US has hidden grip on Pak nukes

With Pakistan's political instability spreading, nervous concern has mounted over the fate of Islamabad's nuclear arsenal should Taliban sympathizers gain power within the Pakistan military, but under the terms of secret agreements, U.S. personnel have been stationed in Pakistan whose sole function is to guarantee and secure the safety of Islamabad's nuclear arsenal and keep it out of the hands of terrorists, according to several serving and former U.S. officials.

Some of the American technicians have had direct access to the nuclear weapons themselves, these sources said.

In any case, Pakistan's nukes are currently secure, in the opinion of several former and serving U.S. officials. "They are for now," said one.

The concern over Pakistan's arsenal extends back in time, before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. As early as 2000, the Clinton administration created a joint commission, a 'liaison' group, consisting of top American and Pakistani scientists. The purpose of this group was to help the Pakistanis create command and control codes for its nuclear weapons that would be unbreakable. One former senior U.S. intelligence source told me that in the course of such work, America gained "a pretty full knowledge" of Pakistan's command and control system.

The United States then used Special Forces 'snatch teams' to kidnap Pakistani scientists who were peddling Pakistan's nuclear technology or knowledge of it to undesirables. For example, a group of such scientists abruptly disappeared while traveling in Burma, these sources said.

In addition, the kidnappings disrupted an alleged 200 links between the Pakistani nuclear community and terrorists with ties to al-Qaida, they said. Other Pakistanis sympathetic to al-Qaida such as Sultan Bashiruddin, a much-decorated scientist in Pakistan's nuclear community, were arrested and interrogated.

The fact was that even before 9/11, U.S. intelligence had thoroughly infiltrated the nuclear smuggling ring of Pakistan's lead nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, without disclosing this to the government of Pakistan. The penetration proved a chief factor in Libya's abandoning its own nuclear program and why Iran, another Pakistan client, disclosed its own activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna watchdog group.

After the 9/11 attacks, American aid to Pakistan to safeguard and secure its arsenal was drastically stepped up, with the George W. Bush administration using the proposed $3 billion U.S. aid package that included F-16s and all sorts of advanced hardware, as a bludgeon. Under U.S. pressure, within two days of the attacks, Pakistan's military began to secretly relocate critical nuclear weapons components to six new secret locations, U.S. sources said. Warheads and delivery systems, which were already being kept separated, were put even more widely apart, and additional surveillance was put on Pakistan's nuclear labs and their personnel, they said.

Additional steps were also taken to separate fissile material from the labs or the weapons themselves, they said.

More U.S. 'technical advisory' teams, many staffed by Defense Intelligence Agency or Energy Dept. intelligence officials, began to appear in Pakistan along with warning and assessment equipment.

Communications systems between Pakistani nuclear commanders and nuclear storage sites were reviewed and modernized, and certain key nodes were, at some point, on a U.S. target list, sources said.

Thanks to U.S. technical means, the United States became aware of defects and miscommunication between Pakistani military centers of command during atomic tests which helped U.S. analysts to grasp facets of Islamabad's command and control areas that were of dubious reliability.

Following 9/11, when U.S. advisors persuaded Pakistani scientists to adopt some key features that add security to U.S. nuclear command procedures, tension rose over whether to install Permission Action Links (PALs), an electronic lock that renders a weapon null and void until political commanders relinquish control of the special codes that allow the weapon to be turned on, several sources said. In addition, the weapons could not be used without employing a dual-key system, meaning that a single rogue commander could not initiate their use.

In brief, the PALs would prevent the unauthorized use of a nuclear weapon by an aberrant member of the military, and they would prevent use of such a weapon by terrorists, and therefore are important, U.S. officials said.

Yet disputes arose immediately. There were legal implications about sharing such sensitive military technology with a foreign power, and some senior U.S. officials balked at using the PALs, thinking they would give the Pakistanis too much insight into America's own nuclear war fighting system. "The Paks are smart. What they can see and examine, they can re-engineer," said one.

For their part, the Pakistanis feared that American scientists would insert a 'dead switch' into the PALs, which would freeze the weapons if someone attempted their use, similar to being able to stall a stolen car from a remote position.

There is some ground for Pakistani misgivings. For years, U.S. intelligence has infiltrated the front companies used by Iran to acquire nuclear weapons technology from the West, especially Europe. Many of these companies were originally part of the Pakistani network set up by A.Q. Khan that procured both components and information for North Korea, Libya and the like. Many are engineering consulting firms, U.S. officials said.

An atomic bomb requires enriched uranium, and to enrich uranium, machines called centrifuges are required – rapidly spinning tubes that are used to separate and concentrate isotopes in gasified uranium. Spinning at several thousand revolutions per minute, they rest on superb bearings, in perfect balance, in a vacuum, linked by pipes to thousands of other spinning units. When the process works, the gas ends up in a solid form, but any minute defect, and the product is decisively marred.

The same is true of the other equipment required: tools, magnets, exotic steel, vacuum pumps, ball bearings and instruments of all kinds, all must be perfect.

Iran uses front companies, fake end-user certificates and third-country destinations to disguise the true purpose, but according to one former senior CIA official, "We have infiltrated such companies and have been able to insert flaws into the technology that we can exploit. It goes along the line of our selling computers that have trap doors into which U.S. technicians can enter to manipulate the machine."

During the Kosovo war, NSA systems were able to make false insertions into the workings of Serb air defense radars, rendering them inoperable.

Other Iranian targets include electronic circuits, electromagnetic machines called caultrons, industrial circuits, power supplies, and compressors for window mounted air conditioners.

"The point is that when they push the button, the stuff won't work," the former senior official said.

He and others said that the operation "is fairly long-standing" and successful.

Pakistan is said to have between 25-40 strategic nuclear weapons, and Jane's Defense Weekly says Pakistan also has about 60 short-to-medium range missiles and 34 F-16s capable of delivering an atomic warhead. Islamabad exploded its first weapon in 1998.

