B.PRAGNA May 09

May 2009 Bharatiya Pragna

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BHARATIYAPRAGNABoard of AdvisorsDr.David FrawleyDr.Subhash C.KashyapProf.P.V.IndiresanT.Hari Hara SharmaProf.Sandhya JainS.A.R.P.V.Chaturvedi Swami

Editor:Dr.T.H.Chowdary

Associate Editor:N.Nagaraja Rao

Associates:B.S.SarmaM.S.RamakrishnaShyam MadananiV.Sai Krishna

Printed & Published byDr.T.H.Chowdaryfor Pragna Bharathi3-4-705/4, Narayanaguda,Hyderabad - 500 020.E-mail :[email protected]

In association with:Citizen’s Forum forVigilance and GoodGovernance. Chennai.

Printed at:Goutham PrintersDomalguda,Hyderabad - 500 029.

From the Editorial DeskNamaste!

Volume : 14Number : 05

May, 2009

Even as the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha are in progress an item ofgrave and serious concern to India burst into lime light. That is the stash of Rs.72 lakh crores of Indian money in numbered secret Swiss Bank Accounts. Evenwhen the Banks officials and the German government had let the world know thatif any country’s government wanted details of who has how much money in theSwiss Bank, the UPA government directed by the Italian -born Sonia Maino Gandhihas not taken any sincere and serious steps to get the information. Compelled bya PIL in the Supreme Court it had without any sense of shame said in their affidavitthat they have taken no steps in the last 5 years . At the same time again the UPAgovernment has used the CBI to retract the red alert for the capture of OttoviaQuotrochi, the Italian friend of the Supremo of the Congress (I) . It is astonishinghow unabashedly efforts are being made since 1988 on behalf of No.10 Janpathto obfuscate the truth about the Bofors rip-off by person of the Dynasty. Thequestion is whether and what a new non Congress(I) government would do to getthis fugitive to justice. This issue carries an article by Sri Arun Shourie on thissubject.

The elections have also made an issue of Sri Man Mohan Singh as PrimeMinister, weak or strong, a puppet or a performer . Sri Swapan Gutpa examines thecharge of weakness of Manmohan as Prime Minister .

Mohammad Ajmal Mohammad Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistaniterrorist involved in the murderous attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumabi in Nov2008 is making news. Is prescribing what food he wants. He wants the chargesheet translated into Urdu . Extraordinary security is provided to this Princelyterrorist. This is in line with the Congress government feeding chicken Biryani tothe jiahdi terrorist holed up in a mosque in Kashmir years ago and not hangingAfzal Guru who master -minded the attack on the Parliament of India. The signalsent to the jihadis and to the Muslim world is that India is the safest place for jihaditerrorists and they will get royal treatment and all this in the forlorn hope of notdispleasing Indian Muslims and getting their votes by their decades long ally andwell wisher the Congress(I). We carry an article by Sri Chandan Mithra on this affair.

And then there is the indefatigable Teesta Seetalwad who makes a greatcombination with her husband Javed Anand to carry on a slanderous campaignagainst Sri Narendra Modi. Her mendacity and fabrication of “facts” has beenexposed in a recent court proceedings. Chaitra Krushna Dashami has many thingsto say about this professional “secularist”. That is anti-Hindu worrier carrying aHindu name and a respectable lineage.

We carry a review of scholar Stephen Knapp’s book “Crimes AgainstIndia: and the Need to Protect India’s Ancient Vedic Tradition”. It is ironicthat while due to Mecaulayan education and colonised minds who tend to forget andbelittle if at all we know our ancient heritage true western scholars are rediscov-ering the great vedic tradition of Bharat.

We have another book review this time about the late Sri K.K. Birla’s“Brushes with History” has very informative anecdotes in this book are men-tioned in this review by Dr T.H.Chowdary.


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CONTENTSEditorial :

Articles:

Vox populli

The views expressed in this magazine need not necessarily reflect thoseof the editorial board or the Pragna Bharati.

Theme Story:

Bofords story is a lie? 60

Electoral Campaigns for the the 15th Lok Sabha 03

Book ReviewsBrushes with History

Review by Dr.T.H.Chowdary 55Crimes Against India: and the Need to Protect ...........

Review by David Frawley 58

Jihadis As Pirates? - B Raman 06Globalization: The India- European Union (EU)

- Kavaljit Singh 08China’s Silent Warfare - Bhaskar Roy 09Teesta, it Hit Your Face - Chaitra Krishna Dashami 12Soldiers Must Vote For Rights - Ashok K Mehta 14The man behind the mask - A Surya Prakash 15Tragedy of Errors- UPA Makes Mess of Kasab Case

- Chandan Mitra 17The Real Charge Against Manmohan

- Swapan Dasgupta 18Indian Money in Tax Havens - Arun Shourie 20

How Church Missionaries of Jesus have not ........... - Vishnu Vardhan 23

Uncomprehending in ‘AfPak’ - Vikram Sood 25INDIA - Bibhu Prasad Routray 29Sydney Veda Patasala

- A.Ramarathinam & S.Balachandar 33Is ‘Tamil Eelam’ A Christian Agenda? - B R Haran 35Indian War Of Independence 1857 - V.D.Savarkar 41Tehrik-i-Taliban: A Specious Claim and Brash Threats

- Fred Burton and Scott Stewart 45When are India and Pakistan ready for peace?

- Moorthy Muthuswamy 50


3 Editorial

In the election campaigns of different parties for the 15th Lok Sabha, issues that areconspicuously unaddressed are terribly worrisome to the security, law and order and the long termprosperity and strength of the country. We have been witnessing the rise and rise of severalregional parties which are mainly based around a few dominant castes, with a leader of one of thecastes as the proprietor of such parties. The DMK, AIDMK, and so many Dravidian parties inTamilnadu; the TDP and the PRP in Andhra Pradesh; the BJD in Orissa, RJD in Bihar, the Samajwadiin UP, the NCP mainly of Maharastra, Lok Jana Shakti in Bihar, the Trunamul Congress in WestBengal are all proprietary parties. The head of a family is the proprietor and his/her relatives andfawning, scheming, servile persons are orbiters of the parties affairs. The so called all -India party,Congress (I) is the foremost and the first proprietary party in India the hereditor proprietor is thedecedent or associate by marriage of the Motilal Nehru’s family. They have their regional Subedarsas in Andhra Pradesh, raising their own successors to political power.

For most of the proprietary parties the slogan is “social justice” by which they mostlymean proportional representation for various castes, forgetting that there are hundreds of them andsome can never get any representation on this principle. For eg: in Andhra Pradesh there are over280 castes ; among the SCs there are over 50 sub-castes ; the population of some castes in theentire state is as low as about 10,000 and they are extraordinarily backward, itinerant and living asub-human life with total illiteracy. Under the slogan of “social justice” what the regional partiesare wanting is power for the family and its associates in one or two dominant castes. The secondslogan “secularism” to woo Muslims in demonstration of which they don Muslims attire, displaythe cross, go to mosque an d church and promise to fulfill whatever “the minorities” demand; their“secularism” makes them avoid Hindu gatherings; Hindus plea for extension of privileges and rightsgiven to Moslems, to them goes unheard; indeed frowned upon as communal .

The third-slogan stridently advanced is welfare of the poor. As long ago as in 1969, IndiraGandhi gave the slogan, “gareebi hatao” and launched 20 point, 14 point and 100 point programsfor “eradication” of poverty. The Congress as well as all other regional casteist ,”secular” partiesare declaring to be re-dedicating themselves to the eradication of poverty. Actually, accordingto the political actions and implementation of the pro-poor programs by such governments, the poorseem to be ever increasing. For eg: in Andhra Pradesh at the end of Chandra Babu’s government inthe year 2004, 12 million families had White Ration Cards, signifying that they are below povertylevel.(BPL). But by 2009, their number, under the Congress regime has gone up to over 18 mln.And this, while tens of thousands of crores of rupees are stated to have been spent upon thewelfare of the poor. That welfare is producing more and more poor people! What an irony!

In Andhra Pradesh, promises of welfare for the poor have been gambled upon. The threeprincipal parties - Congress- I , TDP, and the recently born - Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) withMarpu or change as its war- cry, were engaged in competitive offering of welfare to the poor -

Electoral Campaigns for the the 15th Lok Sabha


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30 KG of rice for free per month a month’s groceries for Rs. 100 , 12 hours of free electricity ; 1cr houses each costing each Rs. 1 lakh for the poor; one cylinder of cooking gas per month at Rs.100/-, free color TV sets, monthly payments to unemployed youth; pensions increasing with age forthe, write-off of all debt of farmers,weavers, minorities, BCs, SCs and fishermen; Rs. 20,000 sub-sidy for Christians to go to Jerusalem , Rs. 15000/-for Christians & Muslims for performance of themarriage of their children; total fee waiver for Muslim students ( for all university and PG levelcourses) and so on. These will be in addition to the disbursal of money to the poor under theNREG. Loans will be given to the poor without any security for any purpose at Rs. 1.2% perannum interest and many more.

If these schemes are implemented for the 18 mln poor families, A P would have to spendover Rs.45,000 cr per year, out of a budget of about Rs. 1 lakh crs. What would be left foremoluments to over 12 lakh employees, pensions for the retired government servants, for theArogyasree for health, for education in schools and for development has not been spelt out. This istotal irresponsibility of the politicians at play to get government, power and amass wealth. Therewere over 400 contestants, each of whom has wealth of more than Rs. 10 mln, the highest withover 275 cr. The chiefs of the three political parties and their family members are about the richestcrorepathis in the state. And it is these who are waxing eloquent about welfare of the poor andempowerment of the backwards.

The real issues like education for all, improvement in the quality of education, more schools,better teachers, fully equipped laboratories; control of fraud and more importantly, checking themanufacture of jihadi terrorist groups in Hyderabad and the decline of law and order; deteriorationof roads and sanitations; non-staffing and stocking of medicines in Primary Health Centers had notbeen touched by any of the political parties. If people are adequately educated, then they will havea choice of profession. And when they choose the profession to which their education qualifies,they quit their village. Caste can go away only by change of profession and by people moving awayfrom their village. Sloganeering like caste must be annihilated and “social justice” that is, powerdepending upon the number of people in a caste would loose their validity, if the state uses itsfinancial and directorial strength to give education to all. And in the transition period, unless thenumber of children in a family is limited, no state with the present Per Capita Income (PCI) andGross Domestic Product (GDP) levels in India can educate all the children, look after their healthand provide housing and employment for them. India’s population is increasing at about 16 to 18mln per year. In no year, had employment been created beyond 10 mln jobs. Thus, the presentdisconnect between population growth and that of employment is getting aggravated. This is thereason why promises of welfare are being competitively made by the contesting political parties.Even the unemployment is sought to be gambled upon. Parties have promised monthly disburse-ments to every unemployed person. They have promised increasing pension with increase in agefor senior citizens. Another party has promised 25% to 50% higher than what is being paid aspension and unemploymental disbursements. If these are also taken into account, the entire budgetof the state would be spent only on welfare. And if so much of welfare is delivered (for eg; Rs.2000/- to the utmost poor; Rs.1500/- to the middle poor and Rs. 1000 for the ordinary poor, every

Editorial


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month as in the notorious cash transfer scheme promised by the TDP in Andhra Pradesh) - thereis no need for any family to work. They can look at the color TV given free to each family. In such asituation, all need to work by the “poor” would to disappear. The state will feed them; they enjoy theTV and produce more children, to conform to the slogan, “We Feed: You Breed” ( illiterate voters).

There is need for a Political Parties Regulation Authority of India (PPRI) to checkthe irresponsible, competitive nation- impoverishing, state-enfeebling promises-makingparties and leaders. We have regulatory bodies for telecoms, for banks, for insurance, for Char-tered Accountants, for atomic energy, for electricity and so on. The Election Commission isconcerned only with the specialist tasks of conducting elections but it has no mandate to regulatethe birth and conduct and accountability of political parties. The PPRI should require that thereshould be periodic elections of office bearers, a register of party members, sources of its incomeand how that income is spent. A party which has no inner party democracy (like the proprietaryparties which are having more or less life time presidents and hereditary leadership) cannot fostera representative and accountable democracy. We may have merely an electoral democracy. It isbecoming increasingly costly to be a contestant .Once it was only at the stage of electioneering bycandidates and people and parties that money was spent. But now to get a ticket of regional politicalparties millions of Rupees are to be spent.

Caste based, social justice demanding hereditary and proprietary leadership parties; sale oftickets; ruling parties buying votes through government money by distributing work contracts onnomination basis; not addressing the issues of education, population growth and burgeoning unem-ployment, almost no education in government schools ; religious and political terrorism and terror-ists being bred in the country with finance coming from all over the world in order to disintegrateIndia, the aggression on India’s, culture, Indian heritage and India’s integrity by converting peopleinto resident non-Indians (RNIs) are all threatening Bharat. No party has drawn the attention ofthe nation to China’s claims to Arunachal Pradesh, to the continued occupation of 40,000 sq. kmtof India’s territory by China. No party has referred to creation of 90 Pakistans within India in asmany districts, funded by the 11th Five -year Plan. It is sad that no political party (save to someextent, the BJP) including the national parties has addressed the really serious issues. Theirconcern seems to be to seduce voters, invoking caste and using tons of money for buying votes.Dr.Ambedkars’ fears expressed while adopting the Constitution that we have lost Independencenot once but on several times before and if caste, language, region and religion are indulged in bypoliticians, we will once again lose independence and this time for ever, seems to be comingtrue. Miracles to save the country don’t happen. There must be a will of the people for commonpurpose to foster the idea that we are one nation, and one country, with one all -embracing, millennialculture. And it is precisely the inculcation of this idea that is being destroyed by the government -instructed content in the text books prescribed for government schools. If patriots don’t restart theSwadeshi Movement , to decolonise the minds of the India people, then the the espousal of populist“welfarism” and “secularism” (which in effect, is anti-Hinduism) will lead to the Balkanisation of( that is, India being broken up into several states, all of which will ultimately come under the rule ofeither a religious or political imperialism.

Editorial


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Al Qaeda’s hand in maritime terrorismcannot be ignored

I have been in receipt of the followingmessage on April 8, 2009, from ECOTERRA In-ternational, which disseminates a periodic SomaliMarine & Coastal Monitor: “Danish-owned andUS-American-operated MV Maersk Alabama, acontainer ship of 14,120 gross tonnage under US-American flag with a 21-men crew of at least 20US-American nationals, who are said to be allunharmed according to the company that ownsthe vessel, had been sea-jacked this morning at7:30 am on the Indian Ocean off the capital ofSomalia, Mogadishu and about 450 km south-eastof Eyl, a town in the northern Puntland region ofSomalia. The vessel was en route to Mombasa,Kenya, when it was attacked about 500 km offSomalia’s coast, the statement issued by MaerskLine Ltd said. The 20 unarmed crew membersfought back against the four hijackers and hourslater regained control of the vessel, according tosecond mate Ken Quinn. Mr Quinn, sounding har-ried in a terse mobile phone call to CNN, said thecrew had released one of the pirates they hadtied up for 12 hours. But the hijackers were re-fusing to return Captain Richard Phillips. The fourpirates had taken the lifeboat off the Maersk Ala-bama and that Mr Phillips was in touch with hiscrew via ship’s radio, he added. “So now we’rejust trying to offer them whatever we can. Food.But it’s not working too good.”

Jihadis As Pirates?B Raman

Mr Quinn added: “We have a coalition(vessel) that will be here in three hours. So we’rejust trying to hold them off for three more hoursand then we’ll have a warship here to help us.”

Earlier, the crew took one pirate hostage,trying to swap him for their captain, but the dealwent wrong, he told the CNN news channel.Though the ship is the sixth seized within a weekin the dangerous region around Africa, Cmdr MsJane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the USNavy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, said it was thefirst pirate attack “involving US nationals and aUS-flagged vessel in recent memory.” No Ameri-can merchant vessel has been attacked by piratessince 1804 during the North African BarbaryWars. US President Barack Obama’s chiefspokesman said the White House was assessinga course of action. Press secretary Robert Gibbstold reporters that officials there are monitoringthe incident closely. Mr Gibbs said: “Our top pri-ority is the personal safety of the crew memberson board.” The White House offered no otherimmediate details about what actions it was con-sidering. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitmansaid there has not yet been any communicationsfrom the pirates for ransom.

But he would not go into military plans.“There is a task force present in the region todeter any type of piracy, but the challenge re-mains that the area is so big and it is hard to moni-tor all the time,” 5th Fleet spokesman Lt Nathan


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Christensen said. US Army Lieutenant ColonelElizabeth Hibner, a Pentagon spokesperson, saidlater on Wednesday that the US Navy destroyerBainbridge was en route to the scene. The cargoship is directly owned and operated by a Maersksubsidiary in Norfolk, Virginia, Maersk spokes-man Michael Storgaard said.

Though the shipping company has hadsome Defence Department contracts it was saidthis time not to be on a Pentagon job when at-tacked, a governmental statement read. The highseas standoff drew an expression of concern fromMs Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State,who called on the world to unite to “end thescourge of piracy”.

An earlier message of April 6, 2009, fromECOTERRA International said: “With the latestcaptures and releases now, still at least 17 (18with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore)foreign vessels with a total of not less than 297crew members accounted for (of which 110 areconfirmed to be Filipinos) are held in Somali wa-ters and are monitored on our actual case-list...Over 134 incidents (including attempted attacks,averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) havebeen recorded for 2008. For 2009 the accountstands at 52 averted or abandoned attacks and14 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate sideas well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire onthe side of the naval forces... ”

Despite the deployment of anti-piracypatrols from a number of countries including In-dia, China and Japan, the Somali pirates continueto operate with virtual impunity and have beencollecting millions of dollars in ransom money. Thevast area involved, the inability of the internationalcommunity — due to legal and operational rea-

sons — to undertake land-based operationsagainst the pirates in Somalian territory and thesuspected lack of co-ordination among anti-piracypatrols from different countries has come in theway of effective and deterrent action against thepirates.

A number of questions remain unan-swered: Are different pirate groups operatingautonomously of each other or is there a com-mon command and control? Who are the leadersof the different pirate groups and where are theybased? Apart from the pirates and their leaders,are there any other beneficiaries of the ransommoney? Since Al Qaeda has been very active inSomalia for over a decade, does it have any linkswith the pirates and is it financially benefiting fromthe ransom payments?

The possibility of links between Al Qaedaand at least some of the pirate groups needs to betaken seriously. Many of these pirates —if well-trained and well-motivated by Al Qaeda — couldprovide a new source of oxygen to it. The timehas come to treat the campaign against the So-mali pirates as seriously as the campaign againstAl Qaeda.

The possibility of links between AlQaeda and at least some of the pirate groupsneeds to be taken seriously. Many of thesepirates —if well-trained and well-motivatedby Al Qaeda — could provide a new sourceof oxygen to it. The time has come to treatthe campaign against the Somali pirates asseriously as the campaign against Al Qaeda.


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Since 2007, India and European Union(EU) are negotiating a free trade agreement(FTA). The negotiations do not merely cover tradein goods but also include liberalisation of trade andinvestment in banking services.

EU is seeking greater market access andnational treatment for European banks throughcross-border supply and direct investments. Un-like other bilateral agreements, the potential im-plications of India-EU FTA would be far-reach-ing since nine EU-based banks together controlled65% of total assets of foreign banks in India in2008. By asset size, out of the top 10 foreign banksin India, six are European.

Since 2000, several European economieshave registered a significant growth in their bank-ing services net exports. UK’s financial sectornet exports reached a record £38.8 billion in 2007.Banks were the largest contributor with net ex-ports of £23.2 billion.

