The Problem Is Politics

These are excerpts from an editorial of daily greater Kashmir.
"Kashmir has been turned into a huge prison where everyone is under arrest. It's going bad to worse. As a consequence of it, public suffers. Infact the curfew and the governor's administration have become synonymous. The curfew is imposed all over the Kashmir valley when Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh or Congress chairperson has to visit some border area or some town near the LoC more than hundred kilometers away from the city of Srinagar city or other major towns. People are forced to remain indoors if some political humbug representing some political party that has not even an office in Kashmir addresses some hirelings inside some house behind the sandbag bunkers. It has been three to four days curfew in a week in the Kashmir valley ever since the governor administration took over. More than seven million Kashmiris have been virtually imprisoned for the past four months. The life of the people has been made miserable on all counts. The closure of shops and business establishments has hit the economy of the people. Scores of the daily-wage-earners, the smalltime pavement vendors, hawkers, cart pullers and laborers are living a famished life. The unprecedented and unnecessary curfews have been affecting the academic career of tens of thousands of student. Many students failed to reach the examination halls because of the sudden imposition of the curfew. The sick failing to reach the hospitals and succumbing are routine stories. The imposition of unnecessary and undeclared curfew in Kashmir is not just an administrative arrangement for preventing any disturbances but it smacks of some conspiracy against the Kashmir economy. Some unscrupulous elements infamous for hating Kashmir have been deriving sadistic pleasure by pacing Kashmir valley unnecessarily under curfew. The government in office is yet to explain what prompts it to place the Kashmir valley continuously under curfew. There is no war like or alarming law and order situation at present that would necessitate restricting people to their homes. Placing Kashmir under permanent curfew is no administrative efficiency but failure. The situation as obtains in the state in the wake of the imposition of the curfew for about past five months is the not only biggest human rights violation but grave crime against humanity that has no precedence. The situation as obtains not only deserves attention by the international human rights organization but a condemnation by every conscious and conscientious citizen of the world."

Don't forget that we are approaching December 17th the anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh, which ended the bengali Muslim genocide. The Pakistani Army calls itself a ' Muslim' Army, but it had no compunction in butchering 3 million Bengali Sunni Muslims. Shias and Ahmediyas are fair game in Pakistan, which is why Iran is anti Pakistan. Please google 'Bangladeshi Genocide 1971' and read whicever links that you trust. The sad part is after claiming the world record for murdering the highest number of Muslims , the Pakistani Army claims Islamic credentials. How can they be Islamic?

Sonia Gandhi expressed her outrage over the nov 26 events in mumbai and sent out a strong message to her party that they cannot afford any more to sit back and allow such events to happen . Her tone smacked of an aloofness associated with queens and empresses, and as if she had no role to play . All the culprits in the whole disaster were directly appointed by her and it happened during her watch . That they were selected for reasons other than competence is another matter . In spite of grave internal and external threats which have been evident for a long time , she chose to appoint sycophants rather than competent persons. Snooping on her rivals in the party and outside using the intelligence machinery took precedence over national security .
She is carefully cultivating her image as a empress of some sort choosing the international leaders she would meet and getting them to call on her . Her photograph with her family attending a royal family wedding in Bhutan is all part of this exercise .the tax paying public is paying for advertisements promoting her .
The nation is paying a heavy price for this exercise in vanity . Why the Indian media panders to this incompetent , undereducated , ill-equipped lady is beyond comprehension .
She rules by dispensing patronage and distributing plum, lucrative portfolios to allies and shutting her eyes to rampant curruption . The political class may play along because it suits them; but the media is expected to ask questions and be objective. ???enough is enough???. krishnan nair , chennai

I like to share my views as a NRI with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Dr. Singh, Mr. L.K. Advani and Mr Chitambrham after this Mimbai Carnage. I shall be obliged if I can get their e-mail id's to convey the same to them. Regards, Basu.