If your workout is not working for you !

Your time is valuable, and for each precious moment you put into your workouts, you want to ensure you get the best possible return on your investment. So, are you getting the results you want? If your body isn't as lean or toned as you'd like, it may be that you're committing some key training mistakes, which can sabotage the efforts of even veteran exercisers.

Of course, you probably know the more obvious mistakes to avoid. For instance, skipping your warm-up may cause you to fatigue early, preventing you from realizing your potential. Furthermore, leaning on the stair climber or elliptical trainer may allow you to stay on longer, but it drastically reduces the challenge to your lower body as well as the number of calories you burn. But what about the less obvious errors you may be making? Here, we'll discuss some of the more subtle -- yet no less serious -- faux pas of fitness and the strength-training exercises most frequently flubbed, and show you how they can be fixed with nearly effortless corrections.

THE TEN FAUX PAS OF FITNESS

People make small but costly mistakes when exercising every day, and one tiny change can have a huge impact on their results, says Los Angeles–based trainer Ken Alan, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise. Thanks to Alan and the panel of training experts who weighed in on these faux pas and fixes, you'll error-proof your exercise and see tremendous payoffs, and the time you invest in your workouts will be smart and well-spent. We begin with five errors often made in your approach to exercise, then we'll take a look at five moves frequently flubbed.

THE APPROACH

1. The faux pas Getting married to your strength routine
The facts If you do the same routine over and over, your muscles will simply adapt; you're likely to hit a plateau because each exercise stimulates only a limited number of muscle fibers. However, if you challenge your muscles from a variety of angles by adding or alternating moves periodically, you'll get significantly more fibers into the act and develop more tone and strength.

The fix For each muscle group, learn an additional 2 or 3 exercises, trying new angles and equipment. (If you can't get instruction from a trainer, there are plenty of books and videos organized by routine for each body part.) For instance, if you usually do the dumbbell chest press on a flat bench, try it at an incline. If you normally use the chest-press machine, try the dumbbell chest press or the bench press with a barbell. Expand your repertoire enough so that you can change your entire routine every 6–8 weeks.

2. The faux pas Performing your reps too quickly
The facts If you zoom through your repetitions when strength training, you'll be using momentum instead of muscle power. You won't get the same stimulus for muscle building, and you won't burn as many calories. You'll also be more susceptible to training injuries such as torn muscles or connective tissue.

The fix Take 6 seconds to perform each repetition: 2 seconds to lift the weight and 4 seconds to lower it. (Since you have gravity to help you lower the weight, you need to slow down even more on this phase in order to give your muscles a sufficient challenge.) Our experts agree that slowing down is the single most significant change you can make to get better results from strength training.

3. The faux pas Exercising too hard, too often
The facts If you don't rest enough between hard cardio or strength workouts, you'll stop making progress and may even lose some of the fitness you've gained. You're also likely to burn out on exercise.

The fix To keep your muscles fresh and your motivation high, alternate shorter, tougher cardio workouts (for instance, 20 minutes) with longer, easier days (40–60 minutes). Don't go all-out more than twice a week. Keep in mind that the more intensely you train, the more time your body needs to recover. It's a good idea to do a couple of tough workouts and take 1 day completely off each week. On the strength-training front, take at least 1 day off between sessions that work the same muscle group.

Baba Ramdev wants to clean Indian Politics now

Haridwar Yoga guru Ramdev, who propagates the art of ridding the human body of toxins, said he is mobilising one crore volunteers to cleanse politics of criminals through an awareness campaign ahead of polls.

“The agenda for the coming general election is to create more awareness so that a large number of people cast their votes for the right candidate,” Ramdev said.

The Yoga guru said apart from mobilising one crore workers to create the awareness, he himself would carry out a door-to-door campaign through his new 'Bharat Swabhiman Andolan', a non-political forum he has launched “to weed out corrupt politicians from this year's election”.

On his plans to enter politics, Ramdev said, “I will not enter politics but will change the dirty politics being played by politicians”.

Alleging that huge sums of “black money” were hoarded by politicians, he said India must follow US President Barack Obama's policy of bringing back American money parked in Swiss Bank accounts.

According to a recent estimate, Indians have deposited approximately Rs 50-75 lakh crore in Swiss Banks, Ramdev told reporters on the sidelines of a foundation laying ceremony of a mega food park here.

An Inspiration for the youngsters:Mr.Sabeer Bhatia-An Introduction by his friend-Mr. Naveen Singha