For European banks, India provides im-mense profit opportunities given the favourabledemographics and growth potential. However, bigEuropean banks are primarily interested in serv-ing three niche market segments: up-market con-sumer finance, wealth management services andinvestment banking.

One of the key policy issues determiningmarket access is reciprocity. How much marketaccess Indian banks would get in return? ExceptUK, other big European countries are restrictivein this regard. The popular perception that India’sregulatory framework discriminates against for-eign banks lacks evidence. Unlike Singapore and

Globalization: The India- European Union (EU)Free Trade Agreement

Reciprocal terms missing in the Proposed India-EU pactKavaljit Singh

China, foreign banks are free to undertake anybanking activity in India, which is allowed to do-mestic banks.

On the contrary, foreign banks are givenundue favour when it comes to priority sectorlending and branch licensing. The Indian authori-ties have imposed lower priority sector lendingrequirement at 32% for foreign banks as against40% for Indian banks.

Foreign banks have the freedom to de-cide the location of their branches. While for newprivate banks, it is mandatory that after threeyears of operations, they should open one out offour new branches in the rural or semi-urban ar-eas. This lopsided policy works in favour of for-eign banks because rural branches generate lessprofit due to low-value transactions.

Not a single European bank has openeda branch in rural areas though many of them havebeen operating here for more than 140 years. Theirlending to agriculture, SMEs and weaker sectionshas been negligible. It is distressing to note thatEuropean banks are not serving the poor and low-income people residing in urban areas.

Since many big European banks are inthe midst of turmoil since 2007, it raises seriousquestions about their efficiency, ‘best practices’,state-of-the-art risk management models, corpo-rate governance and transparency norms. Keep-ing these in view, policymakers should rethinkabout the benefits of opening up banking sectorunder India-EU FTA.

(Kavaljit Singh is Director of Madhyam, aDelhi-based NGO)


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The recent discovery of Chinese cyberwarfare attacks on foreign computers, on com-munication computers of visiting dignitaries, andespionage activities to assist a friendly country isbuilding weapons of mass destruction (WMDI)has refocused international attention on the de-veloping spectrum of China’s military doctrine.

Espionage is a tool used by almost everycountry. Cyber warfare is not a tool of the Chi-nese only. But there are limits to which trust be-tween countries are violated with impunity, fol-lowed by denial, something which is the hallmarkof Chinese authorities. Entities of permanentmembers of the UN Security Council, who con-tinue WMD proliferation even today, must becondemned in no uncertain term.

Earlier this month (April 04), a U.S. Dis-trict Court indicted a Chinese metals trading com-pany on 118 counts for shipping prohibited anddual use metals and alloys to Iran, using US banksfraudulently. The Chinese company, LIMMTEconomic and Trade Company was sanctionedin 2006 by the US Treasury’s Office of ForeignAssets Control for providing material support forIran’s missile programme. In this case the LIMMTused eight shell or front companies to transactfinances for Iranian companies. Most of thesebanks have excellent filtering process to detectcommodities transacted, but in this case certaincritical identification and descriptions of the ma-terial were stripped, circumventing detection.

Among the material shipped by LIMMT tothe Iranian Defence Industries Organization were15, 000 kgs of an aluminum alloy used almost exclu-

China’s Silent WarfareBhaskar Roy

sively to make long range missiles. Other materialshipped could be used in the nuclear industry. TheUS court is also moving to extradite the LIMMTmanager, Li Fangwei from China for trial.

China backed, howsoever reluctantly,three UN Security Council sanctions against sup-ply of certain sensitive material to Iran.

The question is not whether Iran has theright to make long range missiles or not. It is thatChina, a responsible member of the internationalcommunity violated the very document it signed.This, of course, is nothing new. It always denieswhen caught, claiming its foreign transfers andactivities in the military field are responsible acts.There are credible reports to say that Chinesenuclear weapons entities may still be assistingPakistan in miniaturizing nuclear warheads.

The Australian media revealed recentlythat Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd andhis delegation were under constant Chinese cyberattacks when they visited China last August. TheAustralians have now tightened communicationsecurity for their official delegations visiting China.

Australian government officials say thatthey were alarmed by this blatant attack by Chi-nese cyber spies. They say this is now a seriousconcern, and the country’s security agencies, theASIO and the Defence Signals Directorate arespending huge amount to further secure govern-ment networks.

The point to note here is that Prime Min-ister Rudd, who speaks Mandarin fluently, hasbeen very friendly towards China. Mr. Rudd and


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some of his colleagues have demonstrated strongpro-China inclination both in trade and strategicissues. Australia withdrew from the Japan-pro-posed quadrilateral security co-operation betweenTokyo, Washington, Canberra and New Delhi,which was perceived to contain China. This pro-posal was not destined to take off, but Australiatook the first step out.

The Kevin Rudd government went over-board to grant China leasein iron and coal mines, saleof uranium ore and otherbenefits. It has now cometo light that Defence Min-ister Joel Fitzgibbon is em-broiled in a controversyover free trips to China, paid by a Chinese-Aus-tralian businesswoman Helen Liu. Cases of Chi-nese espionage agencies using expatriate Chineseis legend. Descendants of overseas Chinese con-tinue to nurture strong ties with their erstwhilemotherland.

The sad lesson that Prime Minister KevinRudd may have learnt is that the Chinese haveno friends. They only have interests.

In another instance, a group of research-ers at Canada’s Information Warfare Monitor(IWF) discovered that Chinese cyber spies havebeen entering government and banking comput-ers all over the world. The IWF report stated that1,295 computers in 103 countries have been com-promised. The intrusions were not aimed to onlydeface websites or ‘phishing’. The intruders were‘whaling’. In computer language, that means pro-curing specific information. Since the IWM wastasked by the Dalai Lama’s office for this job, theChinese authorities described this discovery asthe Dalai Lama’s propaganda. But independentresearchers at other places have come up with

similar findings. The Chinese would be embar-rassed because government and defence com-puters of their closest ally and friend, Pakistan,have also been whaled by the Chinese cyber spies.

The Chinese actions are deniable sincethere are more than three million citizens in thecountry, and enthusiastic nationalists could be at-tacking on their own. This is a possibility. But someinvestigation have led to a military signals estab-

lishment in Hainan Is-land province. Otherinvestigations haveled to the location ofoperators in Beijing’smilitary district. Ac-cording to IWM,

Hainan is the base of the Lingshui Signals Intelli-gence facility and the Third Technical Depart-ment of People Liberation Army (PLA). TheSecond Department of the PLA deals with hu-man intelligence and the Third Department withtechnical intelligence.

Computers in Indian Embassies, the In-dian Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry andeven the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) havebeen attacked from locations in China. The issuewas apparently not raised by the Indian govern-ment because the Chinese will flatly deny. Instead,the government took action to further secure thesensitive computers and communication networks.In cyber warfare, however, the technologies inattack and security are in constant competitionand no security can be said to be 100 per centsafe at any time.

A brief look at the Chinese information/communication companies with large presenceoverseas becomes necessary. One of them is theHuawei Technologies started by a former PLA

The sad lesson that Prime MinisterKevin Rudd may have learnt is that theChinese have no friends. They only haveinterests.


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telecommunications officer, Ren Zhengfeio. Therewould be nothing wrong with this since manyformer military officers went on to start their ownventures. Except for the fact that the companywas started in 1998 with seed money from thePLA General Staff Department’s Telecommuni-cation Department. This information does not fig-ure in Huawei’s company profile which is, other-wise, quite exhaustive. This information comesfrom the CIA’s unclassified reporting quoting‘clandestine reporting’, and Taiwanese sources.The effort by Huawei to hide the information natu-

rally raiser questions, since the PLA owns manycompanies quite openly.

It is now known that Huawei was in-volved in Saddam Hussein’s communication net-work when Iraq was under international sanc-tions after the first Iraq war. It was also involvedwith the Afghan Taliban government’s telecom-munication set up till the US bombing of Afghani-stan in 2001. ZTE is another Chinese informationtechnology company working in the same mouldas the Huawei Technology.

It is also reported, and not denied by theChinese, that Huawei engineers handle classifiedcommunication of top Chinese leaders visitingabroad. It, therefore, goes without question thatthe company with high expertise would be involvedin intelligence activities given its internationalreach. Huawei has been proved to be in the busi-ness of intellectual property theft, for example with

the US Company CISCO. The company has pres-ence in India.

Huawei is not the only Chinese companyinvolved in this business. There are other Chi-nese companies and experts under cover of stu-dents or researchers in the USA and Europe.

According to some Hong Kong mediareports in early 1990s, then Chinese PresidentJiang Zemin, who was also the Chairman of theCentral Military Commission (CMC), China’shighest military body, had directed agencies toconcentrate on Europe to collect military tech-nology and cutting edge civilian technology intel-ligence. The emphasis was on computer, com-munication, stealth weapons including satellite,radiation, and radio frequency technology.

It is well known that China’s civilian sec-tors and the military work in tandem whenevernecessary. With the emphasis onInformationalization Warfare, there is a growingconcern that entire communication networks inpotential enemy countries could be bugged to beactivated remotely when the need arises. Thesesilent, no contact strategic weapons is known as“Assassin’s Mace” weapons.

As the recent revelations suggest, in suchno contact silent warfare strategy, China does notdifferentiate between friends and foes. This isChina’s silent ‘Great Game’, in which the objectiveis to control all in the quest for world leadership.

Peace time is the best time to prepare forsuch warfare and place the “Assassins” in posi-tion. India’s strategic planners and business sec-tors will have to review these developments forth-with.

(The author is an eminent China analyst withmany years of experience of study on the develop-ments in China.)

Peace time is the best time to pre-pare for such warfare and place the “As-sassins” in position. India’s strategic plan-ners and business sectors will have to re-view these developments forthwith.


12

The news fresh from the oven is howthe mass of concocted turd that Teesta Setalvadthrew against Modi came back and landed on herown face after seven years. Teesta has under-standably vanished from the public glare, given thatshe has lots of cleaning up to do. Moping up sevenyears of accumulated excreta takes a long time.

Every new finding on the Gujarat riotsseems to be doing two things: lessening the cul-pability of Modi, and exposing the fabrications ofcharlatans of the Gujarat Riots Milking Federa-tion, which Teesta heads. And so it is with thelatest report by the Special Investigation Team’s(SIT). For once, the Slimes sums up the report’sessence well:

The SIT also found no truth in the follow-ing incidents widely publicised by the NGOs:

1. A pregnant Muslim woman Kausar Banu wasgangraped by a mob, who then gouged out thefoetus with sharp weapons.

2. Dumping of dead bodies into a well by rioteersat Naroda Patiya.

3.Police botching up investigation into the kill-ing of British nationals, who were on a visit toGujarat and unfortunately got caught in the riots.

But this is not all. Now, I’m a staunchadvocate of something called historical sense,which helps us put things in proper perspective.

Teesta Setalvad is a solid specimen of thevilest form of profiteering: from other people’smisery. She’s so vile that if no misery actuallyexists, she’ll invent one. Exhibit 1:

Teesta, it Hit Your FaceChaitra Krishna Dashami

Zarina Mansuri, a 30-year-old Muslimwoman who was believed to have been brutallyhacked to death and later burnt to ashes by a mobin the Naroda Patiya massacre of February 28,2002, was not even alive at that time. She had diedof tuberculosis (TB) some four months earlier.From the same news report, Exhibit 2:

About the rape of one of her friends,Shabana (15), which Anisha is said to have wit-nessed (according to her statement recorded bypolice on May 15, 2002), Yunus’s deposition said:“This, again, is wrong. Anisha had witnessed noth-ing like that that day. We, along with several oth-ers, were hiding on the same terrace of a housein Gangotarinagar at that time and none of us hadseen anything like that.”Exhibit 3 is more renowned.

It concerns the curious tale of a certain ZahiraShaikh, her carefully-nurtured “eyewitness” whoturned around and bit her in unmentionable places.Teesta being Teesta, she took her “revenge” bydefecating in the form of a few PDF documents.You can reasonably mark Zahira’s U-turn as thebeginning of Teesta’s rapid slide into public in-famy. All media houses carried this sensationalevent on their front pages for a few days. Tillthen a very fiery and highly visible Teesta gradu-ally evaporated, shrewdly deducing that her cru-sader image was suddenly dented in the most un-precedented manner.


13

But the skeletons didn’t stop falling. InDecember 2008, her trusted aide, Raees Khandefected, revealing even fouler details. To herfurther dismay, the Nanavati Commission submit-ted the first part of its report, which absolvesNarendra Modi of any complicity in the Gujaratriots. And now, the SIT report, which directlyimplicates her.

“It is clear from the report that the hor-rendous allegations made by the NGO were false.Cyclostyled affidavits were supplied by a socialactivist and the allegations made in them wereuntrue…

The picture of Teesta that finally emergesbut which we knew all along: an impostor with ahidden agenda. Recall that Teesta was the onlyperson that went after Narendra Modi withsingleminded determination almost every singleday for at least 3 years. A measure of success ofher brazen activism is the Supreme Court’s pre-mature pronouncement of Modi as the “modernday Nero.” The SIT report clearly shows someof the dubious and outright illegal methods shefollowed in her quest for “justice” (sic):

· Tutoring witnesses· Filing false affidavits· Lying openly· Manufacturing tales of incidents that didn’t

actually occur· Threatening witnesses and aides who didn’t

“obey” herIn other words, she didn’t have a case.

But she got away with it for some time not be-cause she was good at it but because she washysterically vocal about it, and assumed that thosewho were with her were as ethically decrepit asshe was. However, Teesta’s spurious activism hasdone significant damage: it spawned off an entire

cottage industry built on the edifice of falsehood.This cottage industry was awash with tons offunds because it was able to convince idiots abroadthat the “fight for justice” was genuine.

On the more dangerous side, some ofthese were well-intentioned idiots but others wereactive traitors. Gujarat was the perfect opportu-nity. Also, her sisters-in-crime like Arundhati Royspun kilometres of yarn based on the Ripped Foe-tus Theory postulated by Teesta. Indeed, thetheory holds a mirror to Teesta’s macabre imagi-nation: I mean, she could’ve simply said: KausarBanu’s head was severed or some such thing.But Teesta’s sadisitic mental imagery stretches itto: Kausar Banu was gangraped by a mob, whothen gouged out the foetus with sharp weapons.No, don’t try to visualize that. Writing it was hor-rible enough for me.

And now, where is Tehelka, which brokethe “most important story of our time” just whenthe Gujarat elections were about to follow?

Meanwhile, it’s also highly interesting tonote that Teesta has received several awards forher fearless quest for justice. Here’s the list:

1. Padma Shri: in 20072. M.A.Thomas National Human Rights

Award from the Vigil India Movement.3. Parliamentarians for Global Action ‘De-

fender of Democracy’ award, jointly with HelenClark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

4. The Nuernberg Human Rights Award 20035. And the unkindest cut of all: The Nani A

Palkhivala Award in 2006. An award named af-ter the defender of Indian democracy given to aswindler of public conscience. Says a lot aboutthe mental health of the jury.

Now that she’s been comprehensively exposed,will those institutions rescind the awards?


14

The British left us with sound po-litical institutions and systems of gover-nance. But strategic culture and militarythought were not among them. For 50 of the60 years after independence it was duringCongress rule, unencumbered by coalitionimperatives, that strategic mistakes weremade. Ingrained in its leadership and psycheis a strong defensive and passive mentalitythat infected the military and locked it in anintellectual straitjacket. The economic re-forms of the 1990s brought down the defencebudget to below two per cent of GDP, ema-ciating defence preparedness. By the time ofKargil, Army Chief Gen VP Malik had to say:“We will fight with what we have.”

National security, which is rarely dis-cussed in Parliament, has been trivialised at thehustings too — “You sent a Minister with ter-rorists to Kandahar while we sent commandosto Mumbai.” The debate is in the past tense andin negative.

Traditionally defence issues have arisenfollowing military and operational mishaps andnot as part of any institutionalised defence andsecurity strategy formulation. Barring the 1971military success over Pakistan which eventuallybecame a case of battlefield victory turning intopolitical defeat, the record is one of self-inflicted

Soldiers Must Vote For RightsAshok K Mehta

lapses. The premature acceptance in 1948 of aceasefire in Jammu & Kashmir, the Himalayanblunder of 1962 exacerbated by the no-use ofIAF, the strategic folly of returning Haji Pir Passand Point 13620 in Kargil to Pakistan in 1965,the mindless storming of the Golden Temple in1984 and even the ill-managed expeditionaryforce to Sri Lanka in 1987 will all figure in thehall of foul-ups.

Nineteen eighty-eight served as a turn-ing point for externally-sponsored low intensityconflict becoming a proxy war. Nuclear tests onthe sub-continent a decade later virtuallysanitised the proxy war, encouraging Kandahar,Kargil and culminating in Parakram and Mumbai.No war has been fought since 1971 though bor-der skirmishes and terror-related crises havebecome routine since the late-1980s. India, whichhas a high grade world’s fourth largest military, isunable to stop cross-border terrorism.

The British left us with sound political in-stitutions and systems of governance. But stra-tegic culture and military thought were not amongthem. For 50 of the 60 years after independenceit was during Congress rule, unencumbered bycoalition imperatives, that strategic mistakes weremade. Ingrained in its leadership and psyche is astrong defensive and passive mentality


15

As he comes to the end of his term asPrime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh has decidedto serve up a daily dose of vitriol in order to con-vince the people of India that he is not a weakPrime Minister. But, not everybody is taken in byhis strident denunciations and what many regardas his unrighteous indignation. How will historyjudge him, specially when it evaluates him throughthe prism of constitutionality and the rule of law?Let us seek answers through the stories of fourmen — Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, OttavioQuattrocchi and Mr Navin Chawla — and guesswhat future generations would make of his primeministership.

The Justice Nanavati Commission of In-quiry, which investigated the anti-Sikh pogrom un-leashed by the Congress following the assassina-tion of Mrs Indira Gandhi, has provided gory de-tails of the large-scale massacre of members ofa small religious minority by this party’s goons.The report says that in all 2,732 Sikhs were killedin those riots — 2,146 in Delhi and 586 in someother towns in north India. Thousands of otherswere grievously injured. Congress supportersroamed the streets and torched every known Sikhestablishment including factories, businesses,homes and motor vehicles. But, how did the ‘secu-lar’ Congress, which was at that time presidedover by the ‘secular’ Rajiv Gandhi, respond inthe face of this barbaric assault on the Sikh com-munity?

The Nanavati Commission says that inDelhi, just 587 First Information Reports were filed

The man behind the maskA Surya Prakash

in police stations in respect of these incidents. Ofthem, 241 cases were filed as ‘untraced’ by thepolice and 253 cases ended in acquittals. Thepolice obtained convictions in just 25 of the 587cases!

After Justice Nanavati submitted his re-port in February, 2005, the UPA Governmentheaded by Mr Singh presented the mandatory‘Action Taken’ Report to Parliament. In reality, itwas a report on inaction and the irony is that itwas presented by a Government headed by India’sfirst minority Prime Minister, and one who hap-pened to be a Sikh. For example, when the com-mission said, “There is credible evidence againstShri Jagdish Tytler to the effect that very prob-ably he had a hand in organising the attacks onSikhs”, Mr Singh’s Government desperately clungto the words “very probably” and said no personcan be prosecuted simply on the basis of ‘prob-ability’.