India treated Israel as untouchable, with behaviour that would put Arabs to shame, which policy was reversed by Hindu BJP. Gandhi supported Khilafat movement in middle-east. Nehru-Gandhis took direct orders from Soviets, chasing a communist and socialist internationalist agenda that sought to undermine Hindus. India was the first country to ban Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Indian history was rewritten with a Marxist anti-Hindu slant. Marxist feminists betrayed old Shabano; Rajiv Gandhi reversed Court judgement in favour of reactionary Muslim sentiment! Indian Industry, and the Indian middle classes have been surging forward once the Soviet-inspired iron control was liberalised in the '90s. The BJP PM also made diplomatic efforts towards friendship with Pakistan, which were undermined through the Kargil invasion, and its continuation of the Islamist agenda of bleeding India through a thousand cuts. Indian Muslim is deeply divided because of false electoral posturings of the Communists and Congress allies, and Marxist academia, Media, and ???human rights???. These groups continue to eat out of Sonia's hand, both displaying a common hate-Hindu platform! BJP brought in nuclear scientist APJ Kalam, a Muslim, as the President of India. Inspite of broad-based popular support, he was replaced by a Congress Party politician and Sonia loyalist! The backward Indian Muslims are governed by a narrow Mullah-Madrassa culture. This is pan-Islam phenomenon. States with large Muslim populations are the most backward in all of India! Those who have accessed freedoms guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, are visible as leaders in industry, media, and the security set-up, but they are irrrelevant to the Muslim majority. Also note that Indian Imams began issuing fatwas against terrorism only after Lal Masjid attack in Islamabad! India is the only nation to pay Muslims on Haj pilgrimage! International observers have been utterly misled by a small core group of Christian Marxist intelligentsia. This is the overall anomaly that has led to the confusion witnessed in India.

Additionally, the Media is also accused as being partisan, and lacking in basic journalist ethics in coverage of news of national importance. The Indian English-language national media is as centralised and authoritarian as Indian politicians, and not answerable to anyone, arrogating to itself the role of kingmaker. It is not sensitive to the middle ground of Indian opinion! The untenable situation for Kandahar exchange of hostages for terrorists (which eventually led to some participating in 9/11 and also the Daniel Pearl killing and Parliament attack) was the pressure put on the Government through high melodrama especially by the electronic media in Delhi! This, and many subsequent event that have led to a corrupt and arrogant media are a matter of record!

The reason is that the Congress Party is ruled with an iron first by Sonia Gandhi, a rank outsider, who has absolutely no idea of the subtle nuances of Indian history and culture, bringing a very simplistic understanding to serious issues, under the advice of a basically non-Hindu coterie! Her very presence at the helm of government and political affairs may be technically within Constitutional framework at this point (and not initially) has led to a very vitiated atmosphere in Indian politics, where relations betwen leaders of various parties is considered. This rot began with the dictatorial rule of Indira Gandhi, and spun out of control under Sonia, who is now identified by the majority middle ground populace as being anti-Hindu, anti-India. Her simplistic prescriptions on tackling terror have serious undermined Indian security agencies. The ousted Home Minister, who she had protected over a long period of disaffection against him, is mere scapegoat for wrong policies and political strategies asserted by Sonia in handling grievous terrorist attacks.

Shekhar Gupta has chose not to mention one more important point. The BJP government with LK Advani as Home Minister allowed its minister Jaswant Singh to escort dreaded terrorists locked in jails and hand over as ransom to Terrorists at the Khandahar airport for the release of IC 814's Hijacked passengers. This gave the signal to all India had weak politicians which had only one desire: to stay in the news...India should stop talking read barking about Pakistan and ISI's role and start acting (read attacking teh Pok terrorist camps)..The time is now.Nitin Mathur in New Delhi

"OBAMA "HAS HIS DREAM TEAM""(eddiewhere 2008).. I am surprise that no one has used this term. I am sure I will hear it tomorrow. OBAMA HAS SELECTED HIS DREAM TEAM. THIS TEAM HAS ALL STAR CREDENTIALS. EACH OF THEM ARE HALL OF FAMERS. HILLARY, GATES, RAHM.
HOPEFULLY, THIS DREAM TEAM WILL KEEP THEIR EYES ON THE REAL THREAT RUSSIA AND CHINA. These two countries have already launched a very successful CYBER WAR against AMERICA. They are able to spy on our networks and steal our technological secrets and our patented software.
RUSSIA, INDIA AND CHINA ARE THE SUPERPOWERS OF THAT SIDE OF THE WORLD. They are the key to a multinational strategy. Managing these realtionships is like walking a tight rope(eddiewhere 2008). China and India are always at odds and have a delicate relationship to say the least. I know ZaKaria wrote an article on this relationship six months ago. He needs to write another one.
Another situation that needs to be monitored closely is ORGANIZED CRIME IN EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, ESPECIALLY when it comes to cyber crime and nuclear weapons. These Eastern European countries are a potential conduit for passing NUKES to terrorists.

These Terrorists will be based in the Five MUSLIM breakaway REpublics in Central ASIA( Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistanan) . They can potentially form an alliance with China, who has a long history of strained relationships with INDIA. To the MUslims India is an enemy and a traitor. Remeber how Hitler rose to power, a depressed economy in EUROPE. THESE REPUBLICS in Central Asia have all the same elements.. Russia and CHina will form an alliance based on their mutual FRICTION with INDIA(WHO IS CHALLENGING TO BE THEY PREMIER SUPERPOWER IN ASIA).