An Inspiration for the youngsters:Mr.Sabeer Bhatia-An Introduction by his friend-Mr. Naveen Singha When he was only 28, Sabeer Bhatia got the call every Silicon Valley entrepreneur dreams of: Bill Gates wants to buy your company. Summoned to Microsoft's command bunker in Redmond, Washington state, he was deposited on the new acquisitions conveyor belt. Round and round the Microsoft campus he went. All 26 buildings. At every stop, Bhatia's guide helpfully pointed out the vastness of the Microsoft empire. The procession ground on until it reached Gates's office. Bhatia was ushered in. Bill liked his firm. He hoped they could work together. He wished him well. Bhatia was ushered out. "Next thing is we're taken into a conference room where there are 12 Microsoft negotiators," Bhatia recalls. "Very intimidating." Microsoft's determined dozen put an offer on the table: $160 million. Take it or leave it. Bhatia played it cool. "I'll get back to you," he said. Eighteen months later Sabeer Bhatia has taken his place among San Francisco's ultra-rich. He recently purchased a $2-million apartment in rarified Pacific Heights. The place looks like a banker's lair, and Bhatia acknowledges that the oak paneling and crystal chandeliers might have to go. He hurries over to picture windows that run the length of the room and raises the blinds. Ten floors below, the city slopes away in all directions. The Golden Gate Bridge, and beyond it the Pacific, lie on the horizon. "This is me," he says. "I bought it for the view." A place with a view for a man with a vision. A month after Bhatia walked away from the table, Microsoft ponied up $400 million for his startup. Today Hotmail, the ubiquitous Web-based e-mail service, boasts 50 million subscribers - one quarter of all Internet users. Bhatia is worth $200 million. He is already working on his followup: a "one-click" e-commerce venture called Arzoo! And Bhatia is looking homeward with an ambitious plan to wire India. Bhatia was born and raised in the southern Indian city of Bangalore. His father, who held a high post at the Ministry of Defense, and mother Daman, a senior official at a state bank, placed great value on education. Their only son did not disappoint them. "On parent-teacher days they would just say 'Sir, why did you come? You don't have to come! We tell Sabeer to solve the questions on the blackboard for us,'" says Bhatia senior. Once Sabeer came home crying after an exam. He had not done badly; he just hadn't had time to write down everything he knew. Like many Indian parents, Balev and Daman hoped their son would secure a lifetime position with a big multinational firm. Sabeer had different ideas. "I was pretty entrepreneurial even as a schoolboy," he says. When a college opened nearby, he decided to open a sandwich shop and drew up his first business plan. "Then my mom said 'Stop thinking about these things and go and study.' But that's the culture in India." Maybe mother knew best. In 1988, Bhatia won a full scholarship to the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena. When his plane touched down that fall, 19-year-old Bhatia had $250 in his wallet and butterflies in his stomach. "I felt I had made a big mistake," he says. "I knew nobody, people looked different, it was hard for them to understand my accent and me to understand theirs. I felt pretty lonely." Ten years later you can still catch a glimpse of the innocent abroad. The Westcoast accent retains the sing-song cadence of his native Hindi. The CD collection features Bollywood soundtracks and dance remixes of traditional Indian tunes. Yet Bhatia wears his American-style success easily, comfortable with his wealth yet unconsumed by it. His confidence and boyish modesty is an attractive blend that lends Bhatia serenity and presence, sending friends and associates into rapture. People say when Bhatia enters a room he owns it. "I call him the Hindu Robot," says Naveen Singha, Bhatia's friend, mentor and proud owner of the third-ever Hotmail address. "He is persistent, focused, disciplined. He's a superior human being." Others say he glows with a beatific, otherworldly air. On our way to his office, Bhatia attempts a U-turn in his midnight-blue Porsche Boxster, stalling the slick little roadster across two lanes of traffic - and in the path of a garbage truck. "I'm not superhuman," Bhatia says. Rather, he has joined the ranks of the over-hyped Silicon Valley celebrities he idolized. Doing his masters of science at Stanford, Bhatia attended lectures by such legends as Steve Jobs of Apple and Scott McNealy and Vinod Khosla of Sun Microsystems. Listening to them speak, Bhatia "realized they were human. And if they could do it, I could do it too." After Stanford, Bhatia found work as a hardware engineer at Apple. "I think my parents expected me to stay for 20 years," he says. Bhatia lasted nine months. In his cubicle, he read about young men starting up for peanuts and selling out for millions. Bhatia pondered what the Net could do for him, and what he could do for the Net. Then he had an idea. It was called Javasoft - a way of using the Web to create a personal database where surfers could keep schedules, to-do lists, family photos and so on. Bhatia showed the plan to Jack Smith, an Apple colleague and they got started. One evening Smith called Bhatia with an intriguing notion.Why not add e-mail to Javasoft? It was a small leap with revolutionary consequences: access to e-mail from any computer, anywhere on the planet. This was that rare thing, an idea so simple, so obvious, it was hard to believe no one had thought of it before. Bhatia saw the potential and panicked that someone would steal the idea. He sat up all night writing the business plan. "Then we wrote down all variations of mail - Speedmail, Hypermail, Supermail." Hotmail made perfect sense: it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write Web pages. A brand name was born. Bhatia had $6,000 to his name. It was time to find investors. Drive through San Francisco today and every other billboard touts some Internet company or other. It was not always like that. "Four years ago it was a hard story to sell," says Bhatia. "Few people believed the Net was real. They thought it was a fad, like CB radio." By the time he reached the offices of venture capitalists Draper Fisher Jurvetson, 19 doors had slammed behind him. Steve Jurvetson and his colleagues quickly saw the potential and put up $300,000. Bhatia and Smith stretched the money all the way to launch day, July 4, 1996. By year-end they were greeting their millionth customer. When Microsoft came knocking, 12 months later, they'd signed up nearly 10 million users But what were 10 million subscribers worth? Was it $160 million as Microsoft said? More? Less? Bhatia polled his investors. Doug Carlisle, whose firm Menlo Ventures had pumped $1 million into Hotmail, guessed $200 million. Bhatia chided him for giving the lowest estimate and joked that he might hold out for a billion. Carlisle promised that if Bhatia made $200 million he would erect a life-size, bronze statue of him in Menlo Ventures' foyer. Bhatia didn't know how to sell a company. But he did know how to buy onions. "In India you've got to negotiate for everything," he says. "Even buying vegetables, you've got to negotiate." When the bargaining started, Bhatia felt right at home. "They came in low with $160 million, so I came in at $700 million! And when they said: 'That's ridiculous! Are you out of your mind,' I knew it was just a ploy." Bhatia wouldn't budge, and Microsoft's representatives kept walking out. Or rather storming. And shouting and swearing and hurling insults. But the Hotmail team had been warned of Microsoft's tactics. "It was like a record being played," says Jurvetson, "which we thought was pretty funny. It gave us a real sense of strength." That and Bhatia's unshakable faith in the product. During the negotiations, he