Similarly, in respect of Sajjan Kumar, thecommission concluded that “there is credible ma-terial” against him and that witnesses had accusedhim of inciting people to kill Sikhs and loot anddestroy their properties. Yet, Mr Singh silentlywatched as his party nominated Sajjan Kumar asa candidate for the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

The Congress announced the party’s tick-ets to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar on March22. The Prime Minister remained a passive spec-tator and even pretended that he was unaware ofthe clean chit that the Central Bureau of Investi-gation had given Tytler. Mr Singh’s shocking ac-


16

quiescence to something so dreadful and unjustprovoked a Sikh journalist to take the law into hishands. Eventually, this journalist’s ‘soleful’ ripostebestirred the soulless Congress and forced it tocancel their tickets. Yet, Mr Singh wants us tobelieve that he is a sensitive man; that he is a‘secular’ man; and that he is not a weak PrimeMinister!

Let us now turn to Ottavio Quattrocchi,Ms Sonia Gandhi’s Italian friend who got a com-mission of $ 7.3 million when we bought field gunsfrom Bofors for our Army. The money first cameto Quattrocchi’s Swiss Bank account and whennon-Congress Governments began dredging upthe truth, it was transferred to bank accounts inLondon. The National Democratic Alliance Gov-ernment headed by Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayeemoved the UK authorities and ensured that thoseaccounts were frozen. Mr Singh quietly unlockedQuattrocchi’s London bank accounts and ensuredthe Italian knocked off the commission.

His Government also dragged its feet onQuattrocchi’s extradition after the latter’s arrestin Argentina. It even hid information aboutQuattrocchi’s bail from the Supreme Court. TheCBI claimed that it had not been informed aboutit by the Foreign Office. So, while in JagdishTytler’s case Mr Singh claims that the CBI nevertold him that it was giving the man a clean chit, inthe Quattrocchi Case, the CBI said it was kept inthe dark by the Foreign Office.

However, Mr Singh would like us to be-lieve that he is an honourable man; that thecountry’s defence establishment is safe in hishands; that under him, the rule of law prevails atall time; and he is only concerned about the ‘aamadmi’ and not about 10 Janpath’s ‘khaas admi’!

The third example is that of Mr NavinChawla, the Secretary to the Lt Governor of Delhiduring the dreaded Emergency in 1975-77. MrChawla displayed fascist tendencies when he or-

dered the Superintendent of Tihar Jail to “bake”Mrs Indira Gandhi’s political opponents in cellswith asbestos roofs. The Shah Commission ofInquiry, which examined the systematic assaulton democracy during the Emergency, said MrChawla had behaved in an “authoritarian and cal-lous” manner. It indicted him and two other offic-ers and said, “They grossly misused their positionand abused their powers in cynical disregard ofthe welfare of citizens and in the process ren-dered themselves unfit to hold any public officewhich demands an attitude of fair play and con-sideration for others.” In its concluding remarkson the conduct of Mr Chawla and other officers,the commission said, “...tyrants sprouted at alllevels overnight — tyrants whose claim to au-thority was largely based on their proximity topower....”

However, this very person, who was de-clared “unfit to hold any public office” and whowas virtually described a tyrant by Justice Shah,was appointed as Election Commissioner by MrSingh in 2005. Mr Chawla assumes the charge ofChief Election Commissioner this week. Pleasenote: Mr Singh is an honourable man; he is a manof character; and our democracy and our Consti-tution is safe in his hands!

So, how will history remember Mr Singh?As an honourable, ‘secular’ man as his shrill dec-lamations would have us believe or as a PrimeMinister who lacked the moral fibre to stand upfor the Sikh community, of which he was himselfa member? As a man who enforced the rule oflaw or as one who ducked responsibility to helpthe Italian friend of his mentor? Finally, will his-tory remember him as a man who had deep re-spect for constitutional and democratic values oras one who sacrificed these values at the altar ofpolitical survival and admitted an unfit person tothe sanctum sanctorum of democracy — the Elec-tion Commission ? Let us leave it to history.


17

A comedy of errors is the phrase thatwould have come to mind had the issue not beenso serious. For, the trial of Ajmal Amir Kasab —the lone terrorist caught alive during the 26/11terror strikes on Mumbai — has been most em-barrassing for the country, not to mention thegaping loopholes it has exposed in our criminaljustice system. First, there was the fiasco overthe appointment of a defence lawyer for Kasab.After several lawyers turned down the brief forpersonal and other reasons, the special court con-ducting Kasab’s trial appointed Ms AnjaliWaghmare — a Government legal aid panel law-yer — to take up the defendant’s case. But justas the trial was about to begin, the court revokedher appointment on the first day of the hearingciting professional misconduct as she was alreadydefending a witness in the same case. It appearsthat Ms Waghmare wanted to have it both waysand had taken up Kasab’s brief for the sheerpublicity of it. In the meantime, Kasab actuallymustered the audacity to request the court for aPakistani lawyer to defend him. A request thatwas shockingly noted by the court which thendirected the Mumbai Police to send a despatchto the Ministry of Home Affairs to look intoKasab’s demand.

If this weren’t enough, earlier this weekPakistan’s Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malikclaimed that the DNA report of Kasab that hehad received from India was identical to that ofhis dead jihadi partner, Abu Ismail, who was killedby Indian security forces. But if one thought thatthis was another diversionary tactic by Islamabad,Home Minister P Chidambaram owned up to thefaux pas, which he termed as a ‘minor clerical

Tragedy of Errors- UPA Makes Mess of Kasab CaseChandan Mitra

error’. Ironically, it was then Pakistan’s ForeignOffice that rebuked India for holding up the in-vestigation into the 26/11 attacks. On top of this,External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjeestirred up a hornet’s nest by stating that Kasab’smother was coming down from Pakistan to visithim in jail; a statement that he quickly withdrewlater. Back in Mumbai Kasab kept grinningthroughout the initial stages of his trial proceed-ings amused perhaps at the drama that all of thiswas turning out to be. For, surely it is the Govern-ment and the entire administrative and legal ma-chinery that need to be blamed for this mess. It isa matter of great shame that in a case where 189Indians were butchered and more than 300 in-jured or maimed for life, the state has proved it-self to be totally incompetent in providing speedyjustice. Every day that passes without justice be-ing done is an insult to memory of those who wereslaughtered in the 26/11 massacre. But the Gov-ernment it seems just doesn’t care.

Besides the embarrassment, this entireepisode has proved India to be a weak state. Themessage that is going out to jihadis waiting towage war against India is that you can attack thecountry, create mayhem, kill innocent people andyet New Delhi will treat you like a VIP, and per-haps even consider flying down your family for avisit. Nothing can be more of a disgrace. The needof the hour is to reverse the soft stand on terrorthat India has come to associate itself with in thelast five years. What is required is a strong set ofanti-terror laws that will ensure quick prosecutionand speedy justice in cases such as that of Kasab.Unless that happens, Kasab and his jihadi colleagueshave every reason to keep smiling.


18

For reasons that seem quite inexplicable,a section of the media has suddenly turned piousover the “weak” versus “strong” debate involv-ing Manmohan Singh and LK Advani. It is beingsuggested that the exchanges are tantamount to“mudslinging”.

The assertion is quite incredible. As Out-look editor Vinod Mehta has repeatedly pointedout in his TV interventions, the exchanges are tameand nowhere marked by the verbal viciousnesswhich characterises, say, politics in Britain. Thefact is that the Congress has wilfully chosen toover-react to the BJP slogan of “mazboot neta”by painting the Prime Minister as a hapless victimof a personal attack. The party has cleverly cho-sen to tap the reservoir of goodwill for Manmohanas a decent man who has been caught up in themurkiness of politics. In making the PrimeMinister’s anguish an important talking point, ithas sought to divert attention from some of themain issues of the campaign.

It is only after the results are known onMay 16 that analysts will be in a position to judgethe efficacy of the Congress strategy. People votein elections on the strength of different impulsesbut there is always a retrospective rationale at-tached to their vote. If the Congress comes outwell, Manmohan’s combative press conferenceswill be pronounced a “masterstroke”; if the BJPdoes better, it will be praised for luring the Con-gress into battling on its own agenda.

In one of her campaign speeches, SoniaGandhi argued that the election was an “ideologi-cal battle” between the Congress and BJP. The

The Real Charge Against ManmohanSwapan Dasgupta

point has been driven home in some of the Amar-Akbar-Anthony type advertisements issued by theCongress. The implication of such messages andthe surrogate advertisement involving the “hand”of filmstars is that the BJP will destroy the syn-cretic soul of India.

Like the astonishing assertion thatManmohan is cast in the saintly mould and com-parable to Mahatma Gandhi, the so-called ideo-logical battle has a clear cut purpose. It is an out-and-out diversionary ploy aimed at ensuring thatbread-and-butter issues don’t dominate the cam-paign. It is paradoxical that rather than paintinghim as a wizard economist who can turn Indiainto a subcontinental paradise in a world of eco-nomic uncertainty, the Congress would ratherproject the Prime Minister as a quiet, but steelypolitician. In short, the Congress wants to repack-age Manmohan as a politician rather than a meretechnocrat. This is precisely why they have cho-sen to keep the UPA’s five year record in thebackground. It would rather debate a nine-year-old hijack (which, surprisingly, didn’t feature in


19

the 2004 campaign) than the present state of theeconomy. The reasons are self-evident.

Last Friday, Oxford Economics, an inter-national consultancy, projected that India’s GDPgrowth for 2009 would be around 3.4 per cent —a far from the “little less than 7 per cent” thePrime Minister claimed in Mumbai on April 13.The figure is lower thanthe 4 per cent growthprojected by the WorldBank and the 4.3 percent estimated by theOECD.

In a similarvein, while the likes ofManmohan and PChidambaram havebeen confidently asserting that the “fundamen-tals” of the Indian economy are strong and rela-tively insulated from global pressures, the chiefeconomic adviser to the Finance Ministry ArvindVirmani confessed on April 11 in Bangalore thatit was “absolutely essential to counter the worstrecession in 60 years.”

The most immediate impact of this hasbeen on the employment front. Each day bringshorror stories of mass dismissals from compa-nies which have hitherto been held up as India’spride. Infosys shed 2,100 jobs in April in pursu-ance of what it somewhat heartlessly called a“zero tolerance” of inefficiency. Jet Airways,whose sacking of 1,000 staff last Octoberprompted national indignation, will close down itsticketing offices. Some top companies have im-posed a 15 to 20 per cent pay cut across the board.These pieces of high-profile bad news have beenburied in the inside pages of newspapers andmentioned in passing by the electronic media.Together they have received less attention thanPriyanka Gandhi’s observations of brother Rahul’sreal post-poll alignments.

There is no point going on about themedia’s lapses. The media isn’t fighting elections;it is battling for eyeballs. The fault lies with thepolitical class. True, the BJP has issued print andradio advertisements on the growing loss of hopebut this has not been accompanied by a relentlessassault on the Congress for mismanaging the

economy to the extentthat some 1.5 crore jobshave been shed in thepast eight months or so.Advani is not naturally atease with economic is-sues but you don’t needto have dined at the HighTable of Nuffield Col-

lege, Oxford, to put a political spin on economicmismanagement.

The Prime Minister’s knowledge of eco-nomics is not a matter of dispute. What is in doubtis his sense of compassion. Throughout the crisis— over which he remains in denial — he has notthought it fit to utter even lip sympathy for thosewhose Incredible India crashed amid high inter-est rates, deflation with soaring food prices, anunacceptably high fiscal deficit and wasteful ex-penditure. He has not thought it fit to even ap-point a Finance Minister for five months.

The real charge against Manmohan andthe owners of his party is not that they are weakbut that they are callous and heartless. In this cli-mate of fear, the Congress has issued a new ad-vertisement which proclaims Josh. It is the near-est Indian equivalent to Marie Antoinette suggest-ing they have cake.

Wars, it is said, are too important to beleft to Generals. The economy is far too strategicto be left to an economist.

The real charge against Manmohanand the owners of his party is not that theyare weak but that they are callous and heart-less. In this climate of fear, the Congress hasissued a new advertisement which proclaimsJosh. It is the nearest Indian equivalent toMarie Antoinette suggesting they have cake.


20

Getting India’s money back from TaxHavens ;Congress caught in its own web.

Stupefied by the strong endorsement allacross the country to the demand that the moneylooted from India must be brought back, the Con-gress has tied itself in knots.

Its spokesmen have given five reactions: Why is Mr. Advani taking up this matter

now, on the eve of elections? The GE-20 meeting was not the proper

forum for taking up the issue. There is doubt about the figures. Why did the BJP government replace

FERA by FEMA, and thereby make the offencescompoundable?

Is Mr. Advani not unwittingly alerting thosewith illegal money abroad to spirit it away fromSwitzerland to other tax havens?

What was the NDA doing when it was inoffice? In any case, there is doubt about the fig-ures.

The reactions betray panic as even the littlestreflection would have shown them to be indefen-sible.

“Why is Mr. Advani taking up this matternow, on the eve of elections?”

The fact, of course, is that Advaniji tookup the matter with the Prime Minister in April lastyear by writing to him. The reply that the thenFinance Minister sent him showed that the Gov-ernment intended to do little except keep goingthrough the pretence of taking some steps. Soonthereafter, we were alarmed to learn that a se-nior official of the Finance Ministry had written

Indian Money in Tax Havens Arun Shourie

to the then Indian Ambassador in Germany not topress the Germans for release of the names ofIndians in the list that they had obtained fromLiechtenstein — lest the Germans take offenceand conclude that they were being pressurizedand their bona fides were being questioned. [Thisinformation was later confirmed by the IndianExpress in the report it published on 31 March2009.]

Why now? The answer is that a uniqueopportunity has arisen only now, after westerneconomies have found themselves in a severecrisis. The crisis has forced countries like Ger-many, France, USA and UK to take the leader-ship role in G-20 and pledge to get their stolenwealth back from tax havens. The BJP believesthat this is the right time for India to join the glo-bal effort to get its own stolen wealth back.

“The G-20 meeting was not the properforum for taking up the issue.”

This customarily self-serving rationaliza-tion was put out by one of the Congress party’slawyers and spokesmen. At the same time, theparty was trying to insinuate that, actually speak-


21

ing, the Prime Minister had taken up the matterat the G-20 Summit. As its spokesmen could notpoint to any statement he made either at the Sum-mit itself or even at the press meet he held afterthe Summit, they drew solace from a passing ref-erence to the matter in the speech he had madeat the dinner hosted by Mr. Gordon Brown, theBritish Prime Minister.

In any case, if the G-20 Summit was notthe right forum for taking up this matter, how is itthat in the communiqué that the G-20 leaders is-sued on 2 April 2009, they said, in paragraph 15,on “Strengthening the Financial System,” that theypledged themselves “to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens. Westand ready to deploy sanctions to protect ourpublic finances and financial systems. The era ofbanking secrecy is over. We note that the OECDhas today published a list of countries assessedby the Global Forum against the international stan-dard for exchange of tax information”?

Were they also, in the view of the Con-gress party, acting inappropriately when theymade such a strong commitment in theircommuniqué at the Summit?

“In any case, there is doubt about thefigures”.

As is its custom, the Congress is trying tocover up the basic question of money which hasbeen looted from India and is lying in tax havens,by raising questions about the precision of figuresand estimates. This is quite the kind of legalismwith which persons like Mr. P. Chidambaram andother legitimizers tried to cover up the loot fromBofors.

The OECD itself has stated in accountspublished in early April 2009 that there are $1.7trillion to $11.5 trillion, which are today parked intax havens. This estimate of the OECD has beenwidely reported in the Indian press. The basic pointis: even if the amounts are just scores of billion

dollars and not one and a half trillion dollars, whyshould they not be brought back to India? Andcan they be brought back to India when the atti-tude of the government continues to be as deter-minedly inactive as that of the present Govern-ment?

Can the Government which allowedOttavio Quattrochi, the Italian power-broker whois the main accused in the Bofors scam, to takehis money out of banks after it had been frozenbe trusted to bring back the loot that is lying inSwiss banks and other tax havens? Can the Gov-ernment which prostituted the CBI so that he mayget away from Argentina be trusted to bring theloot back?

“Why did the BJP government to re-place FERA by FEMA, and thereby make theoffences compoundable?”

Again, the Congress is relying on the shortmemory of its audience. The fact of the matter isthat no one had been pressing more for the re-placement of the harsh provisions of FERA thanthe Congress itself. The changes were being con-templated since 1996. The demand for doingaway with the harsh provisions came to a cre-scendo during the Government of Mr. VP Singhwhen FERA came to be used for interrogatingcaptains of industry under harsh circumstances.As news reports of that period themselves indi-cate, FEMA which was approved by the Gov-ernment in July 1998, was on the lines of a draftwhich had been prepared under the leadership ofthe preceding finance minister, Mr. P.Chidambaram.

The reasons for changing the law are wellset out in the following passage:

“Until recently, we had a law known asthe Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act. Its ob-ject was to conserve and augment the forex re-serves of the country. The way to hell, it is said, ispaved with good intentions. Like many well-in-


22

tentioned laws, FERA paved the way to disaster.FERA created a flourishing black market in for-eign exchange. It brought into the economic lexi-con the word ‘Hawala’. Illegal forex transactionsbecame the fuel for the growth of crime syndi-cates with trans-border connections.

“FERA also became a tool of oppression.Successive governments persisted with FERAand added COFFEPOSA and SAFEMA. Inter-national markets do not respect draconian lawsthat run counter to common sense. India’s re-serves, far from being augmented, dwindled atan alarming rate… Mercifully, FERA was buriedfinally on May 31, 2000.”

The author? None other than P.Chidambaram, in the article he contributed to theIndian Express on 25 August 2002!

“Is Mr. Advani not unwittingly alertingthose with illegal money abroad to spirit it awayfrom Switzerland to other tax havens?”

Another clever little statement by yet an-other lawyer of the Congress party! Would thelooters who’ve stashed away money in tax ha-vens from India still need to be alerted after Ger-many got the names from Liechtenstein as longago as last year? Would they still need to be alertedafter Germany offered to furnish the names togovernments that asked for the names? Wouldthey still need to be alerted after the United Statesgot the names from the leading bank of Switzer-land, UBS in February this year? Would they stillneed to be alerted after the G-20 leaders, includ-ing Dr Man Mohan Singh as the Congress wouldlike us to believe, declared their determination toget the tax havens to disgorge the names? Butsuch is the confusion in the Congress party andsuch the brilliance of its lawyers that all it can dois to seek to deflect the nation-wide demand forgetting the loot back from tax havens by suchwitticisms!

“What was the NDA doing when it was inoffice? In any case there is doubt about the figures.”

Leaders of the Congress party would bebetter advised to ask, “During that very period,what was the Congress party doing, what wereits lawyers and leaders doing, to thwart the ef-forts of the NDA Government to uncover thenames of persons who had looted the country evenon defence deals like Bofors?”

Even while replacing FERA by FEMA,the NDA Government made sure that it wouldhave an additional two years to file prosecutionsunder FERA. And it filed as many as 2000 casesagainst those who were under investigation be-fore FERA lapsed. The reason for doing so, areason that is well known to lawyers in the Con-gress party, was that, when a prosecution is filedit is adjudicated according to the law which pre-vailed at the time at which the case was filed.These are the very cases which the Congresslater on did not pursue.Conclusion

There is a real fight ahead: a fight in thenational interest, a fight that will have to be wageddoggedly to get the names from the tax havensand to get the amounts back to India.

As Mr. Advani has emphasized, a con-sensus is already emerging across the country.Leaders outside the political realm, parties suchas the JD(U), AIADMK, CPI(M), SP and BSPhave all demanded that the Government act en-ergetically to get the names from the tax havensand to get back the amounts. Instead of quibbling,the Congress would be well-advised to explainwhy it has not taken any action since even theGerman Government had offered to furnish thenames that it had obtained on its own.

