taliban was not amenable to Pakistani influence.
Musharraf continued to give the impression to Washington as if he was still trying hard to moderate the Taliban and persuade it to co-operate with the US in the deportation and trial of bin Laden and to release the American, German and Australian volunteers of the Shelter Now International organisation, who are currently detained in Kabul on charges of indulging in Christian missionary work under the cover of humanitarian relief.
He was under tremendous pressure from Washington on the Taliban issue. The US was more concerned over the threats to its nationals emanating from the Taliban, bin Laden and his International Islamic Front For Jehad against the US and Israel than over the escalation in terrorism in J & K and over the threats to the lives of non-Americans from the same jehadis in other parts of the world.
Moderating, if not countering, the Taliban was one of the main themes of the discussions during the feverish comings and goings between Islamabad and Washington between June and September,2001--the visits Mr.Abdul Sattar, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, to the US in June, of Mrs.Christina Rocca, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, to Pakistan July-end/beginning August, of a three-member team of the US Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committees led by Mr.Bob Graham, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to Pakistan in August, of Mr.Inamul Haq, the Pakistani Foreign Secretary, to Washington in August, of Gen.Charles F.Wald, chief of the US Air Force in the US Central Command, to Pakistan in August and of Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, the then Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to Washington in September.
During these meetings, Pakistan , as in the past, claimed that it had very little influence over the Taliban and, at the same time, promised that, despite this, it would try its best to moderate the Taliban. One of the main purposes of the ISI chief's visit to the US was also to plead with the US to delay the stationing of UN monitors in Pakistani territory to monitor the implementation of the UN sanctions against the Taliban regime, which was strongly opposed by the religious organisations.
Musharraf was also attributing the unabated activities of Islamic extremists from the Pakistan-Afghanistan region to India's alleged atrocities in J&K, which, according to him, was acting as fuel and oxygen to the religious extremist fire.
While thus projecting to the US the image of a reasonable, co-operative man, who was as concerned as the US over the activities of the Taliban, he and Aziz covertly egged on the Taliban and bin Laden's forces to escalate their attacks on the Northern Alliance and complete quickly their conquest of the areas under the control of the Alliance before the US pressure became irresistible and Washington resorted to a more active response against the Taliban.
The Taliban, at the urging of Musharraf, stepped up its offensive against the Northern Alliance, and the explosion triggered off on September 9,2001, by two Arab (Algerian?) suicide bombers of bin Laden, who were interviewing Ahmed Shah Masood, the Commander of the Northern Alliance, under the cover of TV journalists, was choreographed from the ISI headquarters in Pakistan.
On September 12,2001, within 24 hours of the jehadi terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC,Musharraf, after consulting his Corps Commanders, ordered an emergency scram to evacuate from the Taliban-controlled Afghan territory, all Pakistani Govt. personnel, serving as well as retired, serving in the Taliban's militia, civil administration and intelligence agency, and all jehadis belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Al Badr undergoing training in the training camps in Afghan territory.
Airports, including the one in Islamabad, were temporarily closed for traffic to enable the evacuation by air from Kabul and Kandahar of all senior Army officers, serving and retired, serving in the Taliban. Under the UN sanctions, there is a ban on all flights to and from the Taliban-controlled territory. Despite this, Musharraf and his officers decided to take a risk by evacuating the senior officers by air.
All junior officers and civilian personnel were ordered to return to Pakistan by road as best as they could. Similar instructions were issued to the jehadis undergoing training in Afghan territory, preparatory to their induction into Jammu & Kashmir.
The two visits by Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, the then DG, ISI, to Kandahar---on the second occasion with a group of Pakistani Mullahs---ostensibly to pressurise Mulla Mohammad Omer to hand over bin Laden to the US or to an European country was at least partly meant to gain time to complete the evacuation of Pakistani Government personnel and the jehadis.
However, there was no evacuation, either actual or ordered, of the Pakistani students of the various madrasas in Pakistan, most of them belonging to Maulana Fazlur Rahman's JUI, who have been fighting along with the Taliban Militia against the Northern Alliance troops.
They were reportedly asked to stay on and continue to assist the Taliban Militia. Islamabad's military junta was worried that the evacuation of the Pakistani Army personnel and any disruption of the Taliban's Militia set-up by US air strikes might enable the Northern Alliance to re-capture Kabul and other territory lost to the Taliban since September,1996.
The junta was and continues to be worried that if the Taliban's resistance against the Northern Alliance collapses and the Burhanuddin Rabbani Government returns to power in Kabul, it would be strongly anti-Pakistan and pro-India, pro-Russia and pro-Iran. It wants to prevent this from happening.
In the meanwhile, the death of at least 35 jehadis of the HUM fighting with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance due to the US air strikes created considerable embarrassment for Musharraf, who has till now been maintaining that the HUM is an India-based indigenous Kashmiri freedom-fighters' organisation despite its offices being located in Pakistan and its leaders indulging in open activities in Pakistani territory and that there are no Pakistanis in the Taliban.
Renowned international defence experts have been saying since the Taliban captured Kabul in September,1996, that it is a largely Pakistani organisation, clandestinely controlled and guided by the military-intelligence establishment.
In a special assessment on the Taliban's fighting potential issued on October 8,2001, the day after the US air strikes started, the "Jane's Defence Weekly" of London stated as follows:
* "The Taliban have displayed an innovative approach to warfare characterised by the use of surprise, mobility, speed, impressive logistics support and an efficient command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) network.
* " All unusual in the context of warfare in Afghanistan, these elements, along with other evidence, have lent credence in the past to reports of involvement at both planning and operational levels by Pashto-speaking Pakistani military intelligence advisers or technically retired Pakistani military personnel acting on secondment. This was the case during the Taliban's 1998 Summer and Autumn campaign and 1999 Summer offensive.
* "Taliban forces have generally come from three distinct backgrounds: former students of madrassas (religious schools) in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, who constitute the ideological core of the movement; former Mujahideen or jihadi (holy war) groups whose commanders joined the Taliban for financial or ethnic reasons; and officers of the former pre-1992 Afghan Army, many from the hard line, Pashtun nationalist Khalq (Masses) wing of the communist party. The latter have formed a skilled, professional core in artillery, armour, communications and in the air force, but some of these former communists were purged in late 1998.
* "More recently, another distinct element has been playing an important military role: Pakistani and Arab religious volunteers. The Arabs, mostly deployed on front lines north of Kabul, are estimated to number between 500 and 600. Pakistani volunteers are far more numerous. By late 1998, as many as 9,000 to 10,000 Pakistanis were serving in Taliban ranks. These different backgrounds have inevitably resulted in some friction. To minimise this, Taliban troops are kept in separate units based on nationality and, in some cases, region, district, or tribe. "
Since the beginning of the US-UK air strikes, at least another 3,000 volunteers from the Binori (Karachi) and other madrasas in Pakistan are estimated to have been rushed to the North to join the jehad against the US declared by the Taliban Amir. Some of the jehadis of organisations such as the HUM, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami etc, who were withdrawn post-haste after September 11, have been sent back to North Afghanistan to assist the Taliban against the Northern Alliance.
Initially, the US and the UK heeded the request of Musharraf to refrain from bombing the forward positions lest this enable the Northern Alliance capture Kabul. However, there has been an unannounced change in their position since October 18,2001, when they not only started bombing the forward positions ignoring Musharraf's pleas not to do so, but also concentrating the air strikes against the 055 Brigade of bin Laden and the Pakistani units, which are identifiable distinctly.
Reports from the North say that the American commanders, who have been surprised by the continuing good morale of the Taliban leadership, the unity of its leaders and by their dogged resistance, have concluded that it is the presence of the large number of well-trained Pakistani jehadis and Arabs which has been preventing the collapse of the Afghan component of the Taliban. They seem to feel that till the Arabs and the Pakistanis are neutralised, the Taliban cannot be defeated.
This has been resulting in increasing number of casualties among the Pakistanis. The initial refusal of the Pakistani junta to let the dead bodies of the HUM jehadis killed by US strikes be brought to Karachi for burial on October 24 under the pretext that they were not Pakistanis led to violent demonstrations in Karachi with the Police being forced to open fire to control the demonstrators. Ultimately, the military junta relented and let the bodies be taken to Karachi. The Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami announced in Karachi on November 8,2001, that 85 of its jehadis, including two senior commanders, have been killed in North Afghanistan. Their body bags have not yet been brought to Pakistan.
Two significant aspects of the first month of the US "war" in Afghanistan need to be highlighted:
* Almost all the civilians killed (estimate 2,000 plus) are poor Afghans.
* Almost all the Taliban militia personnel killed (500 plus, including about 20 Arabs) are Pakistanis. The HUM and the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami have publicly admitted their fatal casualties ( a total of 120 ). The JUI, the Sipah-e-Sahaba, the LET and other Pakistani organisations have not admitted theirs.