had bumped into a British backpacker in Prague. Bhatia asked him how he kept in touch with family and friends. Hotmail, of course. Bhatia went back and told Microsoft: "If that is the brand we have built in one and a half years, imagine what it will be in 20 years. Hotmail will easily be bigger than McDonald's." At $200 million, Doug Carlisle started looking for a sculptor. At $350 million, Hotmail's investors agreed: Sell. Bhatia returned to the table, alone, and once more said: "No." The contract was inked on Dec. 30, 1997, Bhatia's 29th birthday. The price: some three million Microsoft shares - worth $400 million at the time and twice that now. Today Hotmail users are signing up at the rate of 250,000 a day, and the firm is valued at some $6 billion. "I'm pretty sure Sabeer and Jack regret selling," says Jurvetson. "Who knows what might have been?" Bhatia shrugs: "When we sold, it was considered an outrageous amount. In hindsight, yes, we sold too low. But I don't regret it because at that time it was considered a great deal." Fremont Business Park is a complex of low-rises as gray inside as they are out. By most reckonings, this isn't even Silicon Valley. Yet it is here that Bhatia launched Hotmail and it is here that he hopes once again to transform the Internet with Arzoo! - his latest brainchild. The company is only six weeks old, and the offices are strewn with boxes that once housed computers, monitors - and a ping pong table. "Stress relief," Bhatia explains and challenges me to a game. He's a stern competitor with a wickedly curling serve. I note that his game has taken him to third place on the office scoreboard. "Oh! That has to change," he says, starting for the board. "I'm No. 2 now." Bhatia's office is monastic to say the least. There are no works of art, no priceless antiques, no backslapping photos of "Me and Bill." (Along with Gates, Bhatia has met Clinton at the White House. "He's such a charmer. You want to believe everything he says.") He extends his "cheapo" desk with a folding table. There is a mere sniff of luxury in the black leather swivel chair, but all staff get one of those. In the office kitchen is a cartoon entitled: "How to form your very own Silicon Valley start-up." You shake a tree until a venture capitalist falls out and hands over a wedge of cash. Today Bhatia is a mover, not a shaker. "Venture capitalists call me up and say: 'Take my money! I don't need to know what you're doing, just take it!'" he says. Draper Fisher Jurvetson parlayed their $300,000 Hotmail investment into $180 million. No one wants to miss the sequel - including a Stanford classmate who made the mistake of not joining Hotmail in the early days. All this despite Silicon Valley's Sophomore Jinx: get-rich-quick geniuses are doomed to spend the rest of their lives trying to duplicate their early success. Bhatia seems not to have heard of it. "Arzoo! is another big, revolutionary idea like Hotmail," he gushes. "Another 'Gosh! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?' idea." Ever paranoid of competitors, he will say only this: "E-commerce portal . . . dramatically enhance the user experience . . . one-click buying . . . launch in November . . ." And then: "Half of all Net users could be using it within the next couple of years." Hotmail is one of the greatest Internet success stories yet. And here is Bhatia casually saying Arzoo! ("passion" in Hindi) will be twice as big. As he discusses the future over sodas and animal crackers, his enthusiasm fills the room. I see why Jurvetson describes him as "infectious, unquenchable - almost hallucinogenic." Not that Bhatia is swept away by his own PR. "I could very well fail," he says. "The fun is trying and finding out." Yet even Arzoo! cannot keep his mind fully occupied. Bhatia is lining up a project to throw himself into once his new baby can walk unaided. He wants to wire India. Or rather wire India, create the conditions for a socio-economic revolution and lift the nation out of poverty. You can't fault the guy for aiming low. Hotmail has sizzled in India (the seventh-largest market) and not only because the boy from Bangalore invented it. In a country where there are more than 50 people for every handset, sending e-mail is easier than using the phone. Bhatia was convinced India was ready for an Internet explosion, but how to get everybody online? His answer: a link-up with cable TV. One in four households has a tube - and almost all of them can get cable. Bhatia planned to plant an information pipeline from London to Bombay, rope in some of the country's 600,000 cable operators, and sell a cheap set-top device to turn the TV into an Internet gateway. Total cost: $200 million. Then he got wrapped up in New Delhi's red tape. "The task is not technologically difficult, physically it could be done in a couple of years," he says. "But the laws are so against you, the business practices so archaic, that when I went in, I saw it would take 10 years. That disappointed me." But it did not deter him. Bhatia has adopted a more subtle approach. He sits on the board of an Indian firm called Homeland Networks that is collecting India-specific content for the nation's growing number of Web surfers. "We're capturing eyeballs," Bhatia explains. It is the first stab of a two-pronged offensive. First, build up a user base. Second, lobby government to put the laws in place that will foster an information revolution. Once the public is ready and the lawmakers have clicked, says Bhatia, "I'll branch into infrastructure." Bhatia recently sponsored and spoke at a conference at Stanford, inviting "all the people who can influence [Indian] policy." The message: On the World Wide Web, geography means nothing. The next Hotmail could emerge from Bangalore, not California. Bhatia never did get a life-size bronze statue. Doug Carlisle was as good as his word: After Bhatia managed to push Microsoft above $200 million, they found a sculptor and Bhatia went for the first sitting. When he got home he called his mother to tell her all about it. "She hit the roof!" Carlisle recalls. "In India you don't get to have a sculpture or statue unless: a) you're dead, or b) you're really incredibly famous and have done something great - like Gandhi or Buddha!" There was no second sitting. You can take the boy out of India, but you can't get him away from his family. Bhatia keeps in regular contact by phone and (of course) Hotmail. His sister, 26-year-old Sameena, will soon join him in the U.S., undecided between starting an MBA or launching her own start-up - a recruitment service to place Indian personnel in Silicon Valley. Big brother is advising the latter, "being a serial entrepreneur myself." As for his parents, they will be happy once he gets married. "My mom says: 'You're getting old, you're getting fat, you're going bald. You'd better get married or you'll run out of options,'" Bhatia laughs. The first time Balev Bhatia visited his son in the U.S. it was on a mission from his wife to find out why Bhatia was still single. He soon got his answer when he saw his son buzzing from dawn to dusk signing up thousands of Hotmail users. Little has changed. With the house, the cars (his other auto is a Ferrari Spyder), the success and the nice-guy persona, Sabeer Bhatia is a candidate for most eligible bachelor in Silcon Valley. Many men in his position are parading a trophy wife to society balls. Isn't he tempted to join them, if only to quiet his parents' nagging? "Trophy wife?" he howls. "She'd give me a headache! Gosh, I would be tense at work all the time." Indeed, there is much to be done. Destinies to change. I ask him to explain how he plans to wire India and he lunges for the white board. "Here I'll show you! So here's India. We talk to Hughes, set up a satellite network . . ." Pen in hand Bhatia gets that gleam in his eye and I get the feeling that maybe he'll be needing that statue after all.