Even now, Mr. Advani has urged, all par-ties, including the Congress, to get together andstrive towards this objective.

That is an objective that the NDA will mostdeterminedly pursue once it is voted to office.


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Jesus said,“He that loveth father or mother more

than me is not worthy of me. He that is notwith me is against me “– Mathew 10: 37 &12:30

“But those mine enemies, which wouldnot that I should reign over them, bring hither,and slay them before me” – Luke 19:27

In conformity with the above sayings,Pope Innocent III declared “that anyone who at-tempted to construe a personal view of God whichconflicted with the church dogma must be burnedwithout pity.” In 1204 A.D. He had totally de-stroyed the Cathars and their religion in Franceby killing nearly 1 million people including womanand children. (The Indian Church? P-15 by ViragPachpore )

“The genocide of Red Indians in the Ameri-cas, Maoris in Australia and New Zealandand destruction of Maya and Inca cultures ofSouth America bare testimony to the said com-mandment of Jesus.” forty million red Indi-ans were exterminated in Americas. DuringWorld War II six million Jews were burnt inGas chambers.

Burtrand Russell had said, “…there wasthis inquisition, with its tortures; there were mil-lions of unfortunate woman burnt as witches andthere was every kind of cruelty practiced uponall sorts of people in the name of religion.”Lutheran Prelate Benedict Carbzov claimed to

How Church Missionaries of Jesus have not generallyproved to be an embodiment of love?

Vishnu Vardhan

have sentenced 20,000 evil worshippers. (TheIndian Church? P-18). Many hundreds of thou-sands of woman are said to have been burnt inEurope as witches, mostly by the Puritans.(Glimpses of World history P-337 by JawaharlalNehru)

The Church burned enormous amounts ofliterature. To cite few examples the Christians in391 AD, consigned to flames the world’s great-est library in Alexandria which housed 7,00,000rolls. (The New Columbia Encyclopedia, P-61)Education for anyone outside the Church was pro-hibited. Women were not permitted to read Bibleand speak in the Churches.

If we recall the history of Christian missionar-ies in India, we find the exact replica of whatthey did to the Pagan cultures in Europe.

Goa Inquisitions:

In a period of about 250 years from 1560to 1812, thousands of innocent Hindus were killedor burned, thousands of Hindu woman were mo-lested and then burned on stake. 2000 virgins

Lutheran Prelate Benedict Carbzovclaimed to have sentenced 20,000 evil wor-shippers. (The Indian Church? P-18). Manyhundreds of thousands of woman are said tohave been burnt in Europe as witches, mostlyby the Puritans. (Glimpses of World historyP-337 by Jawaharlal Nehru)


24

were raped and then burned in a span of 3 days!Francis Xavier had said that in a single month hehad baptized more than 10,000 men, women andchildren. He told the new Christians (convertedChristians) to demolish the shrines of the idolsand saw to it that they crushed the images intodust. (The Indian Church? P 24-26).

Children were flogged and slowly dismem-bered (tear or cut limb from limb) in front of theirparents, whose (Parents) eyelids had been slicedoff (so they couldn’t close their eyes) to makesure they missed nothing……………… Malegenitals were removed and burned in front ofwives, breasts hacked off and vaginas penetratedby swords while husbands were forced towatch………………

(Source: The empire of the Soul, PaulWilliams Roberts, Harpet Collins. 1999 quoted inthe Saint Business, Rajeev Srinivasan. Hindu

Voice, Nov’2003 P-4-5)Religious Conversions Through Cheating:One Mr. Robert De Nobili wore the sa-

cred thread, Grew his hair in a knot and claimedthat he was a Brahmin from Rome. He learntTamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. He had forged in theancient Indian Characters, a deed showing thatthe Brahmins of Rome were of much older datethan those of India and that the Jesuits of Rome

descended in a direct line from the God Brahma.De Nobili disguised rites such as baptism, the ser-vice etc. and succeeded in converting 87 Brah-

mins and about a lakh others to the Faith of theChrist. (The Indian Church ? P-27-28)

Mr. Samuel Azariah (1874 to 1945) Bishopof Dornkal in Andhra Pradesh wrote “Speakingfor ourselves, our loyalty to our masters comesfirst, our loyalty to our motherland second. Weare first Christians, then Indians. What is goingon in the North-eastern states is the direct andnaked reflection of these pernicious teachings ofthe Church. (TheX Indian Church? P- 43)

A Christian congregation in ArunachalPradesh tied to poles and burned alive two tribalgirls, Komi Simai and Khodang Tikhak who hadbeen accused of and found guilty of practicingwitch craft ! (Indian Express News, New DelhiAugust 8,1996.) Swami Lakshmanananda and hisdisciples were brutally killed at Kandanmal inOrissa.

“Evangelisation in India appears to be apart of uniform world policy to revive Christendomfor re-establishing western supremacy and is notprompted by spiritual motives.” - Justice Niyogi(The Indian Church? P-55)

Children were flogged and slowlydismembered (tear or cut limb from limb)in front of their parents, whose (Parents)eyelids had been sliced off (so they couldn’tclose their eyes) to make sure they missednothing…

Swamy Lakshmanananda


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Of the last thirty turbulent years, Af-ghanistan has seen active Soviet (Russian) in-volvement for about ten, US for about 18 years(in two spells), India for about ten (in two spellsup to 1992 and presently) and the Pakistanis forall three decades.

The Soviets used 10 million landmines,caused 200,000 civilian fatalities and left behind750,000 amputees, while a majority of the mineshave still not been cleared. By 2001 about 8.26million Afghans had fled to other countries, mostlyto Pakistan, of whom some 4.64 million had al-ready been (principally forcibly) repatriated toAfghanistan by that year.

The Americans sponsored the jihad, withhelp principally from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,in the 1980s and later dropped 1,228 cluster bombsbetween October 2001 and March 2002, whichreleased 248,056 ‘bomblets’ of which 12,400 areestimated to be lying around unexploded. Yet,Osama bin Laden has not been found, whileAmerican legitimacy has plummeted.

The Pakistanis gave Afghanistan the giftof the Taliban and all that this has signified, fromthe destruction of the Bamian Buddhas, religiousobscurantism of the worst kind, the spread of nar-cotics, and endless misery on both sides of theDurand Line.

India contributed a billion dollars of hu-manitarian aid focused on national capacity-build-ing and today, according to recent ABC opinionpolls, 74 per cent of Afghans see India favourably,while 91 per cent see Pakistan unfavourably (up11 points from last year) and 86 per cent see Pa-kistan as playing a negative role in their country.And yet, the US, in a reflection of its incongruent

Uncomprehending in ‘AfPak’Vikram Sood

policies, continues to be solicitous about assuag-ing Pakistan’s ‘sensitivities’. There was a timewhen US diplomats were interceding onPakistan’s behalf to reduce India’s role in Af-ghanistan; even today, there are voices in Wash-ington that seek to diminish India’s role in Af-ghan reconstruction. It is a measure of Pakistan’sbrittle state that four Indian consulates, mannedby not more than two dozen men, are a source of‘insecurity’ to that country. It is also a measureof the imbalance of US policy that seeks to elimi-nate virtually the only success story in Afghani-stan.

The Taliban are estimated to haveachieved a permanent presence in 72 per cent ofAfghanistan, up from 54 per cent last year, ac-cording to the International Council on Securityand Development. These figures may be open tointerpretation, but the general drift is not in ques-tion. The fact however is that the manner andspeed of the takeover only suggests that unlessthe Taliban are stopped, rolled back and defeated,they will eventually secure themselves in the en-tire country. This will happen, not because theTaliban are popular in Afghanistan – they are not– but because the opposition to their depreda-tions is neither cohesive nor sufficiently strong.As Andrew Cordesman says in his study, “TheAfghan-Pakistan Conflict: US Strategic Optionsin Afghanistan” – the Afghan Pak war “has beena war that the US has allowed to slip from ap-parent victory into serious crisis.”

One of the major problems is that theAmericans, in search of quick policy options, areconsidering opening negotiations with a sectionof the Taliban described, for the sake of expedi-ency, as ‘moderate’ Taliban or ‘good’ Taliban.


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Should this happen, this would amount to a stra-tegic defeat for the US, as it would be negotiatingwith weaker adversaries from a position of weak-ness, having failed to militarily defeat them. Paki-stan, by being truculent and duplicitous with itsmain benefactor, will have achieved its strategicambitions. If that were to happen, India would bethe biggest geo-strategic loser in the Hindu Kushregion.

The situation that prevails is the result ofmismanaged wars fought since October 7, 2001,when the Americans went in with their corditeswatters, which only allowed the flies to escapein all directions. Nothing at all was tied up withthe Pakistanis to prevent this from happening; infact, the Americans assisted General Musharrafin allowing him to have his Inter-Services Intelli-gence (ISI), Army and irregular contingents, ac-tive in Afghanistan, airlifted back to safety anddeniability in Pakistan. From then on, to the pre-mature diversion to Iraq followed by a generaldowngrading of the Afghanistan theatre, a situa-tion has been allowed to evolve that shows thetrends in all security and socio-economic devel-opment parameters in Afghanistan to be adverse.Kabul is more and more like the Green Zone ofBaghdad. Only the northern road through the

Salang Tunnel to Panjshir and Mazar-e-Sharif isconsidered safe; the one to Kandahar throughWardak is unsafe for Afghans and foreigners,barely 30 kilometres outside Kabul; the road tothe Bagram Air Base is frequently attacked bythe Taliban.

NATO forces may be able to defeat theTaliban in individual battles, but they are not ableto hold territory, much less clear, build and de-velop. Counter insurgent forces may be able towin any number of battles but for the insurgent itis enough to be able to survive. No wonder, JimJones, the NSC Adviser, said in 2008, “Make nomistake. NATO is not winning in Afghanistan.”This was echoed by Admiral Michael Mullen,Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his testimonyto the House Armed Forces Committee in Sep-tember 2008: “I am not convinced we are win-ning it (the war) in Afghanistan.”

There are several problems in tackling theevolving situation in Afghanistan. Firstly, the troop/insurgent ratio is adverse and there is very littlelikelihood that this can improve in the near future.Secondly, sanctuaries in Pakistan extend not onlyto the Al Qaeda but to the various Taliban shuras(councils) from Quetta to Swat. There is the Af-ghan Shura of Mullah Omar in Quetta; theWaziristan Shura of Baitullah Mehsud; and theSwat Shura of Maulana Fazlullah. More suchshuras will be formed in the future.

Besides there are still some importantholdouts from the first Afghan jihad, such asJalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani;the former was a Taliban commander north ofKabul and is generally considered the father ofsuicide bombing. Father and son have created aforce that includes several thousand Pakistanfighters, probably from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Another isGulbuddin Hikmetyar and his Hizb-e-Islami, along-time favourite of the ISI, who operates ineastern Afghanistan from his bases in FATA.


27

The other and major difficulty has beenthe Pakistani ambivalence in its dealings with theTaliban. As the creator of the force, it is difficultfor the Pakistan establishment to see it destroyedwithout achieving its primary objectives in Af-ghanistan. Pakistan has consistently underminedUS efforts in Afghanistan. The unintended con-sequence has been the growing Talibanisation ofPakistan and the actual ceding of territory andsovereignty to the radical Islamists west of theIndus. The Swat peace deal was dubiously easy,and it is difficult to accept that the provincialAwami National Party (ANP) Government inPeshawar would go ahead with such a signifi-cant move without approval from Islamabad. It ispossible that the Pakistan Army wanted a wayout of having to fight the Pushtuns and at the sametime create a ‘moderate’ Taliban for the US.Conventional wisdom would suggest that this toowill rebound on Islamabad and the US. The es-sential reality is that both – the Taliban and thejihadis on one side and the Pakistan Army, havethe same slogan — jihad fi’sbillah – jihad inthe name of Allah. They claim they are fightingfor the same Allah, the same Prophet; so howdoes one expect any resounding victory?

As was expected, the Obama adminis-tration has set out a new policy for Afghanistan-Pakistan. But is it ‘new’ when it talks of the threatfrom Al Qaeda and does not mention the Taliban?The Obama AfPak policy is no different from thatof George Bush, who spoke only of the threat toAmerica from Al Qaeda. Obama made it quiteclear in his reply to The Times of India corre-spondent at the recent London G-20 Summit,when he said, “we are very concerned about theterrorists and extremists who have made camp inthe border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.”The question had been specific – “What isAmerica doing to help India tackle terrorism ema-nating from Pakistan?” The evasiveness and the

irrelevance of the response only reasserts knownAmerican positions. No help would be forthcom-ing from America for India.

On the other hand there has been a seri-ous effort in the US to manufacture consent forthe new slogan “Anyone who is against terroristsis with us” instead of the earlier slogan “Eitheryou are with us or against us.” In essence theyboth mean the same thing – America is with no-one; the rest have to decide for themselves if theywant to take on America’s declared fanatics ortheir own. The policy lays down two essentialpriorities – one, to secure Afghanistan’s south andeast against the Al Qaeda; and two, to strengthenthe Afghan forces so that this would enable theUS to wind down its own combat operations. TheObama policy speaks of the Taliban in the con-text of the Al Qaeda with the Mullah Omar groupas the irreconcilable lot, implying that the rest maybe reconcilable, ‘moderate’ or ‘good’. It defieslogic that a ‘moderate extremist’ exists; and if hedoes happen to survive, could he wield any realpower that would deliver results? Such a personwould, most probably, be outside the corridors ofextremist power and would necessarily fail to de-liver. An extremist has to be defeated because heconsiders anything else, including development anddialogue, as appeasement or a just reward for hisextremism.

The fact that the new policy stresses ontackling Al Qaeda and not the Taliban only cre-ates the impression that the policy is tactical andnot strategic, as it does not seem to define howthe Taliban, who wield considerable influence inover 70 per cent of Afghan territory, will behandled. The policy against the Al Qaeda de-mands a counter terrorist operation against non-Pakistanis; while the policy against the Talibanrequires counter-insurgency operations againstgroups that include the Pakistani Taliban as well.The US AfPak policy document concludes by say-


28

ing that, in the year 2009-2010, the Taliban’s mo-mentum must be reversed, but only in Afghani-stan, and that the international community mustwork with Pakistan to disrupt the threats to secu-rity along Pakistan’s western borders.

The Americans are once again going tomiss the essentialpoint, which is that,if there has to be anAfPak policy, theremust be a consis-tent and unambigu-ous Al Qaeda-Taliban policy thatincludes tacklingLeT and others likethe JeM, who are the jihad’s Rapid DeploymentForces, available on demand for Pakistan’s west-ern or eastern frontiers. The American problemhas been that it is unable or unwilling to recognisethe source of the problem. The problem isPakistan’s unwillingness and therefore its inabil-ity to help and, equally, the US unwillingness toforce the issue with the Pakistanis, who even to-day are playing for time. Should the Pakistaniassessment be that the US is looking for shortterm solutions to long term problems, they arelikely to be more intransigent and more demand-ing, knowing that they only have to wait it out.

Another crucial aspect that the US mustconsider is that, while it does have the capacity tounilaterally destroy some countries, it no longerhas the capacity to reconstruct single-handedly.It would, therefore, need the assistance of regionalpowers and will have to accommodate their re-gional interests. In AfPak, the regional powersare Iran, Russia, India and China. The US mustalso readjust to the fact that Pakistan is part ofthe problem and not the solution. US interventionin Afghanistan serves Indian interests only if it

takes into account Pakistani delinquency. As along-term solution, the regional powers will haveto think of the guaranteed neutrality of Afghani-stan. This will be possible only after Pakistan hasbeen disciplined through more sticks and far fewercarrots. If the neglect of Afghanistan and Paki-

stan by the US in the 1990swas a mistake, the presentpolicy of pampering Pakistanis no better.

References in the USto getting India and Pakistanto talk in order to give Paki-stan ‘adequate confidence’,can be attributed to the usualflawed American thinking and

need not detract from India’s main concern toprevent a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. Forthis, it would be useful for the US to offer aidfunding via India, to run projects in Afghanistan,which would provide a far better rate of utilisationof funds than is presently the case, and wouldkeep the anti-American sentiment out of the equa-tion.

It has been a bloody thirty year war inAfghanistan, during which the essentially tribaland conservative society, especially the Pushtun,has now acquired a thick layer of religious ex-tremism. There has to be a long-haul solutionspread over generations, with development anddialogue following, and not preceding, the mili-tary process. Since it is in India’s interest, as thatof the rest of the world – with the exception ofPakistan – that the Taliban be rolled back, it is,perhaps, in Indian and American interests that thetwo countries co-operate across the board, andnot on the basis of my terrorist first and your ter-rorist later. India also needs to reach out to Iranand the Central Asian Republics and not just con-centrate on dealing through the United States.

This will be possible only after Pa-kistan has been disciplined through moresticks and far fewer carrots. If the neglectof Afghanistan and Pakistan by the US inthe 1990s was a mistake, the present policyof pampering Pakistan is no better.


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Assam: Democracy in the Shadow of Violence

The total number of bomb explosions inAssam – 605 since 2001 and 16 during the cur-rent year – increased by four on April 6, 2009.Although bomb blasts executed by multiple armedfactions have ceased to have any element of nov-elty in Assam, the increasing lethality and innova-tion in executing these explosions, especially sincethe serial attacks of October 30, 2008, in whichas much as 80 kilograms of RDX was used, hasalarmed many. With the elections to the IndianParliament scheduled to be held on April 16 and23 in the State, serious doubts have been ex-pressed about the capacities of the SecurityForces (SFs) to ensure a peaceful poll.

At 2 pm, on April 6, 2009, eight personswere killed and 32 were injured in an explosion atBoripara near Maligaon Chariali in Guwahati city,adjoining State capital Dispur. The dead includedat least one victim who jumped to death whiletrying to escape the fire that engulfed a nearbybuilding as a result of the explosion. Less thantwo hours later, five persons were injured (one ofthem later succumbed to his injuries) in a bombexplosion at Mosjid Patty in Dhekiajuli town inthe Sonitpur District, 180 kilometres northeast ofGuwahati. Three hours later, a Home Guard waskilled and a Police constable sustained injuries ina grenade explosion in front of Mankachar Po-lice Station in Dhubri District, 270 kilometres west

of Guwahati, along the international border withBangladesh. Earlier in the day, in the southernhilly District of Karbi Anglong, unidentified mili-tants detonated an explosion at Santipur nearBokajan, injuring two.

The United Liberation Front of Asom(ULFA), the most potent militant formation in theState, has been blamed for all but the explosion inKarbi Anglong, a claim that has not been deniedby the outfit. Carried out on the eve of the PrimeMinister’s visit to the State, these explosions havebeen seen as a bold challenge held out by ULFA.Dr. Manmohan Singh was scheduled to addressan election rally at Dibrugarh, 450 kilometresnortheast of Guwahati. Although he did land atthe township on April 7, a hailstorm shelved hisplans to ride a chopper to the meeting venue, barely15 kilometres away. He had earlier been advisednot to travel the distance by road. He returned

INDIABibhu Prasad Routray


30

without addressing the meeting. It is difficult todefinitively confirm whether security consider-ations played any role in the decision of the PrimeMinister, who is a Member of Parliament fromAssam, to abandon the idea of travelling to themeeting venue by road. ULFA’s abilities to or-chestrate explosions in the Upper Assam Districts(the eastern-most Districts of the State), of whichDibrugarh is a part, have been severely dentedsince June 2008, after two ‘companies’ of its pri-mary strike force, the ‘28th battalion’, came over-ground, seeking a negotiated settlement. This ‘bat-talion’, one of ULFA’s three military formations(the 27th and 709th being the others), was basedin Myanmar and was principally responsible forthe outfit’s activities in Upper Assam. However,ULFA’s ability to carry out a succession of serialexplosions, predominantly in the central or west-ern Assam Districts, has given rise to an atmo-sphere of insecurity in the State, where very littlecan be taken for granted.