The USA seems to be determined to continue the air strikes on the Pakistani units with the Taliban even at the risk of the continued arrival of body bags in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore inflaming the local population and weakening further the position of Musharraf.
It is said in Islamabad that the US military commanders have started showing signs of disquiet over the wisdom of depending on the assurances of Musharraf. There is a creeping feeling that Musharraf has not been sharing with them real time intelligence of value, has been deliberately avoiding giving any intelligence about the location of the Taliban and the Al Qaeda leadership and has not been taking any action to stop the fresh influx of jehadis to join the Taliban ranks and against many retired officers of Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment, who have been advising the Taliban on how to counter the US. It is these retired officers, who had learnt Psywar techniques from the CIA in the 1980s, who are behind the Psywar savvy being displayed by the Taliban.
In the US media, one could already discern increasing signs of doubts over the wisdom of their action in having hastily embraced Musharraf and showering lollipops on him in anticipation of his helping the US capture bin Laden and his brains trust, which he shows no signs of doing.
The Pakistani military-intelligence establishment has practically been running till September 10,2001, the Taliban militia and intelligence. If it had sincerely wanted to help the US capture bin Laden and his associates, they would have been by now dead or alive in US custody. The fact that this has not yet happened is eloquent testimony to Pakistan's double game.
Note: This is an updated and consolidated version of the papers on the subject disseminated by us since September, 1999.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai.
B.RAMAN
Richard Holbrooke, President Barrack Obama's special envoy for Pakistan and Affghanistan, starts his second visit to the region with a halt in Pakistan from April 6,2009. He will be accompanied by Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, who reportedly made before a Congressional committee recently the astonishing remark that he felt "comfortable" with the security arrangements made by the Pakistan Government for its nuclear arsenal. He is not the only one to feel so comfortable with the security outside Pakistan's nuclear establishments. So do Osama bin Laden and Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They feel comfortable too because they know that penetrating them with the help of their accomplices would be as easy for them as the recent penetration of the police training school in Manawan in the Lahore area and of the barracks of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) in Islamabad on April 4 was. It is no longer a question of whether they will organise a commando-style raid into Pakistan's nuclear establishments, but when and how .
2. I am reproducing below an article on Pakistan & the Taliban written by me on November 10,2001. It is available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers4/paper358.html (6-4-09)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
10-11-2001
PAKISTAN & THE TALIBAN
by B. Raman
In its keenness to assert the primacy of its national interests and strategic objectives through any means, the US has over the years made heroes out of surrogates, whose only qualification was that they were prepared to do its bidding. Ultimately, it ended up with the mortification of seeing these heroes of yesterday becoming the Frankensteins of today, endangering the very US national interests to protect which they were initially created.
Afghanistan provides a good case study of this. The dramatis personae in the more than two-decade-old Afghan tragedy --whether Osama bin Laden and his terrorists' mafia, Mullah Mohammed Omar Akhund and his Taliban Shoora or the innumerable "Mujahideen" commanders and Pakistani jehadis playing havoc in different parts of the country in the name of Islam--- were all the original creations of the CIA, ably assisted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Through their depredations, they have made Afghanistan perhaps the only country in the world to register a decline in population with that of Kabul reduced by half and with the largest proportion, anywhere in the world, of widows with no male relatives.
They have turned Afghanistan into a breeding ground of medieval obscurantist forces which have been spreading their tentacles to Dagestan and Chechnya in Russia, the Central Asian Republics (CARs), Xinjiang in China, Pakistan itself, Jammu & Kashmir in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southern Philippines.
And the Americans have created for themselves a situation where the choice is not among various policy options, but policy nightmares.
The way the Taliban, which was backed by the US from its creation in July,1994, to its capture of Kabul in September,1996, has heaped indignities on the women of Afghanistan and reduced them to less than human beings in the name of Islam, is without parallel anywhere else in the world.
While justifying the attitude of the Taliban towards women's role in society, the then Taliban Ambassador in Islamabad, Maulvi Saeedur Rahman Haqqani, said at a seminar at Islamabad on May 2, 1999: "In Muslim societies, we respect and cherish our women. We treat them like precious jewels and keep them in an ornamental box."
What is the ground reality?
Under the pre-1992 Najibullah Government, 70 per cent of the academics--members of the teaching faculties of schools and colleges--- 60 per cent of the medical personnel and 30 per cent of the Government servants in Afghanistan were women. They played an active role in politics and diplomacy too.
This high percentage was due to the spread of higher education amongst women and also due to the shortage of men to occupy civilian jobs because of the enlistment of a large number of men in the army to fight the "mujahideen".
After its capture of Kabul in 1996, the Taliban removed all girls from educational institutions, banned any fresh induction and sacked all women from jobs where they might have to interact with men. They are now allowed only in those jobs in which their interaction would be only with other women. Wearing of burqa was made obligatory.
The Taliban promised to at least partially restore the educational rights of women after the war against the Northern Alliance ended and after the economic situation improved. One doesn't know when that would be, now that it is facing two wars---one against the Northern Alliance and the other against the US-led international coalition.
The results since 1996:
* An Increase in the instances of suicide by war widows unable to support their children.
* Before 1992, Kabul did not have a single woman beggar. In 1999, the figures for which are available, it had an estimated 35,000, most of them widows with children--former academics, doctors, nurses and government servants--with no other means of feeding their children. Visitors to Kabul had remarked on their shock and indignation at the Taliban when they discovered that behind many a burqa of beggars approaching them for alms stood an English or French or Russian-speaking woman, highly educated with a sophisticated and cultured mind. They were heartlessly sacked for no other reason than that they were women. The Mullahs' anger was particularly directed at women who had their higher education in Hindu India, Communist USSR or the "decadent" West, where, according to the Mullahs, women were allowed to "run around like wild animals."
* Some Western non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) started a vocational training centre where the children of these widows could be trained in some craft so that they could support themselves and their mothers. The Taliban banned the enrollment of girls in this centre. As a Pakistani columnist remarked: " It would seem that for the Taliban, training boys and girls together would be unislamic, but letting them beg together in the streets is not so." It is many of these begging women and children who have now been killed by the US air strikes. They had no place where they could take cover from the air strikes.
* Women were banned from witnessing any sports meet. The only public gathering at which their presence was allowed and even encouraged was to witness the stoning to death of convicts for adultery.
The anti-woman attitude of the Taliban was evident even from October,1994, onwards when it started curtailing the rights of women in town after town captured by it, but the outside world, particularly the US and West Europe, reacted against it only after the Mullahs started enforcing their orders not only against Afghan women in the entire territory under their control, but also against foreign women working in the offices of international organisations and NGOs after the capture of Kabul.
Next to women, the Shias were a major target of the brutalities and indignities of the Wahabi-Sunni-dominated Taliban Shoora and its militia called Lashkar Mohammadi. Public observance of Moharrum was banned. So too the Shia tradition of their women joining the men in prayers during Moharrum and visits to graves of their relatives.
The "News" of Pakistan (April 26,1999) quoted Mr.Ghulam Mohiuddin, a Shia leader of Afghanistan, as stating as follows: " Even the Hindus in India allow the Shias to practise their religion, but the Taliban are denying us this basic right."
After the Taliban captured Herat on the Iran border and, subsequently, the Bamiyan province, there were reportedly large-scale massacres of the Shias and forcible re-settlement of the Shias in the Sunni-majority villages in the rest of Afghanistan and their replacement by Sunnis brought to Herat and Bamiyan from other provinces. This was done to reduce the Shias to a minority in their traditional homelands.
Before October 7,2001,the Taliban had only three achievements to its credit---improvement of law and order, restoration of electricity supply in towns and resumption of farming in 70 per cent of the cultivable land in the country.
Better law and order was through rigorous enforcement of Islamic punishments such as amputation of arms and stoning and crushing to death. Some Pakistani analysts pointed out that such punishments were more frequent against non-Pashtoons and Shias than against Pashtoons and Sunnis.
The Taliban's agricultural policy benefitted poppy cultivation more, through priority in fertiliser distribution to poppy farmers than to cultivators of other agricultural products.
While offences such as theft, housebreaking, murder, rape, adultery, sodomy etc were immediately punished after a sham of a trial, there was no Islamic punishment for heroin production and smuggling.
There was a strongly suspected nexus involving the poppy farmers, all of them Afghan citizens, the heroin producers, all of them Pakistani drug barons resident in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and 30 Mullahs constituting the Kandahar-based Taliban Shoora with Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Amir, at the top.
The only effective arm of the Taliban administration was the militia, which brought 90 per cent of the country under its control within five years, and the Ministry for the Promotion of Islamic Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. A new intelligence agency, largely officered and headed by serving and retired ISI officers, was created and placed under the direct control of the Amir.