Why do Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs fight each other?

We see that Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus all clash among each other. They have political grievances against each other. They fight for land. They fight for converting the other to one’s faith. They are natural enemies of each other, dividing the human race into warring factions that are perpetually fighting to each other creating holy wars, border territorial disputes, communal conflicts in civil life and now global terrorism.

Why do professional (scientific) denominations like Doctors and Lawyers NOT fight each other?

Why is it that doctors, do not fight lawyers in the manner in which Muslim fight Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. Or for that matter why is it that no professional denominations fight each other as members of different professions. They may still fight against each other, as Muslim doctors may fight against Jewish lawyers, but here we have Muslim fighting Jews and not doctors fighting lawyers.

Why does religion motivate humans to fight other humans, while science motivates people to live with each other and fight the challenges of nature instead of fighting with each other?

This is a profound question, which the authors of this webpage have not encountered anywhere so far. So we make an attempt to answer this question here. An attempt that strikes at the very root of the Quran, the Injil (Bible), the Tureth (Torah), the Bhagvad Geeta, the Guru Granth Sahib, and all other religious texts.

An answer that will be found offensive by the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Sikhs, and all other religious denominations all of which account for nearly 100% of the human species. Since very few humans declare themselves to be atheists, we take it that the nearly the entire human race is religious.
Religion is an emotion which is a dead-end and a roadblock to free-thinking and growth of knowledge.

Although we know that this is far from the truth, and many enlightened folks, have cast off religion, but would not admit to having done so, as that would make them, apostates(ex-Christians), murtads (ex-Muslims), pakhandis (ex-Hindus), tankhaiyas (ex-Sikhs). Such humans would also be targeted for social boycott and in the case of ex-Muslim, targets for assassination and murder by the Muslims. This and this alone accounts for the silence of those who have abjured all religion.

Again while all religions are organized into communities, the atheists are not. Humanist-Atheists are spread disparately across the world, and are found wherever the human spirit of quest has overcome the sub-human instinct of faith - an instinct bred by fear of the unknown and a desire to survive the challenges of life, an instinct that we have inherited from the lower animals.

It is Faith that originates from the human fear of the unknown that gives birth to religion in Man. Religion is an emotion which is a dead-end and a roadblock to free-thinking and growth of knowledge. As against this, Quest gets integrated into a thought process which is an open-ended path and gives birth to knowledge and science.

Why do we have religious fanaticism, but no professional or scientific fanaticism? Why are there fanatic Muslims, fanatic Christians, fanatic Hindus, but no fanatic doctors and fanatic lawyers?

All religions are based on fear of the unknown. While fear of the known can intimidate, like the fear of a stronger bully, fear of the law, etc., the fear of an unknown illusory power that is assumed to exist, can drive the victims of this fear to any paranoia in order to please that assumed illusory power. We find many religious people saying, “We fear nobody but god.” What they are telling you is that they have totally subsumed their existence to that power, in fact to those who represent that power in society - the priests, the Rabbis, Bishops, Cardinals, Popes, Maulavis, Pundits, Gurus of different religions.

With this kind of subsuming of personal human intellectual discretion at the altar of an overpowering fear of an illusory unknown power that is assumed to exist, all human reasoning ends. What remains is an unthinking and mindless desire to do anything to please that power, through the word of Messiahs, Prophets, Avatars, Deities, etc.

Emotion along with Denial of Quest is at the root of religious existence, while Quest is the overpowering instinct at the root of all science which makes us professionals of different denominations. Thinking intellectuals will not fight for no reason, while mindless robotic crowds at the mercy and command of religious preachers can do anything against others.

Hence we find religious people considering theirs to be the only right religion and all others to be on the wrong path, to be either converted or terrorized or even killed.

Why does no profession say that it alone is the right profession and all other professions are wrong.

Why does no profession, say that it alone is the right profession and all other professions are wrong, and that all doctors will have to become lawyers, or else the doctors will kill the lawyers who refuse to become doctors! The answer lies in the fact that while thinking makes people into professionals and scientists, the lack of and the ban on thinking makes people religious, as Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews or whatever else.

Since in the history of evolution of life forms, no species has fought for its own self-destruction as we humans are doing.

This is especially dangerous, since today we have the capability to self-destruct all across this planet, and in the process also destroy all other life forms - birds animals and vegetation!! So it becomes more than necessary to hold back this self-destructive tendency in humans that is bred by religion, and religious fanaticism, of which the most blood-thirsty expression is Islam.

The Jihad, the Crusades and other manifestations of holy wars in the name of religion are examples of the first tendency of grabbing land and resources being made paranoid by the second one based on our fear of the unknown, that drives us into mad acts to serve the cause of our tribe, nation, religion motivated by the desire to do anything and everything for the unknown �power�. So we see Muslims, Christians, Hindus willing to die or kill in the name of religion, with Muslims leading the pack of bloodthirstiness.