In fact, the outfit’s reliance on plastic ex-plosives, predominantly aimed at inflicting masscasualties, appears to have increased significantlyafter the June break-up within the ‘28th battal-ion’. The mantle of ULFA’s principal strike armhas now passed on to the rejuvenated ‘709th bat-talion’, under the direct command of ULFA ‘com-mander-in-chief’ Paresh Baruah. The ‘battalion’is being led by senior functionaries such as AkashThappa, Mukunda Rajbongshi alias Chilarai, andPradeep Kalita. Through this ‘battalion’, ULFAhas not only been able to hike its lethality withinthe relatively limited area of central and westernAssam, but has also managed to time its attacksto match the arrival of various top officials from

Delhi, including Union Ministers and the PrimeMinister, in the State.

On March 31, an explosion had rockedGuwahati’s Jyotikuchi area under Fatasil AmbariPolice Station, killing one person and injuring nine.On that day, Union External Affairs MinisterPranab Mukerjee was supposed to address a pub-

lic gathering at Lalmati, two kilometres away fromthe explosion site. Assam Police, later, explainedthat the explosion was not related to the Minister’srally. Similarly, on January 1, 2009, ULFA cadrestriggered serial bomb blasts in three different ar-eas of Guwahati city, killing five persons and in-juring 50. The blasts went off just hours beforethe scheduled arrival of Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram.

In a break from most past explosions, theSF establishment in Assam had adequate intelli-gence inputs regarding ULFA’s intentions to or-chestrate attacks on or before April 7, the 30th

Raising Day of the outfit. The State Police had,in fact, published photographs of two ULFA cad-res – Manohari Rajbongshi alias Son and PradeepKalita alias Deep – who had supposedly entered


31

Guwahati city to execute acts of sabotage beforeApril 7. An intensive search operation had beenconducted to nab the duo in various parts of thecity. Union Home Minister Chidambaram con-firmed, on April 7, that many advisories had beensent to the SFs as well as to the Government ofAssam to remain extremely vigilant during thisperiod. Chidambaram remarked, “The securityforces, and es-pecially theAssam Police,were on highalert and triedtheir best to se-cure the mostvulnerable loca-tions. It is unfor-tunate anddeeply regretted that the adversary has been ableto strike this time.”

Interestingly, ULFA’s capacity to carry outthe April 6 explosions had much to do with thenovel tactics that the outfit has evolved and put touse in recent times. Although initially describedby television channels as a car bomb explosion,probably due to the number of motorcycles and alone car that caught fire in the Guwahati blast,subsequent investigations found that TNT explo-sives and ball bearings had been packed into theframe of a bicycle. A similar device had been usedin Dhekiajuli. The Assam Director General of Po-lice, G.M. Srivastava, later commented that therewas no way to detect such concealed explosivesunless someone weighed the bicycle. Thousands

ride bicycles in Assam’s cities and weighing eachbicycles is hardly a viable prospect. Moreover, inboth locations-Guwahati and Dhekiajuli, the ex-plosives were said to have been attached to fourdetonators each, in order to pre-empt the possi-bilities of malfunction. Explosions have remainedthe dominant mode of ULFA attacks for a num-ber of years, but the group has succeeding in cir-

cumventing every effort by theSFs to effectively interdict theseoperations.

Another area, where theULFA has been able to consis-tently outplay the SFs is throughthe use of new recruits in plant-ing explosives. While the AssamPolice has been able to build upa reliable database of senior and

middle level functionaries of the outfit, its knowl-edge of the lower-rung cadre base is only par-tially developed. New recruits, with minimal train-ing ranging between 15 and 30 days, with no priorcriminal record, are used to place explosives atthe target locations, a task for which ULFA hadused unemployed youths and even school chil-dren on earlier occasions. The unknown faces ofthe new recruits escape the attention of Policespotters and the surrendered ULFA (SULFA)cadres, on whom the SFs rely heavily for militantidentification. Such lack of knowledge was ondisplay after the April 6 explosion in Guwahati,when a photograph that the Assam Police pub-lished as that of blast suspect ManohariRajbongshi turned out to be that of an 18-year old

Another area, where the ULFA hasbeen able to consistently outplay the SFsis through the use of new recruits in plant-ing explosives. While the Assam Police hasbeen able to build up a reliable database ofsenior and middle level functionaries of theoutfit, its knowledge of the lower-rung cadrebase is only partially developed.


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youth, with no ULFA linkages. The photographwas quickly withdrawn and the Police said thatthe brother of the actual militant had misled them.

Another area where Police operationsappear to have been severely handicapped is theminimal public cooperation it receives, not just interms of ground level intelligence, but also in post-incident crisis-management. Possibly as a resultof the long history of political collusion and con-sequent public disenchantment, Assam, in recenthistory has been the only theatre of conflict in thecountry, where the SFs have been forced to dealwith a rampaging mob virtually after every inci-dent of bomb explosion. The October 30, 2008,explosions had resulted in a berserk mob turningover Police and official vehicles and setting themafire. After the April 6 explosions, again, ‘angry’mobs turning their ire on the Police and mediapersonnel for over an hour.

Contrary to public perceptions, however,the Assam Police appears to have done fairly well,neutralising a number of ULFA cadres and re-covering large quantities of explosives. Since justJanuary 1, 2009, 15 ULFA cadres have been killedand 42 have been arrested in Assam. Among thosekilled were Tapan Roy, Paranjal Deka, AnupamGogoi, Bhaskar Hazarika and Kushal Das – con-sidered to be the better trained and experiencedmilitants in the group. The Assam Police had alsofoiled 79 explosion attempts and recovered 376kilograms of explosive during the same period inthe State.

These achievements, however, have failedto curb the subversive potential of the militant

formation, and this will constitute an enormoussecurity challenges during the impending elections.Polls to elect 14 members to the Indian Parlia-ment are scheduled to be held in Assam in twophases – on April 16 and 23. Of the total 18,829polling stations across the State, 6,635 have beencategorized as ‘sensitive’, 2975 as ‘very sensi-tive’, 440 as ‘hypersensitive’, while 8,779 are‘comparatively safe’. While the Assam Govern-ment had asked for the deployment of 120 com-panies of Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF)personnel to secure the polls, it has been providedwith just 75 companies.

The Assam Police Chief has promised“safe and secure” elections on both days of poll-ing. The security plan chalked out by the Police,in the aftermath of the April 6 explosions, includesa provision for engaging retired police officialsfor round-the-clock surveillance work across theState, the identification of vulnerable areas, theestablishment of a mechanism, in association withvolunteers, citizens’ committees and traders, tointensify vigil in all vulnerable areas, observationof parking lots, regular cleaning of garbage binsand installation of close-circuit television camerasin strategic locations across the State.

Whether these measures will prove ad-equate to prevent further acts of subversion byULFA, remains to be seen. What has been clearlydemonstrated, however, is that the group retainssignificant capacities for disruption, which con-stitute a manifest threat to the electoral process,and are bound to impact, not only on the mannerin which the elections are conducted, but also onfuture governmental policies in Assam.


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The first anniversary of Sydney VedaPathasala was grandly celebrated at Scout Hall,

North Carlingford, Sydney where morethan 150 people attended to hear, participate andappreciate a unique Veda chanting programme.Veda chanting is an ancient concept to invigoratethe higher senses. Vedic chanting has been con-sidered as the outstanding oral cultural tradition,and has been declared as World’s Intangible Cul-tural Heritage by UNESCO. American philoso-pher Henry David Thoreau wrote a tribute toVedas, “Whenever I have read any part of theVedas, I have felt that some unearthly and un-known light illuminated me.”

Sydney Veda Patasala, an initiative ofVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) of Australia, was

started in 2008 under the guidance ofSwami Vigyananand, Joint General Secretary,VHP. It was incorporated in New South Wales,Australia on 2 July 2008 under the AssociationsIncorporation Act, 1984. The first Veda Patasalastarted at Baulkham Hills with 10 students.

The first anniversary programme beganwith a traditional welcome of Swami

Vigyananand with Purna Kumbh.Jonathan Nanlohy, Cultural Development Co-ordinator from Baulkham Hills Shire Council, wasthe guest speaker. Mrs Akila Ramarathinam, JointGeneral Secretary of VHP of Australia Inc, wel-comed all the guests and participants.

SYDNEY VEDA PATASALAFIRST ANNIVERSARY - A SHORT REPORT

Akila Ramarathinam & Subhashree Balachandar

While welcoming, Mrs AkilaRamarathinam mentioned that “Veda chantingused to be a tradition practised orally and nowhas been scientifically proven to benefit thememory”. Mrs Ramarathinam enlightened theaudience about the achievements of Sydney VedaPatasala students in the past one year. She alsomentioned that Sydney Veda Patasala is uniquein many ways: (a) first of this kind in any countryoutside Indian subcontinent; (b) it is for whole fam-ily rather than small children – chanting in a fam-ily atmosphere; and (c) Veda chanting is for allage groups, and study is open to everyone freefrom caste, creed, race and gender.

Sydney Veda Patasala has taken Sydneyby storm since its launch last year by SwamiVigyananand as more than 100 students regularlyattend the Patasala (school) to memorize and prac-tise the hymns for wisdom and knowledge. Now,there are four such schools in the suburbs ofSydney. A fifth school will be opened Dural (ShivSharada Temple) on 9 April 2009. At the anniver-sary celebrations on Sunday, children from fourPatasalas in Sydney – Baulkham Hills,Carlingford, Homebush and Liverpool branchesparticipated in chanting hymns from the Vedas,their rhythmic recitation an experience to behold.

While speaking on the importance ofstudying Vedas, Swami Vigyananand said “With-out expecting anything Vedas must be studied, and


34

practised” quoting from ancient scriptures. Hementioned briefly the history and benefits of Vedachanting. Encouraged by seeing so many girl stu-dents at the Veda chanting, and also to challengethe popular perception, Swami Vigyananand men-tioned that there were 29 women Rishis (latterknown as Brahmavadinis) among the 407 Sagesassociated with the revelation of the Rig Veda –world’s oldest book. Swami Vigyananand ac-

knowledged the selfless commitment of the teach-ers in promoting and preserving this ancient knowl-edge and wisdom.

Swami Vigyananand said “AustralianFederal and State Governments, and local gov-ernment bodies should be proud that Australia hastaken the step to protect, preserve and promoteVeda chanting that is world intangible culturalheritage”.

Mr Jonathan Nanlohy, Cultural Develop-ment Co-ordinator from Baulkham Hills Shire

Council, the guest speaker during the an-niversary celebrations, said he was very happy tobe part of this history being created. “I am im-

pressed by the Hindu Society initiative, and com-munity participation and support to this revival ofUNESCO declared world heritage” said MrNanlohy. He also said it was an amazing experi-ence for him to see whole family from grand par-ents to grand children learning together, and wheregood initiatives are taken without any governmentfinancial support. We like to support such goodinitiatives for the cultural understanding andstrengthening of family and community.”

Students had participated in Veda chant-ing in a number of programmes including

“Darshan in Suburb” organised by SVTTemple, Sani Pradosham Programme at SVT

Temple, Deepawali programme in Olym-pic Park organised by Hindu Council of Australiaand VHP Deepawali Cultural Programme.

During the anniversary celebrations, adrama/skit “Sirapoli Nayanmar story” was playedby Denistone East Balar Malar Tamil school,which was very much appreciated by the audi-ence. This was followed by honoring of VedaPatasala teachers (Sri Subramanian, Sri RaviGurukkal, Sri Ramarathinam, and Sri Narayanan),and mementos were given to students by SwamiVigyananand in appreciation of their efforts inpreserving this Heritage for Humanity.

The vote of thanks was proposed by SriNarayanan Krishnamurthy. He mentioned that with-out the help of volunteers, and support from the com-munity, such important initiatives and activities can-not be possible. At the end, the participants enjoyeda sumptuous vegetarian dinner, coordinated by SmtSubhashree Balachandar’s team.


35

The White Christian Church has theunique characteristic of gaining entry into non-White, non-Semitic civilizations, by slow infiltra-tion of important establishments to influence themand create unrest by dividing the local populacealong communal or linguistic lines, with the soleobjective of Christianising those countries.

Several instances in history confirm this.The Church has been partially successful in India, as evidenced by the Christianisation of north-eastern states such as Meghalaya, Nagaland,Mizoram, etc., and a few pockets in other States.While interior states have been able to withstandthe Christian onslaught, the southern coastal statesof Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and AndhraPradesh have been vulnerable to the evil designsof the Church. This was made possible only be-cause of the help provided by self-serving politi-cal leaders in the guise of secularism. Influencing politics in Tamil Nadu and SriLanka

The Dravidian Movement of Tamil Naducomprised only such leaders, who even went tothe extent of requesting the British to continuetheir hegemony over Tamil Nadu. Since then, theunholy ‘Christian-Dravidian’ nexus has workedconsistently for the cause of ‘Tamil Nation,’ ex-tending it to the north-east of Sri Lanka as well.

Just as it divided the Tamil people throughthe bogus ‘Aryan (Brahmin) – Dravidian (Non-Brahmin) Theory,’ to alienate non-Brahmins fromthe ‘Hindu’ fold along linguistic lines (Aryan San-skrit – Dravidian Tamil), the Church similarly di-vided the Sri Lankan people along linguistic(Sinhala-Tamil) lines. On the one hand, it backedthe LTTE fully against the government, and on

Is ‘Tamil Eelam’ A Christian Agenda? B R Haran

the other, it successfully infiltrated the Sri Lankanestablishment and influenced the governmentthrough Sinhala Christian leadership.

When Sri Lankan Prime Minister SolomonWest Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike introducedthe “Sinhala only Act” in 1956, the Island ’s firstanti-Tamil riots took place. Prior to SolomonBandaranaike, the Sri Lankan government washeaded by leaders like Don Stephen Senanayakeand John Kotelawala, and his successors wereSirimavo Bandaranaike, Dudley Senanayake,Junius Richard Jayewardene, Premadasa, RanilWickramasinghe, Chandrika BandaranaikeKumaratunge (married a Christian), PercyMahinda Rajapakse, who were all either Chris-tians, or Buddhist converts, or married to Chris-tian spouses.


36

The first Sri Lankan Tamil leader whostarted the demand for separatism was a Chris-tian - Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam ;he also called for a “Greater Dravida Nadu” onboth sides of the Palk Straits.

It can be said that LTTE just followed hisfootsteps, backed by the Church and missionar-ies. Ever since ethnic riots took place in 1983,Anton Balasingham, a Roman Catholic, assumedthe mantle of LTTE’s political leadership and wassecond only to Prabhakaran, also a Christian.

Ironically, the 85% Hindu majority of SriLankan Tamils came totally under the control ofa Christian minority leadership, thanks to the Ma-chiavellian machinations of the Church and mis-sionaries. It is difficult to swallow this bitter truth,especially when recalling the glorious past of SriLankan Tamil Hindus under the leadership of greatShaivite scholars like Arumuga Navalar, great menlike Ponnambalam Ramanathan andPonnambalam Arunachalam, and intellectuals likethe Coomaraswamys. All were widely respectedby the Buddhists in Sri Lanka and PonnambalamRamanathan was the one who pushed for“Wesak” or “Buddha Purnima” to be a publicholiday in colonial Sri Lanka.

As for Tamil Nadu, though the Churchsuffered a slight setback when M.G.Ramachandran left DMK and founded theAIADMK, deviating from “Atheism” to “The-ism” (moving closer to Hindu religion), and his

successor Jayalalithaa followed his footsteps (atleast for a while), it seemed to have cleverlymoved its coins to influence AIADMK too. Nowwe have a host of Dravidian parties changing al-liances at the drop of a hat and even at each oth-ers’ throats, but remaining perennially close to theChurch.

So, whichever party is in power, theChurch is able to have its say and continue withits agenda of de-Hinduising the state. Similarly, inSri Lanka , the Church has been able to influencethe leadership of both LTTE and the Sri Lankangovernment, while causing the death of thousandsof Hindus and Buddhists in the decades-long con-flict. The Church has also been indulging in bla-tant conversion activities in both Tamil Nadu andSri Lanka .Influencing Jayalalithaa for the greatest as-sault on Hinduism

At one point, the Church found it difficultin Tamil Nadu, due to the enormous influence ofMelmaravathur Adiparasakthi Movement andSabarimala Pilgrimage on Scheduled Caste Hin-dus, and the various activities undertaken byKanchi Mutt to reach out to them, besides theenactment of the anti-conversion law by theJayalalithaa regime.

But the Church finally succeeded in in-fluencing Jayalalithaa after her party’s rout in the2004 parliament elections, resulting in two tellingactions. First, she repealed the anti-conversion law,enacted by her own government, to appease theChristian community ; secondly, she went to theextent of denigrating and destroying the sanctityof a 2500-year-old institution established by AdiSankara and flawlessly maintained by his order ofdisciples as ‘Jagath Gurus’ for millions of Hindus.

Not surprisingly, in October 2004, she re-ceived the ‘Golden Star for Dignity and Honour’(Thanga Tharakai) award from a Ukraine-basedChristian organisation named International Human


37

Rights Defence Committee, controlled byAmerica and funded by ‘US Agency for Inter-national Development’ (USAID).

The Indian representative for IHRDC

was Mallavarappu Prakash, Bishop ofVijayawada and later Chairman of Tamil NaduMinorities Welfare Commission! In February2005, the ‘India International Society’, USA , pro-posed a tribute for her together with ‘BarathJyothi’ award, after which evangelist K.A. Paulcame to Tamil Nadu in a private jet to give thou-sands of crores of rupees for Tsunami relief. Jaya pursuing Christian agenda

Since then, Jayalalithaa has clearly sidedwith the Christian clergy. Last year, while term-ing the spontaneous ‘retaliatory’ attacks on Chris-tians in Kandhamal, Orissa, as a “disgrace” tothe nation, she conveniently ignored the dastardlymurder of Swami Laxmanananda and his dis-ciples, and the distribution of blasphemous litera-ture and pamphlets denigrating Hindu Gods andGoddesses, by his opponents. When the RamaSethu Protection Movement was at its peak, shespoke against the Sethusamudram Project, notwith true faith in Sri Rama, but with an eye onthe votebank. And while protesting against theSethu Project, she exhibited her ‘secular’ cre-dentials by pointing out that ‘Adams Bridge’(Ramar Sethu) was significant to Muslims andChristians as well, a myth which no Christian or

Muslim scholar has so far endorsed!Even the present election manifesto of

her party makes only a passing mention of RamaSethu! Yet it gives exclusive commitments forChristians, such as Reservation for Dalit Chris-tians (unconstitutional), subsidy for Jerusalem pil-grimage, ‘All Souls Day’ to be made a holiday,hostels with all facilities at nominal charges intowns of minority religious significance, and ad-dressing the ‘security’ concerns of minorities.