The militia was a hotchpotch of students from the madrasas in the NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh, former Pashtoon officers and soldiers of the late Najibullah's Soviet-trained armed forces and Pakistani ex-servicemen and serving military personnel, given leave of absence by the Pakistani military, to enable them assist the Taliban. The Pakistanis constituted about 70 per cent plus of the strength of the Taliban militia.
During important battles, the militia was also assisted by Pakistani militant organisations such as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the virulently anti-Shia Sipah-e- Sahaba Pakistan, the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami and the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Arab volunteers of bin Laden's Al Quaeda (055 Brigade).
Despite its hotchpotch character, the discipline and religious motivation of the militia have remained surprisingly strong. It fought extremely well against the forces of the Northern Alliance led by the late Gen. Ahmed Shah Masood and is now withstanding the US onslaught with no apparent signs of demoralisation as yet.
The large casualties suffered by the militia during the battles for Mazar-e-Sharif in 1997 and 1998 and the battles in Bamiyan in 1998 and 1999 did not affect its morale. However, there were reports of difficulties being faced by the Taliban in making fresh recruitment to make up for the losses--particularly from the Durrani sub-tribe of the Pashtoons, which was the main recruiting ground in Afghanistan. These shortages were, however, made up by a fresh influx of madrasa jehadis and ex-servicemen from Pakistan.
The rest of the administration was in a chaotic state. There was no functioning central bank; nor were there any gold reserves and officially accounted for foreign exchange reserves. The tax collection machinery was ineffective.
There was no public scrutiny of Government policies, decisions and actions, no open discussion of the state budget, no policy and decision making infrastructure. Policy and decision options were not examined for their likely impact on Afghanistan's future and on its relations with the rest of the world before being adopted.
The Amir and his associates in the Shoora look upon themselves as on a divine mission and there is a touching, but disturbing faith in divine intervention to help them out of problems. Since they have convinced themselves that they have been the beneficiaries of divine guidance, they do not feel the need for human guidance and advice from the non-clerical, civilian bureaucracy, which has consequently been reduced to merely an instrument for carrying out the decisions of the clerics, without any voice in policy and decision-making.
This delusion of a divine mission also made the Amir insensitive to public opinion not only inside the country, but also in the rest of the world. The Amir is strongly motivated by the Pashtoon concept of "izzat" (self-respect) and tends to look upon any suggestion of concessions to international opinion as an affront to his "izzat".
This should explain his obstinate refusal to respond to outside pressures for controlling the spread of terrorism, to expel bin Laden and to control heroin production and smuggling.
Afghanistan, under the Taliban, has two capitals --the administrative capital at Kabul, which is the seat of the Government which interacts with foreign interlocutors, and the spiritual capital at Kandahar, where the Amir, his Shoora and the intelligence agency headquarters were located before October 7,2001. The Amir was hoping that Kandahar would one day become the spiritual capital of triumphant Wahabi-Sunni forces in Dagestan, Chechnya, Xinjiang, Pakistan, Kashmir in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Southern Philippines.
The Amir hails from village Nodeh and grew up in village Singesar in the Mewand District near Kandahar. Mewand is as holy and historic a place for the Pashtoons of Afghanistan as Kosovo is for the Serbs. According to Afghan historians, it was at Mewand that the Pashtoons trounced the advancing British troops.
Malalai, a Pashtoon woman of Mewand, earned a heroic reputation by fighting shoulder to shoulder with her male brethren and rallying them against the British troops. What an irony of fate that the descendants of this heroic woman should find themselves chained inside a burqa by the descendants of her male brethren!
It was as a protector of women's honour that the Amir won the admiration of the Pashtoons of Kandahar in July, 1994, when he gathered a group of boys from the local madrasas, raided the house of a local "Mujahideen" commander, who had become notorious as a rapist, and killed him. From a protector, he degenerated into an oppressor of women's rights.
The fact that the about 40-year-old Amir hailed from the legendary Mewand District gave him a halo in the eyes of the simple, God-fearing, proud Pashtoons and they followed his commands implicitly.
Instead of leading them into the new millennium to make Afghanistan once again a tolerant, progressive Islamic state with equal rights for women and men, for Muslims and non-Muslims, for Pashtoons and non-Pashtoons, for Sunnis and Shias, he chose to lead them back to the middle ages in the name of God.
The Amir is a man with little exposure to the world outside Kandahar and its environs. It is said that he has never travelled to the non-Pashtoon areas. Many say he had never been to Kabul since it was captured by the Taliban in September,1996, but some others assert that he had visited it once. He hardly knows Pakistan outside Peshawar and Quetta.
He lets the Mullahs of the Government in Kabul interact with domestic as well as foreign interlocutors. Since they do not know the Amir's mind while negotiating, one had the strange spectacle of the interlocutors from Kabul reaching agreements in principle to subsequently find these agreements rejected by the Amir. This was happening repeatedly.
Before October 7,2001, the Pakistan Government's predominant influence in Taliban-controlled territory was mainly in the civilian administration, which had and continues to have many Pakistani advisers, the intelligence agency and the militia. Its influence in matters religious was limited. However, Pakistani religious leaders such as Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Maulana Samiul Haq had and continue to have very strong influence over the Amir and the other members of the Taliban leadership.
The former Prime Minister, Mr.Nawaz Sharif, was intelligent and rational enough to realise that the obstinacy of the Amir and his Kandahar-based Shoora in dealing with issues such as the deportation of bin Laden, women's rights etc was creating serious difficulties for Pakistan in its relations with the US, that the anti-Shia and anti-Iran policies had caused a set-back to Pakistan's relations with Iran and that the Taliban's obscurantism had frustrated Pakistani aspirations of emerging as the gateway of Central Asia.
However, he was unable to assert himself because there were---just as there are still--- too many Pakistani cooks spoiling the Afghan broth. These included the religious fundamentalist parties with Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the Jamaat-ul- Ulema Islam (JUI) in the forefront egging on the Amir and his Shoora to stick to their hard line, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the ISI, the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and his then Chief of the General Staff (CGS), Lt.Gen. Mohammad Aziz, who is now a full General and is the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
During her second tenure as Prime Minister (1993-96), Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, who distrusted the ISI, let the IB working under the supervision of her Interior Minister, Maj.Gen. (retd) Nasirullah Babar, handle the Amir and his Taliban. Maj.Gen. Babar, a trusted officer of her father, the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, was the head of the Afghan desk of the ISI under her father and used to claim that he could make the Afghan Pashtoons dance to Pakistan's tune. He used Musharraf, then Director-General of Military Operations (DGMI) and Mohammad Aziz in his Taliban operations despite Aziz's association with the ISI, which was distrusted by Benazir.
On coming back to power in February, 1997,Sharif transferred the responsibility back to the ISI. The then Maj.Gen. Mohammad Aziz, who was the No.2 in the ISI, also directly supervised the Afghan desk.
When Sharif appointed Lt.Gen. Khwaja Ziauddin, who comes from a family of Pakistan Muslim League loyalists, as the DG of the ISI in October,1998, Musharraf, who distrusted Ziauddin, had Maj.Gen.Aziz, then Deputy DG,ISI, promoted as Lt.Gen. and posted as the CGS instead of posting an already serving Lt.Gen. to this important post as was the tradition. Simultaneously, he had the responsibility for handling the Taliban transferred to the DMI and reportedly ordered that Lt.Gen. Aziz would continue to supervise this work.
Addressing the English-speaking Union of Pakistan at Karachi on April 13,1999, Musharraf said that the collapse of the Taliban would lead to a disintegration of Afghanistan, which would not be in Pakistan's interest. He was of the view that Pakistan should continue to back the Taliban unmindful of US pressures and let time moderate the policies of the Mullahs.
Since the middle of 1998, there were indications of unhappiness amongst the Mullahs of the administration in Kabul, who had to bear the brunt of the international criticism regarding the Taliban's policies on bin Laden and women's rights, over the unbending obstinacy of the Amir and his Mullahs of Kandahar. The Shoora was even reported to have foiled a coup attempt and made a number of arrests.
The late Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, the then head of the interim ruling council in Kabul, who occupied the No 2 position in the Shoora and who was projected as the most trusted man of the Amir, was reported to have developed differences with the Amir when the latter rebuked him for not taking a strong line during the visit of Mr.Bill Richardson, the then US Permanent Representative to the UN, to Kabul in April, 1998 to discuss the terrorism issue.
Thereafter, Mullah Rabbani did not enjoy the trust of the Amir and spent more time in Dubai for medical treatment than for doing his job in Kabul. He died of cancer in April last. The Amir has not so far appointed a regular head of Government in his place.
The Shias of not only Afghanistan, but also Pakistan have been seething with anger against the Amir for the massacres of the Shias of Herat and Bamiyan. The Shias have a long memory for atrocities perpetrated on them as one saw in the death of Zia-ul-Haq in the plane crash of August,1988.