When evil geniuses combined these two factors and motivated humans to attack other humans in the name of religion to grab land and to dominate their lives, then human greed, coupled with religion became a major problem, a problem that today threatens to end all life on earth.

How will religions self-destruct?

The actual destruction of religion will begin in the form of next world war with the Christian, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists combining to destroy Islam. Violent form of Islam will be destroyed first of all, but in the process all the other religions too would be weakened and the most fanatic sects among them will be next in the line of fire. Therein lies the opportunity to give all violent, rabid and intolerant religious sects the final push, otherwise these will destroy the human species from this planet.

Fierce and persistent Hindu resistance to the Islamic Jihad prevented the complete Islamization of India

Fierce and persistent Hindu resistance to the Islamic Jihad prevented the complete Islamization of India

Unlike the complete Islamization of Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Turkey, North Africa, the Islamization of India was never complete. After more than one millennium of Muslim Tyranny from 715 up to 1761, more than 70 percent of the population of India remained Hindu. This was NOT due to any Muslim charity or benevolence, since the murderous and savage beast like Muslims invaders had none of these characteristics.

The Muslim tyranny in India was as blood-thirsty and insidious as it was in all parts of the globe that were unfortunate to be trampled by the Jihadis. The Hindus suffered initial setbacks due to the innocuous but ill-founded belief amongst them, as amongst all other non-Muslims, that the Muslims too were normal human beings, who would after a victory, settle down to govern the defeated population. But once the nightmare of Muslim tyranny began, the Hindus grew wiser relatively faster than most of the other unfortunate victims of the Islamic Jihad.

Fundamentalist UK Muslims providing Taliban with bomb making technical devices

London, Feb 21 (PTI) - A section of radical British Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs for attacks against the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan, media reports claimed today. The devices, which enable Taliban fighters to detonate bombs by remote control, are either sent to sympathisers in neighbouring countries or carried in by volunteers who flew to Pakistan and crossed the border into Afghanistan, The Daily Telegraph newspaper claimed. Details of how British electronic components had been found in roadside bombs were given to David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, when he visited British troops at their military compound at Lashkagar, in Afghanistan, this week. In a briefing on operations by Brig Gordon Messenger, the Royal Marine commander of the British battlegroup, Miliband was shown samples of the home-made devices that were being used in attacks. They included mobile phones filled with explosives used to attack foot patrols and more powerful devices used against vehicles.

Tamil Cause - Indifferent Indian Government

India should not ignore the plight of Tamils and their blood relations in Sri Lanka. And also we should not blindly support Sri Lankan action. All those who are suffering are basically of Indian origin. Indian Government should take more pragmatic approach and work for the solution which takes care of Tamil interests.

Taliban has to be confronted and defeated: India

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday underlined the danger posed by the Taliban to the region and the world and stressed on the need for confronting and defeating the hardline militia, which "propagates the cult of violence". "The Taliban has to be confronted and defeated. There can't be a brutal Taliban or a benign Taliban," minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma told reporters here. "Terrorism in whatever form has to be condemned. There is no cause that can justify the killing of civilians," Sharma said. "Taliban propagates the cult of violence and represents the forces of religious intolerance," Sharma added. Sharma also underscored the need for Pakistan to take firm and demonstrative action to dismantle the structure of terrorism in its territory. The Pakistani government had on Monday approved a peace deal between the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) administration and the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) of radical cleric Sufi Muhammad under which Shariat law would be introduced in seven districts of the province, including the Swat valley the Taliban controls. The cleric is currently in Swat for talks with his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah, who heads the local Taliban in the area. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who Sunday gave the go-ahead for signing the deal, said he would endorse it only if the Taliban laid down their arms and peace returned to the region.

Vivekananda, Gandhiji and their concept of service-oriented Hinduism

By Jagmohan

On Swami ‘Vivekananda's’ birthday, January 12, it may be both interesting and instructive to recall how he and Mahatama Gandhi viewed Hinduism as a service-oriented cultural force and how virtual abandonment of their views by the Indian State and society have cost the country dearly.

Both Vivekananda and Gandhiji had an original and powerful mind and also an innate faith in the inherent strength of Indian culture. Both believed in practical Vedanta and considered Hinduism as nothing but spiritual secularism based upon the highest principles of ethics and morality. Both argued that a great social and moral order could be built on the shoulders of great individuals alone. “If there is no purity, fairness and justice in your heart, these qualities will not be in your home; if they are not in your home, they will not be in your society; and if they are not in your society, they will not be in your State.”

Both Vivekananda and Gandhiji, in essence, presented a new design for life, a model of contentment, compassion, balance and harmony. They wanted to create an Indian nation that could teach the world, as Will Durant believed “tolerance and gentleness of the mature mind, the quiet content of the unacquisitive soul, the calm of the understanding spirit, and a unifying, pacifying love for all living things”.

In order to elaborate Vivekananda and Gandhiji’s belief that Hinduism was a positive and elevating force, it would be best to let them speak for themselves. S Radhakrishnan, in connection with his study of religion, posed three questions to Gandhiji. These questions were: “What is your religion? How are you led to it? What is its bearing on social life?”

Gandhiji replied to the first question thus: “My religion is Hinduism which, for me, is the religion of humanity and includes the best of all religions known to me.”

In response to the second question, Gandhiji said: “I take it that the present tense in this question has been purposely used, instead of the past. I am led to my religion through truth and non-violence. I often describe my religion as religion of truth. Of late, instead of saying God is Truth, I have been saying, Truth is God…Denial of Truth we have not known…We are all sparks of Truth. The sum total of these sparks is indescribable, as yet unknown Truth, which is God. I am daily led nearer to it by constant prayer”.