But she gave no commitments regardingrepeal of the DMK government’s ordinance onTamil New Year or returning the ChidambaramTemple administration to the Dikshidars, or anyissue concerning Hindus. As if to confirm alle-giance to the Christian agenda, she deviated fromher original stand on the Sri Lankan ethnic issueand sat on a day-long fast on 9 March 2009, con-demning the Indian government’s alleged inac-tion on the issue and addressed the LTTE as“fighters” instead of her usual remark of “terror-ists”. Now she has openly supported the Chris-tian agenda of creation of a separate Tamil Eelam,which amounts to supporting the LTTE and noth-ing else. After all, the Church-backed LTTE lead-ership is also fighting for the same cause!Sabotaging the legislation on conversion inSri Lanka

In 2003, Sri Lankan Buddhist and Hinduleaders joined hands to draft a legislation, at therequest of Hindu Affairs Minister T. Maheswaran,to legally stop conversion activities by the Church.Despite the pressure applied by this joint com-mittee which worked for six months to draft thenew act for parliament, the Church-influencedSri Lankan government has been reluctant to en-act the law.

As the Church foresaw that Buddhist-Hindu unity - unity between majority (Buddhists)and the largest minority (Tamil Hindus) - couldlead to permanent peace in the war-struck Is-


38

land , it sabotaged the process of legislation byfavouring the creation of an inter-religious coun-cil to hammer out a solution. This so-called inter-religious council is a typical Christian strategy(much like the Church-backed inter-faith dialoguesin non-Christian countries) to thwart all attemptsto ban conversions by an act of parliament ; thesame has been adopted by the Vatican to stopsuch legislations in India as well. Though organi-zations such as ‘All Ceylon Hindu Congress’(though pro-LTTE), ‘Hindu Council of Sri Lanka’and ‘National Council of Buddhist Clergy’ are deadagainst conversion activities, the Church has beenable to influence the political leadership acrossthe spectrum to sabotage the legislation of theanti-conversion law

In this context, it must be noted that theformer Hindu Affairs Minister in RanilWickramasinge’s cabinet T. Maheswaran es-caped an assassination attempt in 2004, but wasfinally assassinated on 1 January 2008 while wor-shipping in a Shiva Temple . Till date, the govern-ment has not completed investigations in to themurder, though it has been blamed for allegedlyreducing his security level and for continuing min-ister Douglas Devananda, widely alleged to beinvolved in the assassination. The government putthe blame squarely on LTTE and DouglasDevananda also denied the allegation of involve-ment. The BBC Sinhala.com reported, “The DNAsamples taken from the murder suspect of a Tamillegislator matched with the blood samples takenfrom the gun used for the killing, Sri Lankan judi-ciary said. The legislator’s security guard man-aged to shoot the suspect, identified as JohnsonCollin Wasanthan ValentineImportance of Hindu-Buddhist relationship

As early as June 1998, ‘Tamilnet’ reportedthat an International conference on Hinduism con-demned attacks on Hindus and the destruction ofHindu places of worship by Sri Lankan securityforces, and urged Colombo to halt such attacks.

The report said that, the ‘First International Con-ference on Hindu Solidarity’ was held in Paris on27-28 June at the UNESCO auditorium and at-tended by delegates from several countries, in-cluding functionaries from BJP and VHP.

Though this seems like a conflict betweenBuddhist and Hindu communities, it must be un-derstood that the security forces are controlledby a political leadership owing allegiance to theChurch. The centuries-old cultural relationshipand largely peaceful existence of both the SinhalaBuddhists and Tamil Hindus can be ascertainedfrom two facts.

First, their coming together to draft a leg-islation against conversion activities of the Churchand missionaries, and second, the statement fromthe Hindu Council of Sri Lanka that the long-standing cordial relationship between the two re-ligious communities in the Island Nation wouldgo a long way in solving the present crisis andcreating peace and harmony.

It is pertinent to note that Buddhists wor-ship Hindu Gods and Goddesses and Hindus wor-ship Buddha as an Avatar of Maha Vishnu, andboth communities follow the same calendar andcelebrate the same day as New Year. While con-demning the politicisation of the ethnic conflictby self-serving politicians of Tamil Nadu, theHindu Council felt that areas of common inter-


39

ests must be identified and along with religiouscommonality and cordiality, local capacities builtfor peace. It opined that furthering political inter-ests and fanning Tamil chauvinism must be dis-couraged as it would complicate the situation andinhibit the capacity of the Indian government tohelp find a lasting solution by bringing both the SriLankan government and the Tamils to the negoti-ating table.

BJP-led NDA government’s proac-tive role in the peace process

Journalist M.R. Narayan Swamy (IANS)reported that the Vajpayee government played asecret but vital proactive role in the peace pro-cess between Sri Lanka and LTTE, brokered byNorway : “Overseen by New Delhi , a truce docu-ment began to be drafted. Norway was deeplyinvolved in the exercise, roping in some of its vet-eran diplomats. Eventually, this translated intoCFA. India also told Norwegian diplomats to letthe LTTE know about the Indian involvement inthe entire effort. On Feb 21, 2002, LTTE chiefVelupillai Prabhakaran signed the CFA.Wickramasinghe put his signature a day later.”

By sheer coincidence, both RanilWickramasinghe and A.B. Vajpayee lost poweralmost at the same time (April-May 2004) andJ.N. Dixit, appointed NSA by Sonia-led UPA re-gime, passed away within a few months of hisappointment, with all the details about India’s rolein bringing the CFA, which he learnt from RanilWickramasinghe, when the later visited India af-ter demitting office. It is natural for a Hindu na-tionalist party to be deeply concerned about thewell-being of a country who’s Buddhist and Hindupeople are both tied to Hindu India by an umbili-cal cord ; hence it is no surprise that it tried tobring peace in the interests of both countries. Whydid the CFA fail and whether the Sonia-led gov-ernment pursued the policy of the Vajpayee gov-ernment with regard to Sri Lanka remain un-known?

The present scenarioAt present, all Dravidian parties are

wreaking havoc in the run-up to the general elec-tions, using the inflammatory Eelam issue as anelection talking point. Each party is trying to whipup emotions in Tamil Nadu to bring about aceasefire in Lanka and thereby save Prabhakaranand the LTTE.

When the Father Jagat Gasper Raj-Kanimozhi combine floated the “ChennaiSangamam” cultural extravaganza in 2007, JayaTV went to town with investigative reports onthe LTTE connections of Gasper Raj ; Jayalalithaawasted no time condemning the government’sassociation with the project. But last year, bothJayalalithaa and her TV channel kept a conspicu-ous silence during the Chennai Sangamam festival.

During the last week alone, Father GasperRaj has been promoted by mainstream electronicmedia as a representative of Sri Lankan Tamils!Participating in debates on electronic news chan-nels, he blatantly supports LTTE in the guise ofvoicing human rights concerns, criticizes the In-dian government, and in one debate on Times NowChannel had the audacity to call Dr. SubramanianSwamy a “paid agent of Rajapakse”! Yet it isunclear if he is a Sri Lankan refugee or an Indiancitizen. His antecedents and present activities inIndia/Tamil Nadu need thorough investigation.

Ranil Wickrama Sing withA.B.Vajpayee


40

AIADMK leader Jayalaithaa, who con-demned Karunanidhi for saying Prabhakaran wasnot a terrorist, has not reacted to her ally PMKleader Ramadoss’ identical statement! Why doesJayalalithaa, who questioned Sonia’s silence onKaruna’s statement, remain silent on Ramadoss’statement?

And what has the Italian-Christian-ledUPA done for Sri LankanTamil Hindus in the last fiveyears? Why didn’t the Sonia-led regime follow the NDApolicy with regard to the SriLankan Tamil issue? Whywas her government silentwhen the Geneva round oftalks failed despite the pres-ence of a live CFA? Sad irony, andcivilisational opportunity

Actually, the West and the Church wantto Christianise Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and forma larger Tamil Christian State . Hence a Sinhala-Tamil divide has been created with the help ofthe Tamil-Christian leadership of the LTTE andthe Sinhala-Christian leadership of Sri Lanka .

Caught in between are the Sinhala Bud-dhist and Tamil Hindu civil populace. To keep theissue alive without any solution, the Christian lead-ership of India and the Dravidian, irreligious lead-ership of Tamil Nadu have been used, just as thisdiabolic group is using Dravidian politicians andChristian NGOs who have been harvesting soulsin both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka . It is a sadirony that the interests of hapless Tamil Hindusof Sri Lanka, who have been persecuted for longby both the Christian leadership of LTTE and theChristian leadership of Sri Lankan government,

have been represented by the unholy Christian-Dravidian nexus in Tamil Nadu.

As things stand in Sri Lanka , it looks asthough the West might be able to save the LTTEleadership. It will try to send missionaries andNGOs to help the rehabilitation process, so it canclandestinely achieve its evangelical agenda also.

It is said that President Rajapakse in-structed setting up of a chapel in the‘welfare villages’ to look into the spiri-tual needs of the internally displacedpersons and refugees, who number upto 200,000. Sensing the danger ofevangelization, the Hindu Council, theHindu Women’s Society (SaivaMangaiyar Kazhagam), the SaiSamithi, along with other organizations,swung into action to provide medi-cines, clothes, soaps, detergents andsanitary napkins and other articles of

basic necessity, to augment the shelter, food andwater provided by the government. The HinduCouncil has also organized singing of Tamil devo-tional hymns (Thevaram and Thiruvasagam) ; theSai Samithi has organized bhajans. These organi-zations are likely to take care of orphaned chil-dren by sending them to orphanages run by theSri Ramakrishna Mission.

The present situation must be seen as anopportunity to revive Hindu-Buddhist unity andHindu religious heads from India , especially fromTamil Nadu, would do well to establish contactand communication channels with Buddhist lead-ers of Sri Lanka . This will go a long way in bringingpeace and harmony to the Island Nation. For thisto happen, we need a strong “Hindu” political lead-ership in India . Let us hope it gets ‘elected’ now.(The author is a senior journalist ; he lives in Chennai)


41 Indian War OfIndependence 1857

To allow the existance of a slavery underwhich such unjust acts of oppression (as havebeen mentioned in the last chapter) and hundredsof other unmentionable crimes (which have beenleft unmentioned, being, indeed, too numerous tomention) are committed and encouraged and tobow the head in submission to the perpetratorsthereof, is not this the very destruction of Reli-gion ? What religion is there which has not con-demned dependence and slavery? The ultimategoal of true religion is likeness unto the nature ofthe Supreme Being that moves everything, of Himwho made all beings capable of becoming all-per-fect. There must not be imperfection in ma if heis to be like the All-Perfect. But how can therebe anything but imperfection in a country wherethere is slavery ? God is the essence of justice,and slavery is absence of justice. God is the es-sence of freedom; slavery is absence of freedom.Hence, where there is God there cannot be sla-very, and where there is slavery there cannot beGod or Godliness.

Where there is no place for God, therecan be no religion. In short, true religion cannotexist where slavery, the nursery of injustice, isrampant. Slavery is the straight road to Hell andtrue religion is a means of attaining Heaven. Towalk in the path leading towards Heaven, theshackles of slavery must be broken. This was thepractical philosophy which Sri Samartha Ramdasgave to Shivaji and Sri Pran Nath taughtChhatrasala and this advice to win Swaraj for thesake of religion, by fighting and dying for it, be-

INDIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1857ADING FUEL TO FIRE

V.D.Savarkar

gan to echo in the hearts of thepeople trodden under slavery, in1857, two hundred years after itwas originally given. Those, whohad thrust this slavery – unnatu-ral, born of injustice, - onHindusthan, had already begunthe destruction of religion not only in India but allover the world. For, that religion is there whichhas not condemned injustice ? But not satisfiedwith the tacit insult of the religion of India fromthe very day he set foot on the Indian soil up tothe terrible battles of 1857, the Feringhi has beenmaking steady and unceasing attempts to tramplethe Hindu religion and the Moslem faith.

The head of the whole English nation wasturned at the immeasurable success which hadattended the attempt to Christianise (?) the indig-enous ignorant races of Africa and America, andthey had strong hopes that in India too, in a fewdays, the Cross would be everywhere triumphant.That the English fully believed that Hindusthaniswould be ashamed of their religion when they sawthe light of western civilisation and give it up, thatthey would consider the Bible more sacred thanthe Vedas and the Koran, and that they would begathered together in the fold of the Church, leav-ing their Temples and Musjids, - is fully and un-mistakably seen from the literature of that timeand from the writings and speeches of English-men of the first half of the last century.

The chairman of the Directors of the EastIndia Company, Mr. Mangles, said in the House


42

of Commons, in 1857 :- “Providence has entrustedthe extensive empire of Hindusthan to England inorder that the banner of Christ should wave tri-umphant from one end of India to the other. Ev-eryone must exert all his strength that there maybe no dilatoriness on any account in continuing inthe country fire grand work of making all IndiaChristian.” Macaulay, in 1936 – when schools inwhich English education was to be given werefirst opened in Bengal, had expressed a hopeamounting almost to a conviction that, in thirtyyears, there would be no idol-worshipper left IBengal.1 The mind of the Feringhiwas filed with such contempt andsuch hatred for the Hindu and Mos-lem faiths – the two principal reli-gions of India – that very promi-nent writers, forgetting even ordi-nary conventionalities, constantlyheaped shameful abuse on the tworeligions whenever they got achange. The constant insistence bythe East Indian Company to makeIndia Christian was due to a veryobvious reason.

Once the religions of India died, the na-tional feeling of the people would also die; indi-viduality would die and it is infinitely more easy torule a nation whose individuality is dead than torule one which has a clearly marked individuality.Thus, the question was one of diplomacy ratherthan of religion, and the reason why England didnot lift the sword for the solution of the problemwas also to be found in diplomacy. England hadlearnt many lessons from the history of Aurangzeb.Both the strength and weakness of the policy ofthat monarch had been carefully studied by theEnglish. Learning the wisdom of Aurangzeb, thatthe destruction of the religion of a conquered racemakes the problem of retaining it in perpetual sla-

very much easier, the English had avoided his follyof openpersecution for religion. Hence the stolidand continuous efforts of the English to make In-dia Christian by indirect means only and not openly.1. “It is my firm belief that, if our plan of educatiois followed up, there would not be a single idola-tor in Bengal 30 years hence !” – Macaulay’sletter to his mother, Oct.12, 1836. Rev. Kennedywrote at the time, “Whatever misfortunes comeon us, as long as our Empire in India continues, solong as our Empire in India continues, so long letus not forget that our chief work is the propaga-

tion of Christianity in the land. Until Hindusthan,from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, embracesthe religion of Christ and until it condemns theHindu and the Moslem religions, our efforts mustcontinue persistently. For this work, we must makeall the efforts we can and use all the power andall the authority in our hands; and continuousand unceasing efforts must be kept on untilIndia becomes a magnificent nation, the bul-wark of Christianity in the East!

If, with such uninterrupted preseverance,we continue our efforts, then I do not doubt thatby the grace of God, we shall be successful in theend!” No wonder, then, that every citizen of In-


43

dia – seeing that English authorities and mission-aries were using such language openly – beganto feel that, under the English Raj, everyone wouldeventually be forced to be Christian. With the dis-appearance of Swaraj, the Rajas and Maharajaswho made rich gifts of Inams and Jahgirs toTemples and Musjids, were also disappearing. Inthis powerless state, - instead of new inams be-ing granted, instead of fresh gifts of money beingshowered on Temples and Musjids as when wherewas Swaraj – even those Inams and the moneyremaining yet in their hands were being takenaway forcibly from the temples and mosques. And

there is no wonder that, seeing that there was noprotection for their religions, the Hindus and theMoslems alike were pained and grieved. Nor is itto be wondered at that the blood of both the Hin-dus and the Mahomedans boiled with rage at be-ing openly described in official and private docu-ments as “heathens,” and peculiarly abusive epi-thet. And yet, there was every indication that theFeringhis, who cared more for the increase ofcommerce than of the Christian religion and werethe devotees more of Mammon than of Christ –the Prince of Poverty, would therefore desist from

attacking the religious prejudices of the people byopen violence. As if with the express purpose ofproving the falsity of such an idea, the English inthe insolence born of unbridled power very soonbegan an open and violent interference with thereligions of Hindusthan. Even while efforts werebeing made to pass in Calcutta the law for theabolition of suttee, public opinion in India beganto suspect deeper designs on the part of the Gov-ernment. Even before this law for the abolition ofsuttee had passed through the Councils ofCalcutta, the prisoners were prevented from ob-serving their religions.

A few days more saw the pass-ing of the Widow Remarriage Act, in theface of the loud protests of the Hindus.No sooner had this law been passed thanLord Canning expressed his opinion thatthe law for the abolition of polygamy wasto be brought into the Legislative Council,and he exerted himself to pass it as speed-ily as possible through the council. Thequestion we have to answer here is notwhether the law which the Company wasgoing to introduce was good or bad. Whatwe want, in this place, to say is that nei-ther Hindus nor Mahomedans could be

certain as to where the attack on their religiouscustoms would stop, seeing that the English, inthe exercise of their authority for the passing ofthese laws, had begun the dangerous habit of in-terfering by force with the religious customs ofthe people. These laws may be good or bad; normay it be necessary to attach to them the slight-est importance; but this much is clear that anychanges in the social habits based upon religioustexts can be brought about only by the authorityof those religious and through their adherents.When a foreign administration professing an alienreligion, after making promises never to interfer-


44

to be Continued......

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ence with the religious beliefs of the people,endeavours to change by force the hereditarycustoms, the established religious beliefs of thepeople, on the strength of a majority composed ofmen professing the foreign religion, in the counciland on the strength of despotic authority, and that,when the public opinion clearly and unmistakablyexpressed, of the adherents of those religions wasopposed to such change, while, in the Council,the men who belonged to these religions has noauthority at all, - then, indeed there was not theleast difference between the tyranny of Aurangzeband the tyranny of the Company’s Raj. To-daylaw regarding only suttee has been passed; whocould say that, when this injustice was swallowedby the people, what other laws the Companywould not pass ? The English hated idolatry asmuch as they did suttee. To-day the law for the

abolition of suttee was forced on the peopleagainst their will; who knows that, to-morrow, alaw for the prevention of idol-worship would notbe thrust on the people under the pretext of re-form ? One injustice begets another. To allow thecontinuance of this system of interfering with re-ligion by means of laws made by aliens was tofollow the lifting of the sword of Aurangzeb. Andwhen the English had begun to take up the role ofAurangzeb, there was no other remedy than thatIndia must produce a Shivaji or a Guru Govind.And such was the usual impression all over In-dia. And with this idea the Christian missionariesbegan to strengthen themselves. In their streetpreachings at various places, they used to sayopenly that India would soon be Christainised.


45

When we wrote our Global Security andIntelligence Report last week on BaitullahMehsud and the Manawan attack, we had no in-tention that the piece would be part of a series,but several developments over the past week havecompelled us to once again write about Pakistan— and Mehsud and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) in particular.

First, on April 4, 2009eight paramilitary po-lice were killed in a suicide bombing against theircamp in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. Thisattack was the second suicide bombing inIslamabad in less than two weeks, and followedclosely on the heels of the March 23 attack onthe headquarters of the Police Special Branch inIslamabad. After the April 4 attack, one ofBaitullah Mehsud’s deputies, Hakimullah Mehsud(who, like Baitullah, is a member of the largeMehsud clan) contacted the press to claim creditfor the attack and threatened that the group wouldcarry out two suicide attacks per week in Paki-stan. According to press reports, HakimullahMehsud said: “We have shown enough restraint,previously, we were striking once in three months,but from now onward we will go for at least twosuicide attacks a week.”

On April 5, 2009 a suicide bomber attackeda Shiite mosque in Chakwal, a Punjab city locatedapproximately 50 miles southeast of Islamabad.The attack killed at least 22 people and injuredanother 35. About 2,000 people had gathered at

Tehrik-i-Taliban: A Specious Claim and Brash Threats

the mosque for Majlis Aza, an annual Shiite cel-ebration. The bomber reportedly detonated him-self when guards stopped him in the crowd at themosque’s front gate.