The NWFP has many Hazaras, the same tribe to which the Shias of Bamiyan belong, and the Hazaras are known to bide their time, even if it meant years, before avenging atrocities committed on them.
On August 24, 1999, there was an unsuccessful attempt by unidentified elements allegedly to kill the Taliban Amir at Kandahar through an explosion outside his house. The explosion killed some bystanders, including a close relative of the Amir, but the Amir himself escaped. The Shias were suspected of having organised the explosion.
Under Musharraf:
After Musharraf seized power on October 12,1999, the presence of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment in the Taliban-controlled territory increased and Afghanistan became a veritable Pakistani colony. This was facilitated by the past nexus of many of the Mullahs of the Taliban with Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment.
Certain common characteristics define these Mullahs:
* Many of them, though stated to be Kandahari Pashtoons, feel more comfortable talking in Urdu, the Pakistani official language, than in Pushtoo, their mother tongue, or Dari or Farsi, taught in the schools of Afghanistan before 1992 and used for official purposes by the then Government of the country. This is attributable to the fact that they were either born in Pakistan or grew up there.
* Few of them except some like the Amir and Jalaluddin Haqqani had distinguished themselves in the jehad against the troops of the erstwhile USSR and of the then President Najibullah before 1992. Accounts by Taliban spokesmen and its supporters in Pakistan project the Amir as having played a legendary role in the jehad against the Soviet troops, during which, according to them, he lost an eye. However, these accounts are unverifiable and his detractors allege that he actually lost his eye as a child while playing with other children.
* Many of them started their career as clerics in Pakistan Army units. The late Zia-ul-Haq, a devout Deobandi, had a large number of clerics inducted into the Education Department to teach the Holy Koran and the Arabic language to school students and in Army units to teach the Holy Koran and to conduct the daily prayers. This policy was continued by the subsequent civilian Governments too under pressure from the military- intelligence establishment and the religious parties. Thus, even before their capture of power in Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad and Kabul between 1994 and 1996, many of these clerics had a long history of association with Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment, having been paid Government servants of Pakistan.
* Having spent a large part of their lives in Pakistan, few of them knew Afghanistan outside Kandahar before they were placed in power by Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment.
* Not having fought before 1994, few of them had any military experience and hardly ever having lived in the country before 1994, none of them had any political and administrative acumen. The post-1994 battles, which led to the Taliban ostensibly assuming control over 90 per cent of the country's territory, were largely waged by militias, consisting of Pakistani servicemen and ex-servicemen, trained jehadists of Pakistan's Islamic parties and the dregs of Najibullah's army and of the various Pashtoon-dominant Mujahideen groups, which had distinguished themselves in the battles against the Soviet troops in the 1980s. Since the Taliban has had no experience of running the administration, the administrative chores in the capital Kabul and in the rest of the country were largely performed by retired Pakistani civil servants assisted by the civil administrators of Najibullah.
Before October 7, 2001, there was a clear division of responsibilities between the clerics of the Taliban on the one side and the serving and retired public servants of the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment and civilian Government services on the other. While retaining a strict control over political, military and administrative affairs, Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment had left considerable autonomy of functioning to the Taliban in religious matters.
As a result, the obscurantist fervour of the Taliban assumed an autonomous momentum of its own as was seen in its suppression of the political, economic and social rights of women, its export of terrorism in the name of jehad to the Central Asian Republics (CARs), Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia and even Xinjiang in China, much to the discomfiture of Pakistan, and its destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan in the beginning of this year.
The Taliban rejected foreign allegations that it was running training camps for Islamic terrorists in its territory. It did admit, however, that there were camps where Muslims from different nations studied the Holy Koran and the Sharia, learnt to live, work and eat together and were trained in the use of weapons of self-defence so that they could protect themselves and their religion. It compared such camps to the Israeli kibbutz and criticised what it described as the hypocrisy of the non-Islamic world in accepting the kibbutz as legitimate centres for community living and self-defence, but denouncing similar camps in its territory as terrorist training camps.
It did not deny that Osama bin Laden, reportedly related by marriage to the Amir, had been given sanctuary and hospitality in its territory. It pointed out that the decision to let him come and live in Afghan territory was taken by the Burhanuddin Rabbani Government, in consultation with the Benazir Bhutto Government, before the Taliban captured Kabul in September, 1996, and criticised the US for campaigning against the presence of bin Laden only after the fall of the Rabbani Government. It asserted that it kept a tight watch over his activities to prevent him from indulging in terrorism and said that it was prepared to hand him over for a trial only if the trial was to be held according to the Sharia in an Islamic country.
The Taliban's obscurantist fervour started threatening to infect the civil society in Pakistan itself, aggravating the sectarian divide between the Sunnis and the Shias and the medievalisation and the warlordisation of the die-hard Islamic elements, particularly in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). This consequently gave rise to the oft-expressed fears of a possible Talibanisation and medievalisation of Pakistan itself.
Pakistan is not the first country to be affected by the contagion of Islamic fundamentalism. Many other Islamic countries had earlier seen the rise and, sometimes, even triumph of fundamentalist elements. But, what distinguishes Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan from that in other countries is the irrational mindset of those in the forefront of the fundamentalist drive.
This irrational mindset is seen in their words and actions such as their emphasis on the religious duty of the Muslims to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD) not only to defend the Islamic State of which they form part, but also their religion, their oft-expressed willingness to consider using WMD, if necessary, to defend Islam, their chattelisation of women etc.
The Pakistani madrasas, which have been the breeding ground of this religious irrationality, had infected the clerics too, whom Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment had constituted into the Taliban. The establishment turned a blind eye to it in its eagerness to use the Mullahs to assume control over Afghanistan, but its folly came home to roost, post September 11,2001.
The action of the Taliban earlier this year in dynamiting the statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan was but one more expression of this irrationality inherited by the Mullahs of the Taliban from their mentors and masters in Pakistan. Earlier, they enslaved the women of Afghanistan in the name of Allah, looted the Buddhist cultural treasures in the Kabul museum in 1996 in the name of Allah, massacred the Uzbecks of Mazar-e-Sharif and the Shias of Bamiyan in the name of Allah and then sought to destroy Allah Himself or rather a manifestation of Allah in the name of Allah.
However, the destruction of the statues of the Buddha was not the first act of cultural and religious vandalism in Afghanistan. An equally outrageous act of vandalism was seen after Najibullah was overthrown in April 1992 and after the Pakistani led and staffed militias captured Kabul in September, 1996.
In April 1992, after the Mujahideen captured power in Kabul, Lt.Gen. (retd) Hamid Gul, Ms.Benazir Bhutto's Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in her first tenure, Lt.Gen. (retd) Javed Nasir, DG, ISI, under Mr.Nawaz Sharif, and many other senior officers of the military- intelligence establishment rushed to Kabul to take possession of the Soviet-supplied Scud missiles from the armoury of the fallen Najibullah's army. After doing so, they helped themselves to whatever Buddhist artifacts they could lay hands on in the Kabul museum.
Those left behind by them were loaded into Pakistani army trucks by Pakistani military and intelligence officers in September 1996 and shifted to Pakistan for being sold to international art smugglers.
Major-General Babar and Musharraf justified the shifting of the artifacts to Pakistan by saying that they would be kept in the safe custody of the Pakistan Government and restored to Afghanistan once the fighting ended and a Government enjoying the support of all ethnic groups was set up in Kabul.
International media and public opinion closed their eyes to this cultural vandalism reminiscent of the vandalism perpetrated by the Nazis in the occupied territories during the World War till the "Guardian" of the UK and the "Sydney Morning Herald" of Australia exposed it in articles published last year.
Against this background, the absence of feelings of outrage in large sections of Pakistani society and in the regime itself and the muted reactions of Musharraf over the destruction of the Buddha statues was not a matter of surprise.
What was a matter of surprise and concern to all right-thinking persons was that after the initial expression of outrage, the rest of the world tried to rationalise, in retrospect, the Taliban's act of vandalism with the argument that the isolation of the Taliban and the lack of engagement with it might have contributed to its outrageous act. This was exactly what Pakistan and the Taliban wanted the world to believe.
Since taking over as the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) in October, 1998, Musharraf's conduct in relation to the bin Laden issue was anything but straight. On seizing power on October 12,1999, he countermanded the orders of Sharif to the ISI to co-operate with the CIA in a commando operation to capture bin Laden and take him away to the US just as it had co-operated in the capture and the whisking away to the US of Mir Aimal Kansi, who assassinated two CIA officers in Langley in January, 1993, and Ramzi Yousef, involved in the explosion in the New York World Trade Centre in February, 1993.
When the then President Clinton visited Pakistan in March, 2000, Musharraf assured him that he would himself visit Kandahar and persuade the Amir to co-operate with the US in the bin Laden case. He went back on this assurance. Instead, he sent to Kandahar his Interior Minister, Lt.Gen.(retd) Moinudeen Haider, to meet the Amir. Haider came back and reported the failure of his mission. Musharraf thereupon advised the US to interact directly with the Taliban since, according to him, the Taliban was not amenable to Pakistani influence.