To the third question, Gandhiji replied: “The bearing of this religion on social life is, or has to be, seen in one’s daily social contact. To get true to such religion, one has to lose oneself in continuous and continuing service of all in life. Realisation of Truth is impossible without a complete merging of oneself in and identification with this limitless ocean of life. Therefore, for me there is no happiness on earth beyond or apart from it. Social service here must be taken to include every department of life. In this scheme, there is nothing low, nothing high. For all is one, though we seem to be many.”

Gandhiji went on to elaborate: “The deeper I study Hinduism, the stronger becomes the belief in me that Hinduism is as broad as the universe… Something within me tells me that, for all the deep veneration I show to several religions, I am all the more a Hindu, nonetheless for it.”

Gandhiji also made it clear: “My devotion to Truth has drawn me to politics… Those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.”

For Vivekananda, too, religion in India was a pivotal force. He said: “Each nation, like each individual has one theme in life, which is at its centre. If any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality, that nation dies. In India, religious life forms the centre.”

The first observation which Vivekananda made on December 25, 1892 after meditating deeply on the Kanyakumari rock for three days was: “Religion is the blood of the nation’s body; the impurities of the blood are responsible for all our great maladies, and the nation can rise again if this blood is purified.”

Vivekananda’s message is simple. Jiva is Shiva—in the service of man lies the service of God. One must not forget that if one serves the sick, the poor or any other person in distress, one would be following ‘practical Vedanta’ and offering prayers to God in the highest form.

Vivekananda gave pre-eminent place to the idea of serving “the outcast Narayanas, the starving Narayanas and the oppressed Narayanas”. He posed the question to his own class: “What have we done, we the so-called men of God, the sanyasis? What have we done for the masses?” He bewailed: “India’s doom was sealed the very day it coined the word melechha”. He also criticised the common folk for being fatalist. He urged them to have faith in themselves. “The old religion said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself…It is the coward and the fool who says this is his fate. But it is the strong man who stands up and says I will make my own fate.”

Tragically, apart from paying lip-service, the post-1947 India has all but forgotten what Vivekananda and Gandhiji stood for. Consequently, today the Indian State is a soulless entity and the society is riddled with superstitions and caste and communal prejudices. The rich have become excessively rich and the poor have largely resigned themselves to what they call is their fate. The spiritual vacuum has rendered almost all the organs of governance weak, wayward, casual and even callous and corrupt. The country is facing a huge moral deficit. The conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that there is one molestation case every 15 minutes, one rape case every 29 minutes, one dowry death every 77 minutes and one case of sexual harassment every 53 minutes. Is it not time that the nation should attend to what Vivekananda and Gandhiji had preached and practiced and rebuild itself on the basis of ethics, morality and spiritual secularism which they embodied? If we continue with the business as usual, whatever little remains of Indian culture and civilisation would be extinct, sooner rather than later.

(The writer is a former governor of Jammu and Kashmir and former Union Minister)

Hindus: Time you woke up!

By MSN Menon

The most vital issue of our age, says Aurobindo, is whether the future progress of the humanity is to be governed by the materialist philosophy of the West or by a nobler pragmatism guided and uplifted by a spiritual culture? India can make a major contribution here.

For a thousand years, the Hindus were under foreign rule—first under Muslims and then under the relatively civilised rule of the British.

This is unprecedented in human history. No people—certainly no great civilisation—have been kept in bondage for so long! The march of a great civilisation was arrested. Its roots were cut. And the memories of that age were lost. They were almost ready to embrace Islam. It is said that India would have been Islamised had it not been for the British advent.

Are the Hindus aware of the great damage those thousand years have done to their civilisation, to their quest for the meaning of life and to their outlook? They are not. Alas, even to enquire into it is taboo in this country! Why? Because it is pleaded that this will “offend” our Muslim “brothers”! Should our history then be based on falsifications.

Of course, both the Muslims and the British rulers were opposed to a Hindu awakening. For similar reasons. Gandhi and Nehru opposed a Hindu awakening as a price for Muslim support to the freedom movement.

With what result? Did Muslim support the freedom movement? No. Did they accept the objective of Hindu-Muslim unity? So we got nothing for the concessions we made.

Hope of winning over the Muslims never deserted the Congress. It tied the hands of the Congress leaders. They were incapable of even defending the long-term interests of the nation. Thus they could not warn the Muslims where they were in a minority, that they would be forced to leave India if they supported the two-nation theory. I am convinced that this would have been like a death-blow to the Muslim League.

But even partition and its horrors did not lead to an awakening of the Hindus! Why? For two reasons: 1) because the Hindus were already de-nationalised and 2) the need for Muslim votes compelled the Congress to follow the same appeasement policy. Today the vast majority of Hindu know almost nothing of their great past, that only the Hindu civilisation has an enlightened policy. That is why they were ready to accept Western leadership of the world and the Western way of life. So, are we Hindus to be the Caliban—the eternal follower? Can India never head? Has it no message for the world? Can it never be an alternate model for the world? It can. But for that we need new generations of Hindus who are committed to the greatness of India—generations that are profoundly inspired by nationalism.

But why should we know our history? Because history alone can inspire us to scale greater heights, because the tragedies that befell us should never again visit us.

If India has come up so fast in the post-Independence period and made a deep impression on the world community, it is because we are the children of a great civilisation. Our genes have gone through a process of civilisation for ten thousand years. There is nothing comparable. The Hindu civilisation is the mother of all civilisations. Our ancestors have put us ahead of all others.

But that is not enough. We have more work to do. Let us renew our great journey. This is our civilisational mission. The Christians and Muslims will not and cannot join us in this quest for the ultimate truths, for they claim that the ultimate truths are already in their Holy Books. So they will continue to mark time. They prefer the repetitive life. They cannot march with us without causing immense damage to their religious beliefs. What is more, they cannot change their tribal gods either. It is too late in the day to do that.