Umar Farooq, the spokesman of the shad-owy militant organization Fedayeen al-Islam (FI),called The Associated Press the same day to claimcredit for the Chakwal attack. Farooq said hisgroup staged the attack on the mosque as part ofa “campaign against infidels.”

Oddly, on April 4, Baitullah Mehsud (orsomeone claiming to be him) called Reuters toclaim responsibility for the April 3 shooting at aU.S. immigration center in Binghamton, NewYork. “They were my men,” the caller told theAP. “I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. droneattacks.” This claim was quickly discounted byeyewitness accounts of the shooting. Accordingto surviving victims and other witnesses, the

Fred Burton and Scott Stewart


46

Binghamton shooting was carried out by a lonegunman, Jiverly Voong, who was a Vietnameseimmigrant with no apparent links to Islam or theTaliban.Background on Mehsud

Before plunging into the Binghamtonclaims and threats to attack the continental UnitedStates, let’s take a quick look at the man behindthem, Baitullah Mehsud. As STRATFOR has pre-viously discussed, Mehsud, who is only in his mid-30s, is a member of a new generation of militantleaders in Pakistan’stribal badlands. As partof this new generation,Mehsud has endeavoredto systematically re-move or undermine theestablished tribal leadersin South Waziristan,usurping power and thussevering many of thetools of influence the Pakistani government heldin the region. This process of killing off the oldtribal leadership has been a significant contribut-ing factor to what we have previously referred toas the “Talibanization” of Pakistan. In some ways,Mehsud personifies the struggle between alQaeda and Pakistani intelligence organizations forinfluence and control of Afghan and Pakistanijihadists.

Since Mehsud operates largely outside ofits control, the government of Pakistan has cometo view Mehsud (and others like him) as a largerthreat to Pakistan than the Afghan Taliban or theforeign jihadists — like al Qaeda — that Mehsudconsiders allies. Indeed, Pakistan has long triedto play up the importance of Mehsud to the United

States and has been quite agitated that, until rela-tively recently, the United States was not target-ing Mehsud’s TTP organization. When the UnitedStates finally did turn its sights on Meshud andhis network, the TTP responded by launching at-tacks against the Pakistani authorities. Indeed,Hakimullah Mehsud said the group was steppingup the tempo of their attacks precisely becauseof the U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at-tacks directed against the TTP.

As we noted last week, although BaitullahMehsud tells journalists that he is ready to be

martyred, the UAV attacksagainst the TTP do pose avery real threat to him, andto the viability of his organi-zation. The scope of thisthreat is made evident bytheir response to the at-tacks.

However, there isalso another dynamic that threatens the TTP, andthat is the efforts of the Pakistanis and the Ameri-cans to try to split the nationalist militants fromthose who are more internationally focused. Thatis, split those groups who want to carry out jihadto create a transnational caliphate (like al Qaeda)from those groups whose primary interest is es-tablishing more localized control — like the Talibanin Afghanistan prior to the U.S. invasion. This ap-proach is very similar to the approach coalitionforces took in Iraq to separate al Qaeda in Iraqfrom the more nationalistic Sunni tribal militantsin places like Anbar province.

While the United States is attempting todivide the jihadists on the Afghan side of the bor-der, the Pakistanis are attempting to do the same

This process of killing off the old

tribal leadership has been a significant

contributing factor to what we have pre-

viously referred to as the “Taliba

nization” of Pakistan.


47

among those in Pakistan. If the Pakistanis andAmericans are able to split the more nationalistjihadists (like the Haqqani network) away fromthe more internationalist jihadists (like al Qaedaand the TTP) this could leave al Qaeda and theTTP isolated and far more vulnerable — which iswhy this process is seen as a threat by Mehsudand company. Indeed, divisions already exist withgroups like the Haqqani network, which opposesattacks inside Pakistan.Claims and Threats

Into this mix, Mehsud has injected threatsto hit the United States and has made the strangeclaim of credit for the Binghamton shooting. Let’sexamine the Binghamton claim first. We werequite surprised — and a bit embarrassed — tosee this claim come out only a couple of daysafter we wrote in our security weekly that aprominent militant leader like Mehsud did not haveto take credit for other people’s attacks, and thatlying about such things would hurt his already well-established reputation.

Initially, we thought that perhaps the claimwas some sort of psychological operation by thePakistanis or Americans designed to makeMehsud look like a fool or a nut. However, whendays passed and the TTP issued no retraction, itbecame apparent that Mehsud had actually madethe claim for some reason. Also, despite his care-fully crafted public image of never displaying hisface, Mehsud is a media animal, who, as his fre-quent calls to Reuters, The Associated Press andPakistani journalists testify, loves to see his namein print. With all the coverage surrounding theBinghamton claim, he undoubtedly was aware ofthe event. Had the claim been orchestrated by anintelligence agency seeking to discredit him, he

would have quickly denied it — just as he quicklydenied the claims that he was behind the assassi-nation of Benazir Bhutto.

As to the threat to attack the UnitedStates, one must use a two-step test: 1) Does theactor behind the threat possess the capability tocarry out the threatened action? and 2) Does theactor possess the intent to do so? When we lookat the capabilities of the TTP, the group has notdemonstrated the ability to operate as a

transnational organization. We have seen in-stances of grassroots-type jihadists elsewherewho were allegedly trained at TTP camps, butproviding paramilitary training to grassrootsjihadists is different from actually training and dis-patching operatives to conduct attacks on yourbehalf.

The technical skills and tradecraft requiredto conduct an act of terrorism are very differentfrom those needed to be an insurgent, and arevery different from the subjects taught in basicmilitary — or paramilitary — training. Even if thegrassroots operatives are trained in some of themore technical skills of terrorism such as bomb-


48

making, there are still important tradecraft skillsthat must be acquired and honed before a personcan become a successful transnational militant ca-pable of conducting acts of terrorism in a hostileenvironment. We define terrorist tradecraft as theset of subtle skills needed to maintain secrecy andoperate within a hostile environment. These skillsare foundational to the success of both the indi-vidual jihadist and his network anywhere, but theyare acutely critical while conducting transnationaloperations.

Merely being able to travel internation-ally with ease is something many guerrilla fight-ers cannot do. More refined tasks, such as con-ducting preoperational surveillance in a majormetropolitan area, maintaining secure communi-cations, establishing cover for status and coverfor action while undertaking operational activity,or acquiring weapons without arousing unwantedattention, are simply things not taught to mostguerrilla fighters, and they are skills that require agreat deal of practical training in order to master.

So far, the TTP has shown an ability tosuccessfully operate inside Pakistan and Afghani-stan, but its operations to date have been some-what rudimentary (like the Marawan attack) andhave not shown an advanced degree of nuanceor sophistication. Likewise, the group has not dem-onstrated the ability to train and dispatch opera-tives to a major western city like New York orLondon in order to conduct an attack. (Al Qaedahas demonstrated this ability but the TTP has not.)When all is said and done, employing an impro-vised explosive device manufactured at a campin Pakistan against a target in Pakistan is a farcry from employing it against a target in London.

Now, with regard to the second step ofthe test — intent. Is the TTP really planning tostrike Washington, D.C., New York and London?This is a question that almost every major intelli-gence and law enforcement agency in the Westbegan to focus on following Mehsud’s publicstatements in a January 2008 interview with AlJazeera that he wanted to attack the UnitedStates and the United Kingdom. “We pray to Godto give us the ability to destroy the White House,New York and London,” Mehsud said during theinterview. “And we have trust in God. Very soon,we will be witnessing jihad’s miracles.”

But does such a public statement — oreven his March 31 statement in which he threat-ened strikes against Washington, D.C. in re-sponse to U.S. UAV attacks — really translateinto intent? This is where the intent side of theequation gets very fuzzy. Merely stating that oneis going to do something is not necessarily a clearindication that there is real intent to do so.

Indeed, there is a good argument to bemade that if Mehsud truly intended to strike theUnited States or United Kingdom he would re-main silent about his aspirations in order to helpensure the operational security of any operativeshe has dispatched abroad to conduct such strikes.Certainly, Osama bin Laden did openly declarewar against the United States in August 1996 andagain in February 1998, but he never mentionedspecific targets in those declarations and wascertainly far more circumspect with his statementsas his operatives got closer to actually executingattacks. In fact, bin Laden even went so far as todeny responsibility for many of the early al Qaedaattacks and initially denied responsibility for the9/11 attacks.


49

CalculationsMehsud is neither stupid nor crazy. Such

people do not become major militant leaders atage 35 in the violent world of Pakistan’s tribalareas. He is clearly rational and quite Machiavel-lian. What he is doing, therefore, likely has somerational explanation beyond the fact that he likesto hear his name mentioned by the media. Whilethe threats against the United States and United

Kingdom may be explained away under the “me-dia debutante” rationale, unless Mehsud made aterrible miscalculation in taking credit for theBinghamton shooting, there must be some otheroverriding reason to risk damaging his reputationas a militant leader with a specious claim.

As seen by the U.S. reaction to the 9/11attacks, any successful large-scale attack onAmerican soil could have dire consequences forMehsud. Such a strike could, at the very least,serve to steel U.S. resolve to stay in Afghanistan,or it could motivate the United States to dramati-cally increase its focus on totally destroying theTTP. Additionally, if Mehsud is truly intent on hit-

ting the United States or United Kingdom, weshould see him begin to hit American and Britishtargets within his current operational sphere, i.e.,within Pakistan, before graduating to Americanand British targets overseas.

There is another possibility. PerhapsMehsud does not possess the intent to attackWashington, New York or London. Maybe histhreats — along with the Binghamton claim —are intended to scuttle the emerging U.S. strat-egy of dealing with factions of the Taliban in aneffort to divide them and isolate the more radicalelements.

If Mehsud does fear such a strategy —and he has reason to, following its successes inIraq — it is possible that his recent antics are aneffort to influence public perception inside theUnited States regarding the Taliban. As the UnitedStates reaches out to factions of the AfghanTaliban in an attempt to split them from al Qaeda,et al., Mehsud threatens the United States andattempts to link the Pakistani Taliban to a shoot-ing in Binghamton, New York. Even though thelink to the shooting was quickly and officially dis-counted, it is a safe bet that it will live on for along time as an urban legend or rumor, especiallyamong the more conspiracy-minded. Such per-ceptions are going to make the strategy of nego-tiating with any Taliban (Afghan or Pakistani)appear to be less tenable for many Americans.

At the same time, Mehsud could be usinghis rhetoric in an attempt to steer the more na-tionalist jihadists in Pakistan and Afghanistan to-ward his more transnational agenda. In any case,Mehsud’s efforts to shape opinion at home orabroad could explain his recent posturing, how-ever bogus or brash it might be.


50

Roots of the conflictIslamic religious leadership that defines

Islam’s power structure across the spectrum inSouth Asia sees it as an unfinished agenda of nothaving fully Islamized the region during the pe-riod when Muslims mostly ruled it. Now they ap-pear to be totally committed to Islamizing it. SinceIslam, as is practiced in South Asia doesn’t offera model of prosperity that attracts converts fromnon-Muslim faiths, they are using various formsof warfare (jihad) to marginalize and destroy theeconomic and security well-being of “infidels” andthen eventually force them to convert.

The evidence that this is the case can beinferred in many ways. Among the most glaringis the marginalization and massive ethnic cleans-ing of non-Muslims in every area of South Asiawhere Muslims have power – through majority

When are India and Pakistan ready for peace?Moorthy Muthuswamy

status. Even in areas where Muslims are in siz-able minority, their relationship with majority Hin-dus is conflict-prone and wrought with violence,mistrust and suspicion.

The “peace talks” between India and Pa-kistan does almost nothing to address Islam’spower structure within both India and Pakistanthat continues to sponsor and sustain the con-flict. That is why I have argued in my previouspapers why this move could turn out to be a cata-strophic blunder for India. It is Islam’s powerstructure that must be made progressive or neu-tralized in order for this conflict to be resolved.Islam’s power structure in Pakistan

Islam’s control of Pakistan is nearly com-plete. Pakistani textbooks are full of hateagainst non-Muslims and present a falsifiedhistory, while glorifying jihad. In mosques andmadarasas across Pakistan there are routinecalls and training for jihad. Any decision thatcould undermine Islam’s power structure is ve-toed away by the clerics who have influence overspectrum of the society. For instance, the wide-spread introduction of modern education at theexpense of “Islamic” education is carefully ne-gated by clerics as they realize such a step willresult in reduced clerical power, and undermin-ing the central role they play in the society.

The clerical influence is so extensive thatall institutions, including Pakistan’s military, comeunder its sphere of influence. Hence, there is noquestion of any of one taking a sustained adverseaction against Islam’s power structure in Pakistan.

Indian jihadists have used the strat-egy of exploiting the slogans such as secu-larism or human rights, a given under In-dian secular democracy, to push for variousforms of jihad at the expense of the major-ity community. Shahi Imam Bukhari, amongthe most retrogressive and fundamentalistMuslim clergy, - and the leading IndianMuslim cleric, deviously calls for uphold-ing secular values in the Indian context butcalls for imposition of Islamic values on allcitizens in nations where Muslims are in amajority. This is typical of the jihadi front’sstrategy in India.


51

Conclusion: Only an outside force canneutralize Islamic power structure in Pakistanthat has been using it to stage jihad againstIndia and the rest of civilization.Islam’s power structure within India

Muslim clergy that represent Islam’spower structure in India find themselves not be-ing able to totally dictate terms as in Pakistan dueto Indian Muslims’ minority status. However, theydo so in India’s only Muslim majority state Kash-mir, that is doing everything it can to cleanse it-self of its non-Muslim population, right underIndia’s very nose. It is notable that even in amultiethnic, secular and democratic India, thereexists no reformed version of Islam (ISLAMICINSTITUTIONS IN INDIA - Protracted Move-ment for Separate Muslim Identity?)!

The fundamentalist Muslim seminarieswithin India have been circumspect in not openlycalling for jihad on “infidel” Indians, — unlike theircounter parts in Pakistan, where Islam is the realpower broker.

However, Indian jihadists have used thestrategy of exploiting the slogans such as secu-larism or human rights, a given under Indian secu-lar democracy, to push for various forms of jihadat the expense of the majority community. ShahiImam Bukhari, among the most retrogressive andfundamentalist Muslim clergy, - and the leadingIndian Muslim cleric, deviously calls for uphold-ing secular values in the Indian context but callsfor imposition of Islamic values on all citizens innations where Muslims are in a majority. This istypical of the jihadi front’s strategy in India.

When the Pakistani regime decided to optfor peace-talks with India, there were very quickannouncements of all kinds of delegations con-sisting of lawmakers to journalists to movie starslined-up to visit Pakistan. Who was behind this

effort – certainly not Hindu organizations or eventhe government! Jihadi front groups inside Indiathat masquerade as “secular “, “human rights” or“peace” organizations were behind this effort.Pakistan strategies that by showing the greatPakistani “hospitality” to these distinguishedguests, Pakistan will be able to dictate the termsof “peace” with India. This shows that thejihadi network within India is very strong anddiverse – the idea of jihad is so entrenched thateven many well-educated and financially well offMuslims find themselves pulled towards it. Un-fortunately, there was no Hindu organization pow-erful enough to neutralize this devious move.

Many of these jihadi front organizationstoo have been responsible in making sure that Is-lamic extremism is not objectively discussed inthe Indian media — fearing adverse reactionamong the Indian public — by claiming that suchdiscussions would disturb peace and are commu-nal in nature. But these jihadis continue to pro-mote hateful, blatantly communal and retrogres-sive preaching and literature to Muslim masses.This is done toward only one goal: destruc-tion of an unprepared India through an esca-lating jihad.

The Indian media mostly consists ofpeople with humanities degrees achieved underthe tutelage of Marxist-oriented professors. In-dian Marxists are particularly known for lookingfor the almost nonexistent exploitation by Hinduupper class, but miss the exploitation andextremization of Indian Muslims by Muslim clergyand the big picture associated with Islamic ex-pansion in South Asia. Thus, in general, the In-dian media continues to be an unwitting friend ofjihadists and their frontal organizations and hasundermined India’s cause immensely (Journalists:Unwitting Friends of Jihadis?).


52

Even some Indian Muslim-controlled com-panies such as Wipro have stepped forward tohelp Pakistan, on the grounds that it actually helpsIndian Muslims (?), even as Pakistan’s jihadi struc-ture and the intent are still intact! Jihadi front or-ganizations within India are working overtime, try-ing to cleverly bail out Pakistan so that India coulddig its own grave by making Pakistan stronger. Thiscan’t and shouldn’t be allowed to continue.

Conclusion: Past Indian governmentshave continued to be ineffective in battling,let alone reversing Islamic extremism. If any-thing, they have lost valuable ground to theforces of fascism that have taken Muslim com-munities back many decades and escalated theconflict. What India needs is a counter forceby organizations representing the majoritycommunity that can neutralize Islam’s jihadipower structure within India.You are only as strong as your community

Being weakly institutionalized and theirreligious leadership not politicized, Hindus havefound themselves not being in a position to de-fend their community’s interests, — over and overagain. Eventually, this translates into inability toprotect property, freedom and even physicalsafety of family members.

This has happened in Fiji, where the na-tives egged on by the Church marginalized Hin-dus. This too has occurred in every Muslim ma-jority area of South Asia, including Indian Kash-mir. However, minority Muslim community in In-dia still has managed to increasingly dictate termsowing to Islam’s power structure that commandsmost Indian Muslims.

Within South Asia, not only the spaceavailable for Hindus to live in dignity continues toshrink, but the opportunities for progress are alsonot widespread, — even in India. India’s only

Muslim majority state, Kashmir,unsurprisingly, is waging a jihad against theIndian state. But many of its Muslim inhab-itants, who directly or indirectly sponsor thisjihad are being subsidized heavily. Theseresources actually come at the cost economicdevelopment in other Hindu majority states,with fewer of their children getting opportu-nities for progress and success in life. Thereare various forms of subsidies, such as “Haj” sub-

sidies, used to “satisfy” Indian Muslim commu-nity and increasing resources spent elsewhere inbattling Islamic fundamentalism.Hindus need organizations that representtheir interests

At the moment, jihadi front organizations,unwittingly supported by the Indian media and theLeft are having a field day in intimidating andundermining even a small attempt by the Indianstate to confront Islamic fundamentalism, — withno other non-governmental institution powerfulenough to challenge them. It must be clear bynow that it is a must for Hindus to have powerfulorganizations that promote and protect their in-terests. Such organizations wouldn’t have allowed


53

massive ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Muslimmajority areas of South Asia, and would havenever allowed Islamic fundamentalism to rise itshead this blatantly within India. Also, powerfulHindu organizations would have forced the In-dian media to be objective and fair in its presen-tation of India’s war on terror. Such an Indiawould indeed be very different!

Without such powerful organizations, Hin-dus are simply doomed in South Asia (India’sFuture: Trend should be a Friend). It is importantto take a note of the demographic trends. Re-cently, the Indian government refused to releasethe Muslim population percentage as part of the2001 census results, — merely stating that therelease of these results will lead to communalblood-bath. A safe inference appears to be thatMuslim population percentage far exceeded theprojections from previous decades!