Musharraf continued to give the impression to Washington as if he was still trying hard to moderate the Taliban and persuade it to co-operate with the US in the deportation and trial of bin Laden and to release the American, German and Australian volunteers of the Shelter Now International organisation, who are currently detained in Kabul on charges of indulging in Christian missionary work under the cover of humanitarian relief.
He was under tremendous pressure from Washington on the Taliban issue. The US was more concerned over the threats to its nationals emanating from the Taliban, bin Laden and his International Islamic Front For Jehad against the US and Israel than over the escalation in terrorism in J & K and over the threats to the lives of non-Americans from the same jehadis in other parts of the world.
Moderating, if not countering, the Taliban was one of the main themes of the discussions during the feverish comings and goings between Islamabad and Washington between June and September,2001--the visits Mr.Abdul Sattar, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, to the US in June, of Mrs.Christina Rocca, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, to Pakistan July-end/beginning August, of a three-member team of the US Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committees led by Mr.Bob Graham, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, to Pakistan in August, of Mr.Inamul Haq, the Pakistani Foreign Secretary, to Washington in August, of Gen.Charles F.Wald, chief of the US Air Force in the US Central Command, to Pakistan in August and of Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, the then Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to Washington in September.
During these meetings, Pakistan , as in the past, claimed that it had very little influence over the Taliban and, at the same time, promised that, despite this, it would try its best to moderate the Taliban. One of the main purposes of the ISI chief's visit to the US was also to plead with the US to delay the stationing of UN monitors in Pakistani territory to monitor the implementation of the UN sanctions against the Taliban regime, which was strongly opposed by the religious organisations.
Musharraf was also attributing the unabated activities of Islamic extremists from the Pakistan-Afghanistan region to India's alleged atrocities in J&K, which, according to him, was acting as fuel and oxygen to the religious extremist fire.
While thus projecting to the US the image of a reasonable, co-operative man, who was as concerned as the US over the activities of the Taliban, he and Aziz covertly egged on the Taliban and bin Laden's forces to escalate their attacks on the Northern Alliance and complete quickly their conquest of the areas under the control of the Alliance before the US pressure became irresistible and Washington resorted to a more active response against the Taliban.
The Taliban, at the urging of Musharraf, stepped up its offensive against the Northern Alliance, and the explosion triggered off on September 9,2001, by two Arab (Algerian?) suicide bombers of bin Laden, who were interviewing Ahmed Shah Masood, the Commander of the Northern Alliance, under the cover of TV journalists, was choreographed from the ISI headquarters in Pakistan.
On September 12,2001, within 24 hours of the jehadi terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC,Musharraf, after consulting his Corps Commanders, ordered an emergency scram to evacuate from the Taliban-controlled Afghan territory, all Pakistani Govt. personnel, serving as well as retired, serving in the Taliban's militia, civil administration and intelligence agency, and all jehadis belonging to the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Al Badr undergoing training in the training camps in Afghan territory.
Airports, including the one in Islamabad, were temporarily closed for traffic to enable the evacuation by air from Kabul and Kandahar of all senior Army officers, serving and retired, serving in the Taliban. Under the UN sanctions, there is a ban on all flights to and from the Taliban-controlled territory. Despite this, Musharraf and his officers decided to take a risk by evacuating the senior officers by air.
All junior officers and civilian personnel were ordered to return to Pakistan by road as best as they could. Similar instructions were issued to the jehadis undergoing training in Afghan territory, preparatory to their induction into Jammu & Kashmir.
The two visits by Lt.Gen.Mahmood Ahmed, the then DG, ISI, to Kandahar---on the second occasion with a group of Pakistani Mullahs---ostensibly to pressurise Mulla Mohammad Omer to hand over bin Laden to the US or to an European country was at least partly meant to gain time to complete the evacuation of Pakistani Government personnel and the jehadis.
However, there was no evacuation, either actual or ordered, of the Pakistani students of the various madrasas in Pakistan, most of them belonging to Maulana Fazlur Rahman's JUI, who have been fighting along with the Taliban Militia against the Northern Alliance troops.
They were reportedly asked to stay on and continue to assist the Taliban Militia. Islamabad's military junta was worried that the evacuation of the Pakistani Army personnel and any disruption of the Taliban's Militia set-up by US air strikes might enable the Northern Alliance to re-capture Kabul and other territory lost to the Taliban since September,1996.
The junta was and continues to be worried that if the Taliban's resistance against the Northern Alliance collapses and the Burhanuddin Rabbani Government returns to power in Kabul, it would be strongly anti-Pakistan and pro-India, pro-Russia and pro-Iran. It wants to prevent this from happening.
In the meanwhile, the death of at least 35 jehadis of the HUM fighting with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance due to the US air strikes created considerable embarrassment for Musharraf, who has till now been maintaining that the HUM is an India-based indigenous Kashmiri freedom-fighters' organisation despite its offices being located in Pakistan and its leaders indulging in open activities in Pakistani territory and that there are no Pakistanis in the Taliban.
Renowned international defence experts have been saying since the Taliban captured Kabul in September,1996, that it is a largely Pakistani organisation, clandestinely controlled and guided by the military-intelligence establishment.
In a special assessment on the Taliban's fighting potential issued on October 8,2001, the day after the US air strikes started, the "Jane's Defence Weekly" of London stated as follows:
* "The Taliban have displayed an innovative approach to warfare characterised by the use of surprise, mobility, speed, impressive logistics support and an efficient command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) network.
* " All unusual in the context of warfare in Afghanistan, these elements, along with other evidence, have lent credence in the past to reports of involvement at both planning and operational levels by Pashto-speaking Pakistani military intelligence advisers or technically retired Pakistani military personnel acting on secondment. This was the case during the Taliban's 1998 Summer and Autumn campaign and 1999 Summer offensive.
* "Taliban forces have generally come from three distinct backgrounds: former students of madrassas (religious schools) in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, who constitute the ideological core of the movement; former Mujahideen or jihadi (holy war) groups whose commanders joined the Taliban for financial or ethnic reasons; and officers of the former pre-1992 Afghan Army, many from the hard line, Pashtun nationalist Khalq (Masses) wing of the communist party. The latter have formed a skilled, professional core in artillery, armour, communications and in the air force, but some of these former communists were purged in late 1998.
* "More recently, another distinct element has been playing an important military role: Pakistani and Arab religious volunteers. The Arabs, mostly deployed on front lines north of Kabul, are estimated to number between 500 and 600. Pakistani volunteers are far more numerous. By late 1998, as many as 9,000 to 10,000 Pakistanis were serving in Taliban ranks. These different backgrounds have inevitably resulted in some friction. To minimise this, Taliban troops are kept in separate units based on nationality and, in some cases, region, district, or tribe. "
Since the beginning of the US-UK air strikes, at least another 3,000 volunteers from the Binori (Karachi) and other madrasas in Pakistan are estimated to have been rushed to the North to join the jehad against the US declared by the Taliban Amir. Some of the jehadis of organisations such as the HUM, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami etc, who were withdrawn post-haste after September 11, have been sent back to North Afghanistan to assist the Taliban against the Northern Alliance.
Initially, the US and the UK heeded the request of Musharraf to refrain from bombing the forward positions lest this enable the Northern Alliance capture Kabul. However, there has been an unannounced change in their position since October 18,2001, when they not only started bombing the forward positions ignoring Musharraf's pleas not to do so, but also concentrating the air strikes against the 055 Brigade of bin Laden and the Pakistani units, which are identifiable distinctly.
Reports from the North say that the American commanders, who have been surprised by the continuing good morale of the Taliban leadership, the unity of its leaders and by their dogged resistance, have concluded that it is the presence of the large number of well-trained Pakistani jehadis and Arabs which has been preventing the collapse of the Afghan component of the Taliban. They seem to feel that till the Arabs and the Pakistanis are neutralised, the Taliban cannot be defeated.
This has been resulting in increasing number of casualties among the Pakistanis. The initial refusal of the Pakistani junta to let the dead bodies of the HUM jehadis killed by US strikes be brought to Karachi for burial on October 24 under the pretext that they were not Pakistanis led to violent demonstrations in Karachi with the Police being forced to open fire to control the demonstrators. Ultimately, the military junta relented and let the bodies be taken to Karachi. The Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami announced in Karachi on November 8,2001, that 85 of its jehadis, including two senior commanders, have been killed in North Afghanistan. Their body bags have not yet been brought to Pakistan.
Two significant aspects of the first month of the US "war" in Afghanistan need to be highlighted:
* Almost all the civilians killed (estimate 2,000 plus) are poor Afghans.