LOOSE NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS IS A BIG PROBLEM BECAUSE ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS IN EASTERN EUROPE CAN GAIN ACCESS to them and sell them to terrorists.
THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE 5 MUSLIM STATES IN CENTRAL , AND CHINA IS A Big Threat.

"OBAMA IS NOW THE WORLD"S FIRST PRESIDENT" eddiwhere 2008.. CAN HE SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE RELATIONSHIPS WITH RUSSIA AND CHINA INORDER TO PREVENT THESE FIVE MUSLIM REPUBLICS FROM SLIPPING DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO ECONOMIC DEPRESSION. ONCE AGAIN REMEMBER HOW HITLER ROSE TO POWER A DEPRESSED ECONOMY IN GERMANY WHO WAS TORCHERED ECONOMICALLY AFTER WORLD WAR ONE BY THE ALLIES RUSSIA, FRANCE AND BRITAIN. RUSSIA IS DOING THE SAME TO ITS FORMER REPUBLICS UKRAINE ect.....

OBAMA IS LIKE THE COACH OF THE DREAM TEAM(BASKETBALL) TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT HE HAS A PLAN TO MAKE JORDON, BIRD AND MAGIC WORK TOGETHER AS ONE FORCE TO THEIR FULL POTENTIAL. OR LEBRON, KOBY AND PAUL PIERCE. I AM SURE HE CAN AND WILL DO JUST FINE AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE THE ENVY OF THE WORLD AGAIN.

OBAMA HAS HIS DREAM TEAM AND ALL THE TOOLS FOR A MUCH NEEDED GLOBAL STRATEGY.

P.S. REMEMBER BARAK YOUR BLACKBERRY HAS ALREADY BEEN HACKED.

Absolutely bang on!!! Congress has to realize that no one is appeased because of its spineless neglect of terrorists. The BJP has to stop this extremely harmful backing of anti-Muslim sentiment in India and its toxic incitement of an angry majority. The incident in Gujarat and the Bajrang Dal's action in Orissa have really undermined my confidence that the BJP can make any minority feel safe in the country. I am deeply disappointed in them and the utter lack of leadership that the Congress is suffering from.
It is deeply despicable that these two major parties are using the dead officers as their party heroes. They both are responsible for this state of affairs, one by their pseudo-appeasement and the other by their irresponsible fascism. They are the reason we have lost honourable police and military personnel in combat. Shame on both parties. Can't we have someone who will govern us with fairness and with strength. Is it too much to expect one upright politician in a land of a billion?

Hi,

In the last weeks attack on Mumbai, if you see the dead people???s names, majority of them are Muslims. Since this is the HAJ time, people came to Mumbai to goodbye their relatives for HAJ. Many of the Muslims have been killed on CST station and many other places.

As per the communication is going on about support of Muslims to this terror attack, which is totally baseless.

Objectives of this terror attack :-
The objective of attack was not to kill Hindu or Muslim, it was just to kill Indians and destroy our economy.
To disrepute entire Muslim community in the world.

All Muslims should understand the objective of terrorist and provide as much as co operation to police.

This is my humble request to police to behave in correct way with Indian Muslims while questioning.

Regards,
Ashpaq

Parakshop and Karan

'60 people (including women, children and hindu pilgrims who were supporting Ram Temple) were burnt alive' so this is justificition enough for the cold-blooded genocide of more than a thousand Muslims. Right? Thousands of innocent people killed because of some thug, who may not even have been a Muslim.

Interestingly, similar justifications are given for the forceful displacement of tens of thousands of Christians in Orissa in the last few months . These poor Christians too were tageted with a vengence by Hindu mobs because some priest' was killed apparently by a 'Chrisrian'..

It is disgusting the extent to which some people can stoop to condone the action of blood thirsty Indian zeolots.

USA must stay out of this "TWO COUNTRIES BITTER RIVALY CONFLICTS" ,USA must start to adopts RIGHT foreign policy ,As the Real VICTIMS facing the Average Americans facing Invisible enemy of DEVILS either the India Nationalist Terrorist or Pakistan Terrorist .This the same Policy goes with Middle -East with Israelis-Palestine Conflicts.....

It is not just the politics. India also lacks integrity, aptitute and unity. Another major factor is that India has two systems, one hopelessly legal and the other reliably corrupt.