Since at the moment there are only twomajor organizations, namely, RSS and VHP thatrepresent Hindus across the spectrum, I am go-ing to discuss their role.RSS and VHP must reformulate their strat-egy

I believe that Hindus can be mobilized andbrought together on two grounds: 1) Creating op-portunities for employment and economic devel-opment and 2) Fear of Islamic fundamentalism.These two issues are linked and both leads to onesource: Islamic fundamentalism. It has beenpointed out by many that India’s economic growthhas been shunted by its ongoing war with Islamicfundamentalists. I also discussed before how re-sources are being used to subsidize Muslims atthe expense of regions where most Hindus live.Muslim population percentage growth rate,escalation in Islamic terrorism, destabiliza-tion, and what happened to Hindus in every

Muslim majority area of South Asia, — in-cluding Kashmir, are indeed genuine humanrights and even, looming genocidal threat tothe current and future children of India. Allof this is extremely unfair, in light of partitioningof India already once in the name of Islam!

This is also the most modern and inclu-sive way of formulating the strategy that has thepotential to bring together not just most Hindus,but even some other religious entities under onebanner. The issues of security and economy cutacross the faultlines of Hinduism and its variouscastes, including educated, rich, poor and even

the middle class, much more so than even Hindureligion specific issues such as Ram temple inAyodhya. Once momentum is built using thisbanner, issues such as Ayodhya or Article370 or expelling illegal Bangladeshi Mus-lims can be easily resolved in a fair manner– as Hindus will be working to defend theirinterests.

It needs to be pointed out that India’s stra-tegic outlook towards Pakistan should be basedupon how Islam’s clerical power structure seesIndia and Hindus, and not the (temporary) feel-ings of warmth shown by Pakistanis these days.


54

There is no evidence indicating that this ultimatepower broker in Pakistan has changed its stripesvis-à-vis India.

Many people do not realize that Islam-based religious fascism doesn’t allow pluralismto flourish. Therefore, promoting a pluralistic In-dia calls for undermining religious fascism. Hinduorganizations must work to neutralize the jihadifront organizations within India and silence them.They must articulate, promote and work to makesure that majority community’s interests are imple-mented at the policy level by regimes in power.To do these activities effectively, they must gen-erate a much larger following among the Hindupublic. Here are some ideas below how this couldbe accomplished.The role of grievance in mobilization

Islamists around the world have used thebanner of Muslim “grievance” to mobilize andjustify war against infidel states and populations.But in Muslim majority countries they have per-formed most unthinkable and worst atrocitiesagainst non-Muslims. But many non-Muslimstates with large Muslim populations, that havegiven equal rights to its Muslim citizens, such asIndia, are being accused of “repression” and “ex-termination” of Muslims, while the Islamic fas-cists continue to indoctrinate these Muslims towage jihad against such states. These Islamistshave successfully exploited the allegation Mus-lim “grievance” to spread fascism around theworld.

For Hindus too grievance can be a pow-erful mobilizing tool. Hindus have genuine land,cultural, religious, economic and security griev-ance against the sponsors Islamic fascism andterror. Each and every grievance (New Ideas fora New War) Hindus have in the hands of Islamic

fundamentalism in South Asian context must bediscussed and well-publicized. Doesn’t that in-crease tensions between Hindus and Muslims? Itdoes, in the short run. However, in the long run, itmakes Muslims too realize that they have beenduped by many of their clergy into waging a never-ending jihad and driven to poverty, and makespossible genuine reform of Indian Islam, whenthere is none (ISLAMIC INSTITUTIONS ININDIA - Protracted Movement for SeparateMuslim Identity?)! Also, it prepares the majoritycommunity mentally, for the first time, to prevailin this long war imposed on them.

Let me present an analogy here: Thesmallpox was eradicated by educating the public,mobilizing the public and then systematically vac-cinating the public.

It is OK, or even necessary for Hindus toget angry upon hearing how they have been sys-tematically marginalized by Islamic extremism andmany opportunities taken away. Anger at the en-emy or even hating the enemy is an emotionalmechanism the human body has to activate in orderto fight back effectively. An India without an-ger and concern is an India that is unpre-pared to win this war.

SummaryTo achieve peace and prosperity in South

Asia, the roots of the conflict – Islam’s extremistpower structure — must be addressed. In the caseof India, the majority community must developorganizations capable of reforming, neutralizingthis power structure and even liberate IndianMuslims. Otherwise, as the past trend has shown,India will be civilizationally destroyed by this on-going war. Pakistan needs an external interven-tion, as religious fascism is too entrenched therefor it to be dismantled internally.


55

All auto biographies are very very in-teresting, especially of those who are captainsof industry, great business men, statesmen andeven politicians. The Birla family played an en-viable and great role in the freedoms struggle ofIndia not by going to jail but by placing its finan-cial resources for the Congress party. Ganhijiand Sardar Patel always stayed in the Birla Housein New Delhi. K.K Birla is the son ofGhanasyam Das Birla, the patriarch of that family.

The Birlas founded great educational in-stitutions in Pilani, a mere village in the midst ofalmost a desert. It is now a premier educationalinstitution - BITS . It has got statutory recogni-tion. Admissions are by an all India on-line com-petitive test . There are absolutely no reserva-tions based either by caste or religion. It hasestablished three more campuses in Dubai, Goaand Hyderabad .

Sri K.K. Birla reveals a very interestingintervention of Indira Gandhi in regard to ad-missions to BITS Pilani. Her Secretary went oninsisting on Sri K.K. Birla to admit the son of afriend or benefactor of Indira Gandhi. He re-sisted . The Secretary’s insisted that it wasIndiraji’s unavoidable request. Sri Birla met withIndiraji and explained to her that in the rules andthe Charter , there is absolutely no provision forany discretionary admission. She asked him

Brushes with History(An autobiography by Krishna Kumar Birla)

Foreword by Sonia Gandhi

Published by Penguin, Price Rs. 650 /-; Pages: 665

Dr T.H.Chowdary

whether even he could not do anything in re-spect of even a single seat. Sri Birla concludedthat she was insistently wanting that a particularperson should be admitted. He had a brilliant idea.He suggested to her that he would amend thecharter to provide for five seats to be nominatedby the Prime Minister of India and then added ,“ Madame! you will then get 500 recommenda-tions. You will have to displease 495 people.Now the choice is yours. Shall I amend the rules?”Indiraji understood the difficulty and gave up herdemand for admission of the son of her benefac-tor. This shows how shrewed business men are .

Sri K.K Birla reveals a very interestingview point of Sri G.D. Birla, his father and finan-cier of Congress. He was very close to Ma-hatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and SardarPatel. All of them respected his integrity andpatriotism and without involving him in directpolitical movements, benefited from hismunificences for funding the Congress and fromhis wisdom. The Muslim League’s demand forthe partition of India and for the creation of Pa-kistan was a very troublesome affair. Dr. B. R.Ambedkar and Rjaaji were convinced and pub-licly advocated that division was in the interestof India, and Hindus. They also suggested thatalong with the division, there should be totalexchange of minority population between the

Book Review


56

two countries. Even Md. Ali Jinnah wanted theexchange but Gandhiji and Nehru dogmaticallyresisted the partition unto the last moment, June1947, six weeks before independence was to begranted. As there was strong opposition from asection of the AICC to partition, Gandhiji him-self had to go to the AICC to plead with the Con-gress to accept the partition which was purely onthe basis of religion and the two-nation theory.In this connection, Sri K.K. Birla reveals theletter that Sri G.D.Birla wrote to Mahatnma Gandion this issue.. On the 13 of Jan 1942 Sri Birlawrote to Mahatma Gandhi .

“Any partner in a business, if he is notsatisfied with the partnership, I suppose , has aright to demand separation. The separation ofcourse has to be on an equitable basis; but I cannot conceive how anybody would object to it.It is no doubt a very gigantic affair and may notperhaps in practice be found an easily workableproposition. But it is all the more necessarythen that we should not show our reluctancein offering the solution on which the Muslimsinsist. I would of course make a condition thatthey will get only what is their due and wherewe disagree a machinery constituted for the pur-pose will decide about the alignment of the newfrontier and the exchange of populations if thatbe necessary .”

India is paying very dearly for thethoughtless, unwise, arbitrary and unreasonableopposition of Gandhi and Nehru and the Congressto the partition of India till the last moment andthereafter, refusing the exchange of population.While all Hindus and Sikhs and Buddhists hadbeen expelled from Pakistan ( and later on fromBangladesh) the Muslims in India who rejected

the Congress and went on rioting and voting forthe division of the country stayed put here multi-plying from 9% to between 15% to 20% and stri-dently reviving the separatism, communalismand communal riots, all intent to assert that theyare not part of the Indian nation. “Secular” par-ties in their greed for their votes are competingwith one another to appease Muslims, going tothe extent of planning to create about 90 Muslimmajority districts within the country by speciallyallocating 15% of the 11th Five- year plan fundsto convert these 90 districts which at present haveabout 25% Muslim population into full majorityMuslim districts which will ultimately become asmany Pakistans.

Another relation is about fund-raising forCongress. The Congress (I) applied itself to find-ing ways and means for raising funds from thepeople. The problem was how to raise funds frombusinessmen. Knowing my sympathy for theparty and my close association with Indirajhi, sherequested me to raise funds for the elections.Ramaprasad Goenka who is a leading industrial-ist and friend of mine also got associated withme in this task. Under the Companies Act, com-panies were debarred from giving any donationsto political parties. I felt that if the law would bechanged, I could approach companies whosemanagements were pro-Congress for donations.The Company Law Board gave me some clarifi-cations but it did not satisfy me. I explained theposition to Indiraji. Giving donations to politicalparties on behalf of the corporate sector wastherefore out.

“ Meanwhile, the All India CongressCommittee (AICC) had decided to bring outninety special souvenirs in all the important re-


57

gional languages. In addition, the Pradesh Con-gress Committees also decided to bring out theirown souvenirs. Advertising in the souvenirs wasnot illegal. I consulted some of the leading solici-tors who concurred within this view. I satisfiedmyself on this point, Rama and myself undertookthe task in right earnest without however puttingpressure on anyone ”.

( page 179, “Brushes with History” Anautobiography by Krishna Kumar Birla)

Sri Birla reveals how Indiraji commis-sioned him to collect funds for the post-Emer-gency 1977 elections to the Lok Sabha.

After the Emergency was lifted Indirajiannounced elections and she and her son andher party were routed. Chaudhury Charan Singh,as the Janata Home Minister decided to perse-cute and prosecute Indiraji and all those whoraised funds for her and her crony governmentofficers (incidentally, Navin Chawla the present

Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi is oneof her cronies whom the Shah Commission se-verely strictured observing that he was unfit forany government post). Chaudhury Charan Singhzeroed on K.K. Biral for raising huge amountsfor Indira. He was wanting to arrest him andprosecute him. His passport was to be impounded.Sri Atal Behari Vajpay, the then Foreign Ministerwas uncomfortable about witch-hunting thatChaudhury Charan Singh was waging. He se-cretly tipped off K.K.Birla and advised him toleave the country to escape the arrest and pros-ecution. Sri Birla pays a grateful tribute to Ataljifor his magnanimity.

Sri K.K. Birla’s autobiography is very in-teresting, informative and illuminating as to howthe nexus between political parties and rich busi-ness Houses works some times in the interest ofthe country and sometimes in the interest of afamily and dynasty.

H.H.S.A.R.Prasanna Venkatachariar Chatruvedi Swami In the Advisary Board

We are pleased to announce that Sri Chatruvedi Swamiji is gracious enough

to be in the advisary board of our magazine, Bharatiya Pragna.

He is a spiritual leader of the highest order, leading thousands of followers by

carrying forward the values and principles, as propounded and promoted by the Great

Saint Sri Ramanujacharya.

He is a scholar in abstract theories and postulations of the Upanishads and also

modern technological topics.

Swamiji is an excelent orator and he had organized, supported and partici-

pated in at least in 200 conferences on various topics.

We intend to publish his articles on Indian Culture etc in our coming issues.

- Editor


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Crimes Against India: and the Need to Protect itsAncient Vedic Tradition

by Stephen Knapp

Book Review by David Frawley (Vamadeva Shastri)

Hinduism remains the most attacked andunder siege of all the major world religions. Thisis in spite of the fact that Hinduism is the mosttolerant, pluralistic and synthetic of the world’smajor religions. Hindu gurus have more than anyother religious teachers in the world tried to findan underlying unity of religion to create peace inhumanity. Yet though Hindu gurus have called forrespect for all religions, leaders of other religionshave not responded in kind by offering any re-spect for Hinduism. Instead they have continuedto promote their missionary agendas and plan theconversion of India to their beliefs.

Why is Hinduism still so much a target ofmissionaries and the media? It is really verysimple. Hinduism is the largest of the non-con-version, non-proselytizing religions and so offersthe greatest possibilities for conversion. It is thevulnerability of Hinduism that makes it a target,not the fact that Hindus are trying to convert orconquer the world for some hostile belief. After Christianity and Islam, Hinduism isthe world’s largest religion and the largest of thenon-Biblical traditions. India, where most Hindusreside, has the most open laws allowing in for-eign religious groups. While missionaries are vir-tually banned in China and in Islamic countries, inIndia they are often tolerated, respected and givena wide scope of activity. Since Christianity is indecline, particularly in Europe, it has a need tofind new converts for which India is one of main

potential locations, particularly as a comparativelyhigh percentage of Hindu converts are willing tobecome priests and nuns. Pope John Paul II in atrip to India some ten years ago spoke directly oflooking for a “rich harvest of souls in the thirdmillennium in Asia”, specifically India.

Yet most Hindus and groups sympatheticto them are not aware of this “siege on Hindu-ism” that continues unrelenting as part of the multi-national missionary business. In this context, thebook of Stephen Knapp, Crimes Against India:and the Need to Protect its Ancient Vedic Tra-dition, is very timely, well written and well docu-mented. The siege on Hinduism has been goingon since the first Islamic armies and Christian mis-sionaries entered India as he clearly delineatesand has continued in various forms, violent, sub-versive or even charitably based.

While people know the history of thegenocide of the Jews by the Nazis, the greaterand longer genocide of Hindus by Islamic invad-ers is hardly noticed. Even the genocide in theBangladesh War of 1971, in which most of theseveral million killed were Hindus, is not acknowl-edged as a religious genocide. While people knowthe history of the Inquisition and the burning ofwitches in Europe and the genocide of NativeAmericans by Christian invaders, they don’t re-alize that India has a similar history in parts of thecountry like Goa. Knapp fills in these gaps andmakes these connections.

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More importantly, people don’t realize thatquestionable conversion tactics are still being usedin India today, where in the South, the rate of-fered for conversion is around twenty thousandrupies, going up and down with the economy! Theyalso don’t realize that it is now AmericanEvangelicals of the Jerry Falwell and PatRobertson line — the religious right that broughtGeorge Bush to power — that is spearheadingconversion activity and church building in SouthIndia, pouring billions into the country. Yet Knapp’s book is not just written tomake us aware of this assault on Hinduism andits many dangers. He also provides a way for-ward, showing how Hindu Dharma can be re-vived, better taught, better communicated andmore widely shared with the global audience,which is becoming progressively more receptiveto Hindu teachings of Yoga, Vedanta and respectfor nature. He documents the Hindu renaissanceand the modern Hindu movement, which thoughsmall is growing rapidly as a Hindu response to

this denigration of its venerable traditions. Heshows that Hindus are not responding in terms ofbecoming another intolerant, exclusivist mission-ary cult. They are organizing themselves in termsof teaching, service and spiritual practices.

The book is well worth reading and willshow any open minded person the Hindu side ofa millennial debate on religion that has so farlargely excluded the Hindu point of view. ThatKnapp is a western born Hindu adds to his cred-ibility and conviction. He is not simply defendinga tradition handed down by his family or his cul-ture, but one that he has embraced from deepspiritual conviction and profound inner experience.One hopes that readers in India will listen to hisvoice and that those outside of the country willrecognize the Hindu plight along with the otherforms of oppression going on in the world. Reli-gious minorities at a global level are still under theassault of religious majorities, which have longbeen armed with petrodollars, high technology andcontrol of the media. Yet as the book demon-strates, the tide is beginning to turn.

Kudos! Apex CourtChandan Mitra

The supreme Court has done the right thing in recommending on leaders of political partieswho call for bandhs, hartals and agitations that result in large-scale destruction of public and privateproperty but escape punishment by staying in the background should be held responsible. The apexcourt has said that damages should be claimed from such leaders and the way to do it would be tosuitably amend the provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, to make suchleaders guilty of abetment of the offence.

These changes in the law have been felt necessary as it has been observed that some politicalleaders instigate bandhs on the slightest pretext, and often allow rowdy elements among their support-ers to get out of hand and destroy public and private property.

Public property, such as buses, trains or public buildings, are a shared resource whose destruc-tion serves no purpose. Also, bandhs that degenerate into plain hooliganism are taken advantage of bycriminals to ransack and loot public property. Genuine leaders who speak for the interests of themasses and devote their lives to public service will never indulge in such behaviour. Therefore, theSupreme Court deserves praise for suggesting changes in the law which should be made as soon aspossible to curb the menace of destructive, unwanted agitations.


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Bofords story is a lie?Sir,

It is blatantly a fraudulent misuse of powerby Sonia Gandhi and Law Minister Bharadwaj toget the CBI remove the global red alert againstQuottrocchi in order to somehow protect him nowas they fear losing the elections. It is well known,(as published in the media), that just because thethen internationally respected PM, MrP.V.Narasimha Rao simply said ‘let the court takeits own course’ when she ‘ordered’ him to with-draw the Bofors’ case in the court, she not onlyhumiliated even his dead body in Delhi but alsocaused such humiliation by her shoe-lickers in

Hyderabad too, which even the meanest of themean gutter culture would not think of. Further,she went to the extent of committing the treach-erous act of clandestinely getting Q’chi’s lootblocked in London bank defrozen even withoutthe knowledge of the Ministers concerned, ar-ranging it in such a way that Q’chi reached thebank at the same time secretly (lest he be ar-rested under the red alert), withdrew the entireamount within minutes of the release and flewback to Italy. In the background of these eventswhich expose her greater concern for her Italianfriend than for the country she rules (by acci-dent), the averment of the CBI spokesman thatits decision was based on the advice of the Attor-

Vox Populli

Congress bureau of Investigation

Sir,Enforcement agencies in the world can

take a leaf out of the CBI how best to let a swin-dler off the hook . The latest is its decison toremove Italian business Ottavio Quatrocchi fromthe list of wanted . Not long ago it gave a cleanchit to Jagdish Tytler in Delhi riots case.Rajiv Gandhi lost power owing to financial mis-deeds of his government in the Bofors and thisItalian businessman was allowed to flee the coun-try when P.V.Narsimha Rao was in power . CBIhalf hearted attempts after his arrest in Argen-tina and allowed to take the money afterdefreezing the same would even put worst ofthe investigators to shame.

Investigative journalism was redefined inthe Bofors issue and many reporters were hon-ored for their impeccable track record inunravelling the mystery but alas CBI shameless act of letting him off the hook will be last nail inthe coffin of the judicial process in the Boforsscandal. This investigative agency is indeed theCongress Bureau of Investigation.

- Vani Nagaraj

ney General (read Law Min.) and the statementof the former Director of CBI that there arebundles of documents supplied by the Swiss bankand brought by him personally, both with the CBIand the Govt., is it not a blatant lie that the Govt.has no role in the decision of the CBI? Or doesthe Law Minister mean to say that the entire roleis that of Sonia Gandhi alone? Or does he thinkthat the Indian publics are forgetful idiots as doesthe kid Rahul who decrees that the whole Boforesstory is a lie?

- S.L. Sastry, Hyderabad

B.PRAGNA May 09

Documents

Transcript of B.PRAGNA May 09