* Almost all the Taliban militia personnel killed (500 plus, including about 20 Arabs) are Pakistanis. The HUM and the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami have publicly admitted their fatal casualties ( a total of 120 ). The JUI, the Sipah-e-Sahaba, the LET and other Pakistani organisations have not admitted theirs.
The USA seems to be determined to continue the air strikes on the Pakistani units with the Taliban even at the risk of the continued arrival of body bags in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore inflaming the local population and weakening further the position of Musharraf.
It is said in Islamabad that the US military commanders have started showing signs of disquiet over the wisdom of depending on the assurances of Musharraf. There is a creeping feeling that Musharraf has not been sharing with them real time intelligence of value, has been deliberately avoiding giving any intelligence about the location of the Taliban and the Al Qaeda leadership and has not been taking any action to stop the fresh influx of jehadis to join the Taliban ranks and against many retired officers of Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment, who have been advising the Taliban on how to counter the US. It is these retired officers, who had learnt Psywar techniques from the CIA in the 1980s, who are behind the Psywar savvy being displayed by the Taliban.
In the US media, one could already discern increasing signs of doubts over the wisdom of their action in having hastily embraced Musharraf and showering lollipops on him in anticipation of his helping the US capture bin Laden and his brains trust, which he shows no signs of doing.
The Pakistani military-intelligence establishment has practically been running till September 10,2001, the Taliban militia and intelligence. If it had sincerely wanted to help the US capture bin Laden and his associates, they would have been by now dead or alive in US custody. The fact that this has not yet happened is eloquent testimony to Pakistan's double game.
Note: This is an updated and consolidated version of the papers on the subject disseminated by us since September, 1999.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai.
April 05, 2009
Balochistan: John Solecki Release , email exchange between Dr.Wahid Baloch and Baloch Warna
From: Dr. Wahid Baloch
Date: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 5:39 PM
Dear Baloch Warna,
If you want to support an act of terror, you are free to do so, but don't expect us that we will do so. We can not support kidnappers and terrorists. How can you claim to be a victim of Pakistani terrorism when you resort to terror by yourself. I don't see any difference between those who kidnapped John Solecki and those who have kidnapped Baloch sons and daughters. They are all terrorists and criminal, and we must condemn their actions no matter what. Terrorism is terrorism.
John Solecki's kidnapping was a deliberate attempt against the interests of Baloch nation and paid ISI agents were behind it to give Baloch struggle a bad name but they miserably failed in their evil act, because all Baloch leaders including Brahmadagh Bugti, Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal, Habib Jalib and many others prominent Baloch leaders and almost all Baloch political groups and organizations strongly condemned it except few paid ISI agents who are out there to sabotage Baloch struggle and give Balochs a bad name. Obviously they are not working for the Baloch cause.
Those who think Baloch cause can be internationalized by kidnapping UN workers, they are very wrong and are in illusion. I don't know what they are smoking but in toady's world no one will support terrorists and kidnappers.
Balochistan case can only be internationalized through legal means at the ICJ and through peaceful struggle and diplomatic efforts.
Regards,
Dr. Wahid Baloch
--- On Sat, 4/4/09, Baloch Warna
From: Baloch Warna
Date: Saturday, April 4, 2009, 2:27 PM
Some friends who were really worried for Mr jhon should celebrate now. They are safe now and America will not ask them to leave their country (America). Those who were crying for jhon should dry their eyes and start thinking about missing Baloch persons. Most of our friends from USA and UK must have ruined thier sleeps thinking about Jhon.
Now first thing they should do is get some sleep.
Only tax amnesty can get money out of Swiss banks
Source: Deccan Chronicle , Cyberbad
April 6th, 2009
By Joginder Singh
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani has declared that if his party wins elections, they will bring back all Indian money held in secret bank accounts in tax havens abroad.
The Swiss Banking Association have allegedly stated that Indians had a whopping $1,456 billion in secret accounts. This is more than the balance held by all other nationalities taken together — the Russians have $470 billion, Britons have $390 billion and the Chinese have $96 billion.
Officially there is no government estimate of the black money, neither in India nor abroad. However, all channels of legal inflow and outflow of the money are under the control of the government.
What is stacked outside is black money or tax-evaded income. It is the heart and soul of the underground economy and is also called “No. 2” money. It exists even in rich nations, just like in poor and developing nations, though the amount varies.
It is a matter of record that approximately 80,000 Indians travel to Switzerland every year and nearly 25,000 of them go there frequently. Incidentally, the minimum balance required for opening a Swiss secret account is $10 million, or roughly Rs 50 crore. At the time of quota-permit raj, as even now, it was common practice to under-invoice exports and over-invoice the imports. The balance was siphoned off, either abroad or used in the country. In India, most of our day-to-day transactions or purchases — ration, diary products, vegetable, purchasing bus or train tickets — are done in cash. India is the 83rd most corrupt country in the world.
Bribes have become a part of daily life, even for getting what is due as a matter of a citizen’s right. Bribes are never paid by cheque, only by cash. The bureaucracy, which is called the steel frame of governance, has now become the “steal” frame.
However, under international pressure, mostly from US and other Western nations, Switzerland announced on March 29, 2009, that it would cooperate in international tax investigations. This statement, if implemented, would be a break from Switzerland’s long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars. Austria and Luxembourg also said they would help.
The problem of black money or stashing it abroad is not unique to India. To tackle this problem, US federal agencies have offered to reduce penalties. They also say that there would be no criminal prosecution provided United States account-holders voluntarily come forward to disclose amounts stashed in Swiss banks and pay taxes at reduced rates in the next six months.
USB, Switzerland’s largest private bank, has been forced to divulge details to the US agencies investigating tax frauds and tax evasion. Unlawful money, as we all know, is used for unlawful and unethical activities.
But we should not hasten to jump to any conclusions — we can’t assume that the offer of cooperation by the Swiss government is going to bring all the black money back to India.
Our laws and legal system provide a lot of scope to all wrongdoers to cock a snook at the nation. Take the case of a Pune-based businessman and racehorse owner Hassan Ali Khan who was raided by the income-tax department in 2007. He was found to be operating a bank account in UBS, Zurich, with a balance of $8 billion (Rs 36,000 crores). How his bank account swelled — from $1.5 million in 1982 to $8 billion by 2006 — is being investigated with the help of documents recovered by the agencies, some of which are duly notarised by the Notary Public of London.
The Enforcement Directorate has issued a show-cause notice to him under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema). Under Fema, the maximum penalty imposed can be three times the amount involved. If imposed in this case, it would be over Rs 1 lakh crore.
How do you expect tax heavens, whose only business is to make money out of other people’s money, to come and depose against their clients in our country?
Given the problems, why not put the onus on the accused to prove his/her innocence? The truth is that we do not punish our criminals, but give them a lot of publicity. The laws in our country have been reduced to cobwebs which can catch the small and the uninfluential, but allow big and rich criminals to escape.
This is very true of laws relating to black money, whether stashed in India or abroad.
Our system and the high rate of corruption ensures that no major transaction, whether used to purchase property or to campaign for elections, can be completed without spending a major part of it in black money. There is no point in talking about bringing back all the wealth stashed by Indians abroad in tax havens unless we make it easy for the common man to do the right and difficult to do the wrong.
At the same time, we must remember that no man will easily part with his money. The only way of achieving any success in this seems to be to announce a “tax amnesty scheme” and treat the wealth brought back as foreign remittance which should be gainfully invested in development projects in the country. Otherwise there seems to be no chance or reason for such bank account holders to comply, especially when by spending a part of this money, on expensive and intelligent lawyers, such worthies can manage to stay outside the jail and drag court cases for decades.
Before we venture out, let us first put our own house in order. By not doing so we become a laughing stock not only in our own country but also for people outside.
At the same time, any concrete effort to bring the illegal or ill-gotten gains is welcome.
However, we should not abandon this issue post elections, as most election issues are, but take it to its logical end after the elections.
Joginder Singh is a former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation
April 6th, 2009
By Joginder Singh
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani has declared that if his party wins elections, they will bring back all Indian money held in secret bank accounts in tax havens abroad.
The Swiss Banking Association have allegedly stated that Indians had a whopping $1,456 billion in secret accounts. This is more than the balance held by all other nationalities taken together — the Russians have $470 billion, Britons have $390 billion and the Chinese have $96 billion.
Officially there is no government estimate of the black money, neither in India nor abroad. However, all channels of legal inflow and outflow of the money are under the control of the government.
What is stacked outside is black money or tax-evaded income. It is the heart and soul of the underground economy and is also called “No. 2” money. It exists even in rich nations, just like in poor and developing nations, though the amount varies.
It is a matter of record that approximately 80,000 Indians travel to Switzerland every year and nearly 25,000 of them go there frequently. Incidentally, the minimum balance required for opening a Swiss secret account is $10 million, or roughly Rs 50 crore. At the time of quota-permit raj, as even now, it was common practice to under-invoice exports and over-invoice the imports. The balance was siphoned off, either abroad or used in the country. In India, most of our day-to-day transactions or purchases — ration, diary products, vegetable, purchasing bus or train tickets — are done in cash. India is the 83rd most corrupt country in the world.