Shekhor Gupta, I did never like your writing in Indian EXpress; but this one looks nice eXcept not mentioning the background of Gujrat riot, which Karan has eXplained well in his comment. We have the enemy within; like Lalu, Prakash Karat, Muliyam Singh, Amar, etc. If you read Somini SenGupta's writing in NYT, you will feel that the columnist is from Pakistan. They very rerely mention about Mumbai massacre by Doud in 1993. They say Gujarat riot but do not mention, before the riot, 60 people (including women, children and hindu pilgrims who were supporting Ram Temple) were burnt alive. Can you imagine, Hindus burnt same # of Muslim in the train countries like Saudi Arabia? Mr. Gupta, you have no idea about islamic fascism or you are lying. Only God can save india and the Hindus. Karan pl. eXpose these (Shekhor) type communists and use internet to give the right perspective.

What a refreshing read. Kudos to Newsweek for such a balanced analysis that does not pander to Indian xenophobes.

This is for specially my American friends, who have read this article. Gupta has painted an incomplete and twisted picture of political affairs in India. I would like to mention some points, which I think, have been deliberately overlooked by the columnist, Shekhar GUpta.

Hindus in India have traditionally voted for Congress party. But Congress took them for granted and brainwashed masses by portraying Congress leaders and Muslim kings as the only true leaders of India. Every city of India has a road or a stadium in the Gandhis, the family which controls the Congress party. Even the government schemes for masses are named only in the name of Congress party leaders. Turning point came in 1980s when in the name secularism, Congress party crossed the limits by subverting a Supreme Court judgement by enacting a law through the Parliament to appease the Muslims. And what was that for? To deny approximately $3 a month alimony to a 62 year old Muslims lady because the Muslim clergy saw it against Islam. Please goole up Shan Bano case. Muslims in India have their own separate laws, for instance, they can have multiple wives. There is no common personal law in India. Hindus have been demanding that there be a uniform civil code for everybody. It is this preferential treatment to the Muslims minorities, which has aggravated the situation and Hindus strated putting their faith and votes for the so called Hindu nationalist party. But even now, a substancial portion of Hindu population votes for Congress party.

Gupta also fails to mention that the 2002 riots were spontaneous, in which Hindus were also killed. They happened because 60 Hindu pilgrims, mostly comprising of women and children, were burnt alive in a train. He also fails to mention that the mainstream media in India, makes hero out of terrorists and gangsters by giving them front page coverage and by publishing their interviews. Media also ran a shrill campaign against the chief minister of a Guajarat state and its police for killing a terrorist in a police encounter. English language media in India is more concerned about the human rights of terrorists than that of citizens killed by terrorists. Gupta's newspaper, Indian Express, is well known in India giving slanted coverage in favor of one political party, Congress, which is not heading the present coalition, UPA.

I expected better from Newsweek then publishing pure propaganda.

This is for specially my American friends, who have read this article. Gupta has painted an incomplete and twisted picture of political affairs in India. I would like to mention some points, which I think, have been deliberately overlooked by the columnist, Shekhar GUpta.

Hindus in India have traditionally voted for Congress party. But Congress took them for granted and brainwashed masses by portraying Congress leaders and Muslim kings as the only true leaders of India. Every city of India has a road or a stadium in the Gandhis, the family which controls the Congress party. Even the government schemes for masses are named only in the name of Congress party leaders. Turning point came in 1980s when in the name secularism, Congress party crossed the limits by subverting a Supreme Court judgement by enacting a law through the Parliament to appease the Muslims. And what was that for? To deny approximately $3 a month alimony to a 62 year old Muslims lady because the Muslim clergy saw it against Islam. Please goole up Shan Bano case. Muslims in India have their own separate laws, for instance, they can have multiple wives. There is no common personal law in India. Hindus have been demanding that there be a uniform civil code for everybody. It is this preferential treatment to the Muslims minorities, which has aggravated the situation and Hindus strated putting their faith and votes for the so called Hindu nationalist party. But even now, a substancial portion of Hindu population votes for Congress party.

Gupta also fails to mention that the 2002 riots were spontaneous, in which Hindus were also killed. They happened because 60 Hindu pilgrims, mostly comprising of women and children, were burnt alive in a train. He also fails to mention that the mainstream media in India, makes hero out of terrorists and gangsters by giving them front page coverage and by publishing their interviews. Media also ran a shrill campaign against the chief minister of a Guajarat state and its police for killing a terrorist in a police encounter. English language media in India is more concerned about the human rights of terrorists than that of citizens killed by terrorists. Gupta's newspaper, Indian Express, is well known in India giving slanted coverage in favor of one political party, Congress, which is not heading the present coalition, UPA.

I expected better from Newsweek then publishing pure propaganda.