Bribes have become a part of daily life, even for getting what is due as a matter of a citizen’s right. Bribes are never paid by cheque, only by cash. The bureaucracy, which is called the steel frame of governance, has now become the “steal” frame.
However, under international pressure, mostly from US and other Western nations, Switzerland announced on March 29, 2009, that it would cooperate in international tax investigations. This statement, if implemented, would be a break from Switzerland’s long-standing tradition of protecting wealthy foreigners accused of hiding billions of dollars. Austria and Luxembourg also said they would help.
The problem of black money or stashing it abroad is not unique to India. To tackle this problem, US federal agencies have offered to reduce penalties. They also say that there would be no criminal prosecution provided United States account-holders voluntarily come forward to disclose amounts stashed in Swiss banks and pay taxes at reduced rates in the next six months.
USB, Switzerland’s largest private bank, has been forced to divulge details to the US agencies investigating tax frauds and tax evasion. Unlawful money, as we all know, is used for unlawful and unethical activities.
But we should not hasten to jump to any conclusions — we can’t assume that the offer of cooperation by the Swiss government is going to bring all the black money back to India.
Our laws and legal system provide a lot of scope to all wrongdoers to cock a snook at the nation. Take the case of a Pune-based businessman and racehorse owner Hassan Ali Khan who was raided by the income-tax department in 2007. He was found to be operating a bank account in UBS, Zurich, with a balance of $8 billion (Rs 36,000 crores). How his bank account swelled — from $1.5 million in 1982 to $8 billion by 2006 — is being investigated with the help of documents recovered by the agencies, some of which are duly notarised by the Notary Public of London.
The Enforcement Directorate has issued a show-cause notice to him under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema). Under Fema, the maximum penalty imposed can be three times the amount involved. If imposed in this case, it would be over Rs 1 lakh crore.
How do you expect tax heavens, whose only business is to make money out of other people’s money, to come and depose against their clients in our country?
Given the problems, why not put the onus on the accused to prove his/her innocence? The truth is that we do not punish our criminals, but give them a lot of publicity. The laws in our country have been reduced to cobwebs which can catch the small and the uninfluential, but allow big and rich criminals to escape.
This is very true of laws relating to black money, whether stashed in India or abroad.
Our system and the high rate of corruption ensures that no major transaction, whether used to purchase property or to campaign for elections, can be completed without spending a major part of it in black money. There is no point in talking about bringing back all the wealth stashed by Indians abroad in tax havens unless we make it easy for the common man to do the right and difficult to do the wrong.
At the same time, we must remember that no man will easily part with his money. The only way of achieving any success in this seems to be to announce a “tax amnesty scheme” and treat the wealth brought back as foreign remittance which should be gainfully invested in development projects in the country. Otherwise there seems to be no chance or reason for such bank account holders to comply, especially when by spending a part of this money, on expensive and intelligent lawyers, such worthies can manage to stay outside the jail and drag court cases for decades.
Before we venture out, let us first put our own house in order. By not doing so we become a laughing stock not only in our own country but also for people outside.
At the same time, any concrete effort to bring the illegal or ill-gotten gains is welcome.
However, we should not abandon this issue post elections, as most election issues are, but take it to its logical end after the elections.
Joginder Singh is a former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation
 PAKISTAN: THE JIHADI JAWS
B.RAMAN
On April 1,2009, a pilotless plane (Drone) of the USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attacked with a missile the house of Hakimullah Mehsud in the Khadezai area of the Orakzai Agency in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. Twelve persons were killed ----- six of them followers of Hakimullah, who is the head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Orakzai Agency, which has no common border with Afghanistan, two women and four other unidentified persons. Hakimullah himself, who was apparently one of the targets, escaped unhurt and warned of a retaliatory strike by the Taliban in Islamabad.
2. The retaliation through a suicide bomber came within three days. Late on the evening of April 4,2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the barracks of a company of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), which is deployed in Islamabad on VIP security duties. At least eight members of the FC were killed by the explosion.The FC consists almost entirely of Pashtuns recruited in the NWFP, the FATA and the Pashtun majority areas of Balochistan. The FC has been in the forefront of the operations against the TTP in the Pashtun belt and one of the proposals initiated by the US Government provides for funding for upgrading the anti-terrorism capabilities of the FC.
3. The rapidity with which the TTP planned and carried out its threatened act of retaliation speaks volumes of the number of suicide bombers at its disposal and their fierce motivation. It also speaks disturbingly of their willingness to die when called upon to strike by Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the TTP. The billions of dollars, which the US has already spent in the so-called war on terrorism, have not dented this motivation. It is doubtful whether the additional billions of dollars, which President Barack Obama proposes to spend for giving assistance to Pakistan, will make any dent either. What one saw in Islamabad on April 4 was not an act of desperation. It was an act of defiance
4. Pakistan is in the process of being gobbled by a Frankenstein's Monster of its own creation. To save Pakistan from being gobbled, it requires a leader of tremendous moral courage, who is prepared to admit the Himalayan folly of past Pakistani political and military leaders in creating this monster in the hope of using it to serve the Pakistani agenda against India and in Afghanistan and has the courage to act against it and rid Pakistan of the effects of this folly. Such a leader Pakistan has not produced since its independence in 1947 and it is unlikely to produce one in the near and mid-term future.
5. Can Pakistan be saved despite itself from the jaws of this monster? That is the question that President Barack Obama and his advisers should pose to themselves and seek an answer. The recent statements and comments of Obama himself and of his advisers and the Congressional testimonies of his officials as well as of non-governmental US experts do not give cause for hope that the Obama administration will be able to find a coherent strategy to put an end to terrorism emnanating from the Af-Pak region. Conventional and naive beliefs continue to come in the way of the formulation of such a strategy.
6. Such beliefs are responsible for the disturbing tendency of Obama's advisers----governmental as well as non-governmental--- to rationalise Pakistan's sins of commission and omission rather than confront them head-on and have them eradicated by using the clout which the US still enjoys in Pakistan. These conventional and naive beliefs hold that somehow if Pakistan is assured of peace on the Indo-Pakistan border and the dialogue process between India and Pakistan is resumed, the Pakistani army will concentrate better on its fight against terrorism and that this will be of benefit to the entire international communuity, including India.
7. The fallacy of this argument would be evident from the fact that between January 2004, when Pervez Musharraf and Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then Indian Prime Minister, initiated the dialogue process, and November 26-29,2008, when this was discontinued after the terrorist attack in Mumbai by the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Neo Taliban staged its spectacular come-back in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Pakistan, Pakistani-trained suicide bombers carried out their attacks in London in July,2005, an attempt by another group of suspects of Pakistani origin to blow up a number of US-bound flights was foiled by the British police, a group of Pakistan-trained terrorists carried out simultaneous explosions on suburban trains in Mumbai killing over 180 innocent civilians in July,2006, a cell of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was unearthed by the Spanish Police in Barcelona, there was an Inter-Services Intelligence sponsored explosion outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul in July,2008, suicide terrorism in Pakistan shot up and the ISI and the Pakistan Army avoided acting against the terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistani territory. Plans for the Mumbai terrorist strike from November 26 to 29,2008, were also drawn up by the LET during this period and the training camps for the perpetrators were organised in Pakistani territory. The Joint Counter-Terrorism mechanism which Musharraf and Dr.Manmohan Singh agreed to set up in September 2006 proved to be a cosmetic exercise due to Pakistan's unwillingness to act against the anti-India terrorist infrastructure.
8. The significant lessening of tension on the Indo-Pakistan border during this period facilitated by the cease-fire across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the increase in people-to-people contacts between the two countries did not lead to any change in Pakistan's policy of nursing terrorist groups in its territory and using them against India and Afghanistan. Equally fallacious is the argument touted by the governmental and non-Governmental advisers of Obama that a reduction of Indian presence and activities in Afghanistan would give Pakistan a greater sense of security and encourage it to act more vigorously against terrorism emanating from its territory.
9. Indian presence and activities in Afghanistan ceased after the fall of the Najibullah Government in April,1992. Between April 1992 and September 1996, when different Afghan Mujahideen groups were in power in Kabul and between September 1996 and October 2001, when the ISI-sponsored Taliban was in power in Kabul, there was no Indian activity in Afghanistan. There was no reason for Pakistan to feel insecure during this period. And yet, the ISI kept meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, raised, trained and armed the Taliban in 1994, helped it to capture power in Kabul in September,1996, allowed Osama bin Laden to shift from the Sudan to Afghanistan in July,1996, and maintained close contacts with Al Qaeda in its sanctuaries in the Jalalabad-Kandahar region. Between April 1992 and September 2001 was the time when there was maximum Pakistani interference in Afghanistan, which became a virtual Pakistani colony. That was also the time when all the jihadi terrorist groups of the world gravitated to the Af-Pak region, which became the Mecca of jihadi terrorist groups. To say that Pakistan's reluctance to act against terrorist groups in its territory is due to its feelings of insecurity vis-a-vis India shows a total lack of understanding of Pakistan.
10. Everytime the US makes an attempt to rationalise Pakistan's sins of commission and omission under the pretext of its feelings of insecurity vis-avis India, it strengthens the belief of the Pakistani leadership----political as well as military--- that so far as India is concerned it can do anything and get away with it. Many of the anti-US and anti-West terrorist groups of today such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) started as anti-India terrorists trained and armed by the ISI yesterday.
11. Unless and until the governmental and non-governmental advisers of Obama rid their minds and policy-making of wrong ideas and pre-conceived notions about Pakistan and its military-intelligence establishment, their so-called new strategy is not going to succeed. The US through its Drone strikes may succeed in eliminating individual jihadi terrorist leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Baitullah Mehsud, but the terrorist infrstructure set up by them in the tribal belt with the complicity of the ISI and the Pakistani Army will continue to pose threats to peace and security in the world.
12. How to destroy those sanctuaries---- with the co-operation of Pakistan, if forthcoming, or without its co-operation, if necessary? That should be the starting point of any new strategy. It is evident that no adviser of Obama is thinking on these lines. The entire strategy as it has come out is based on the pathetic assumption that somehow Pakistan can be coaxed into acting against the terrorists despite the bitter experience to the contrary since 9/11. Without an effective coercive element, the strategy is unlikely to succeed. (5-4-09)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, the Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Â
On April 1,2009, a pilotless plane (Drone) of the USA's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attacked with a missile the house of Hakimullah Mehsud in the Khadezai area of the Orakzai Agency in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. Twelve persons were killed ----- six of them followers of Hakimullah, who is the head of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Orakzai Agency, which has no common border with Afghanistan, two women and four other unidentified persons. Hakimullah himself, who was apparently one of the targets, escaped unhurt and warned of a retaliatory strike by the Taliban in Islamabad.
2. The retaliation through a suicide bomber came within three days. Late on the evening of April 4,2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up in front of the barracks of a company of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), which is deployed in Islamabad on VIP security duties. At least eight members of the FC were killed by the explosion.The FC consists almost entirely of Pashtuns recruited in the NWFP, the FATA and the Pashtun majority areas of Balochistan. The FC has been in the forefront of the operations against the TTP in the Pashtun belt and one of the proposals initiated by the US Government provides for funding for upgrading the anti-terrorism capabilities of the FC.
3. The rapidity with which the TTP planned and carried out its threatened act of retaliation speaks volumes of the number of suicide bombers at its disposal and their fierce motivation. It also speaks disturbingly of their willingness to die when called upon to strike by Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the TTP. The billions of dollars, which the US has already spent in the so-called war on terrorism, have not dented this motivation. It is doubtful whether the additional billions of dollars, which President Barack Obama proposes to spend for giving assistance to Pakistan, will make any dent either. What one saw in Islamabad on April 4 was not an act of desperation. It was an act of defiance
4. Pakistan is in the process of being gobbled by a Frankenstein's Monster of its own creation. To save Pakistan from being gobbled, it requires a leader of tremendous moral courage, who is prepared to admit the Himalayan folly of past Pakistani political and military leaders in creating this monster in the hope of using it to serve the Pakistani agenda against India and in Afghanistan and has the courage to act against it and rid Pakistan of the effects of this folly. Such a leader Pakistan has not produced since its independence in 1947 and it is unlikely to produce one in the near and mid-term future.
5. Can Pakistan be saved despite itself from the jaws of this monster? That is the question that President Barack Obama and his advisers should pose to themselves and seek an answer. The recent statements and comments of Obama himself and of his advisers and the Congressional testimonies of his officials as well as of non-governmental US experts do not give cause for hope that the Obama administration will be able to find a coherent strategy to put an end to terrorism emnanating from the Af-Pak region. Conventional and naive beliefs continue to come in the way of the formulation of such a strategy.
6. Such beliefs are responsible for the disturbing tendency of Obama's advisers----governmental as well as non-governmental--- to rationalise Pakistan's sins of commission and omission rather than confront them head-on and have them eradicated by using the clout which the US still enjoys in Pakistan. These conventional and naive beliefs hold that somehow if Pakistan is assured of peace on the Indo-Pakistan border and the dialogue process between India and Pakistan is resumed, the Pakistani army will concentrate better on its fight against terrorism and that this will be of benefit to the entire international communuity, including India.
7. The fallacy of this argument would be evident from the fact that between January 2004, when Pervez Musharraf and Atal Behari Vajpayee, the then Indian Prime Minister, initiated the dialogue process, and November 26-29,2008, when this was discontinued after the terrorist attack in Mumbai by the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Neo Taliban staged its spectacular come-back in Afghanistan from sanctuaries in Pakistan, Pakistani-trained suicide bombers carried out their attacks in London in July,2005, an attempt by another group of suspects of Pakistani origin to blow up a number of US-bound flights was foiled by the British police, a group of Pakistan-trained terrorists carried out simultaneous explosions on suburban trains in Mumbai killing over 180 innocent civilians in July,2006, a cell of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was unearthed by the Spanish Police in Barcelona, there was an Inter-Services Intelligence sponsored explosion outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul in July,2008, suicide terrorism in Pakistan shot up and the ISI and the Pakistan Army avoided acting against the terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistani territory. Plans for the Mumbai terrorist strike from November 26 to 29,2008, were also drawn up by the LET during this period and the training camps for the perpetrators were organised in Pakistani territory. The Joint Counter-Terrorism mechanism which Musharraf and Dr.Manmohan Singh agreed to set up in September 2006 proved to be a cosmetic exercise due to Pakistan's unwillingness to act against the anti-India terrorist infrastructure.
8. The significant lessening of tension on the Indo-Pakistan border during this period facilitated by the cease-fire across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the increase in people-to-people contacts between the two countries did not lead to any change in Pakistan's policy of nursing terrorist groups in its territory and using them against India and Afghanistan. Equally fallacious is the argument touted by the governmental and non-Governmental advisers of Obama that a reduction of Indian presence and activities in Afghanistan would give Pakistan a greater sense of security and encourage it to act more vigorously against terrorism emanating from its territory.
9. Indian presence and activities in Afghanistan ceased after the fall of the Najibullah Government in April,1992. Between April 1992 and September 1996, when different Afghan Mujahideen groups were in power in Kabul and between September 1996 and October 2001, when the ISI-sponsored Taliban was in power in Kabul, there was no Indian activity in Afghanistan. There was no reason for Pakistan to feel insecure during this period. And yet, the ISI kept meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, raised, trained and armed the Taliban in 1994, helped it to capture power in Kabul in September,1996, allowed Osama bin Laden to shift from the Sudan to Afghanistan in July,1996, and maintained close contacts with Al Qaeda in its sanctuaries in the Jalalabad-Kandahar region. Between April 1992 and September 2001 was the time when there was maximum Pakistani interference in Afghanistan, which became a virtual Pakistani colony. That was also the time when all the jihadi terrorist groups of the world gravitated to the Af-Pak region, which became the Mecca of jihadi terrorist groups. To say that Pakistan's reluctance to act against terrorist groups in its territory is due to its feelings of insecurity vis-a-vis India shows a total lack of understanding of Pakistan.
10. Everytime the US makes an attempt to rationalise Pakistan's sins of commission and omission under the pretext of its feelings of insecurity vis-avis India, it strengthens the belief of the Pakistani leadership----political as well as military--- that so far as India is concerned it can do anything and get away with it. Many of the anti-US and anti-West terrorist groups of today such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) started as anti-India terrorists trained and armed by the ISI yesterday.
11. Unless and until the governmental and non-governmental advisers of Obama rid their minds and policy-making of wrong ideas and pre-conceived notions about Pakistan and its military-intelligence establishment, their so-called new strategy is not going to succeed. The US through its Drone strikes may succeed in eliminating individual jihadi terrorist leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Baitullah Mehsud, but the terrorist infrstructure set up by them in the tribal belt with the complicity of the ISI and the Pakistani Army will continue to pose threats to peace and security in the world.
12. How to destroy those sanctuaries---- with the co-operation of Pakistan, if forthcoming, or without its co-operation, if necessary? That should be the starting point of any new strategy. It is evident that no adviser of Obama is thinking on these lines. The entire strategy as it has come out is based on the pathetic assumption that somehow Pakistan can be coaxed into acting against the terrorists despite the bitter experience to the contrary since 9/11. Without an effective coercive element, the strategy is unlikely to succeed. (5-4-09)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, the Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
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