The most vital issue of our age, says Aurobindo, is whether the future progress of the humanity is to be governed by the materialist philosophy of the West or by a nobler pragmatism guided and uplifted by a spiritual culture? India can make a major contribution here.

Hinduism is not a proselytising religion. Yet it has carried it message to the far corners of the world without any violence. What it lacked was a proper concern for the State. Which explains why we were under foreign rule for so long. We must not allow this weakness to continue. Hindus must be wise, but strong.

Illegal immigrants of Bangladesh are a threat to UP

By Subhash Singh from Lucknow

But Police will not be successful in it’s drive due to the interference of political leaders and so-called social organisations who favoure these intruders due to their personal interest. In some areas of the State the name of these Bangladeshis are in voters list. They are the voters of the so-called secular parties, specially in the Muslim dominated districts of the State.

Up is facing a new threat from illegal immigrants. These intruders are basically the civilians of Bangladesh but they have been successful to get Indian identity cards like rashan cards, driving licenses, (Below Poverty Line) BPL cards and mobile connections, etc. These intruders claim that they are the true residents of Assam and West Bengal. Their mother tongue is Bengali, therefore the local police and local intelligence unit are unable to identify them as Bangladeshis. Police sources say that these Bangladeshi intruders have settled in the outskirts of nearly every district of Uttar Pradesh. Anti-social elements and sometimes Muslim terrorists take shelter in their huts. Police sources say that nearly ten lack Bangladeshi intruders are in UP. Till now no police verification has been done successfully due to the vote bank politics of political parties.

The Director General of UP police Shri Vikram Singh wrote a letter to all the superintendents of police and directed them to check the credentials of Bangladeshi nationals who have migrated to India. In the drive, it was made clear that Bangladeshi nationals are in every district of UP. Local intelligence of police is unable to identify them as immigrants due to their Indian identity cards. Till today only one Bangladeshi could be deported to his motherland. When a drive against them starts, secular leaders come in for their defence. These leaders mostly belong to Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. These leaders assume them as their vote bank. They create hindrance against the drive. Police sources say that ISI protected terrorists of Bangladesh and Pakistan take shelter in their huts and act against the unity and integrity of India.

It is supposed that these Bangladeshi nationals are living in outskirts of Lucknow, Muradabad, Agra, Rampur, Farrukhabad, Meerut, Aligarh, Kanpur, Varanasi, Gazipur, Ballia, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Banda, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Mainpuri, Auraiya, Itawa and Kannauj, etc. The capital of Uttar Pradesh Lucknow is disturbed because of these Bangladeshi intruders. These intruders have become part and parcel of local Muslim community. Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party protects them due to vote bank politics. They are living in Kgdiyaghat, Pkka Pull, Kakori, Triveni Nagar, Madiyav, Hasangang, Gaiipur, Faijullagang, Paharpur, Nishatgang, Rahimnagar, Kukrail, Balughat, Mankameshwar, Sarvodar Nagar, Gulabghat, Aishbagh, etc. In a search operation, thousands of Bangladeshis were checked with regards to their personal details, which included their name, age and identification proofs including the time period of their stay. A police officer said that we conducted the drive after getting a tip-off that some of Bangladeshi nationals were living in the city without getting their verification done. During the whole exercise verification forms of all the migrants living in capital were filled and a detailed investigations were conducted. According to the Police, last year a Bangladeshi national Mantosh Kumar was deported to his country after the expiry of his term of punishment,. Police also claimed that those found guilty will be booked under the section of Foreigners Act 1946 and Section3/2/4 of Passport Entry in India Act, 1920. Local intelligence agency have also accepted that the drive has been started keeping in view the security concerns. As a part of this drive those people who have been living in UP illegally will be deported to their motherland.

But Police will not be successful in it’s drive due to the interference of political leaders and so called social organisations who favoure these intruders due to their personal interest. In some areas of the State the name of these Bangladeshis are in voters list. They are the voters of so called secular parties. Specially in the Muslim dominated districts of the State. In these districts intruders have taken shelter and they are part of Muslim community. When a drive starts against them, Muslim community comes forward in their support. All India United Muslim Morcha plays a dominant role in this respect. The Mayor of Lucknow Shri Dinesh Sharma accepted that these Bangladeshis have become threat to the security of Lucknow. The organisational secretary of VHP Shri Purushottam Narayan Singh said that these intruders must be deported to their motherland as soon as possible.

Can’t act against doctors until ‘prima facie’ negligence established:SC

SC raises bar: Can’t act against doctors until ‘prima facie’ negligence established

Express news servicePosted: Feb 18, 2009 at 0139 hrs IST

New Delhi: Police and courts — both criminal and consumer — must establish “prime facie guilt” before proceeding against a doctor accused of medical negligence, the Supreme Court has ruled.“The law is a watchdog and not a bloodhound, and as long as doctors do their duty with reasonable care they will not be held liable even if their treatment was unsuccessful,” observed the bench comprising Justices Markandeya Katju and R M Lodha. The bench felt all doctors can’t be accused of lacking integrity or competence “just because of some bad apples”.Taking the cue from a 2004 judgment, the bench passed stern directions, which it felt was “necessary to avoid harassment to doctors who may not ultimately be found negligent”.The medical fraternity welcomed the judgment, and doctors expressed hope that it would allow them to work without fear of facing “unreasonable” allegations.“Sometimes despite their best efforts, the treatment of a doctor fails. This does not mean that the doctor or the surgeon must be held to be guilty of medical negligence, unless there is some strong evidence to suggest that he is,” the court observed while setting aside a National Consumer Commission order dated February 23, 2002.The apex consumer forum had found Dr Martin F D’Souza of Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital guilty of giving an antibiotic overdose, which resulted in the patient losing his hearing. The SC, however, noted that the doctor had actually saved the patient’s life, with the hearing impairment being the drug’s side effect. “Life is surely more important than side effects,” Justice Katju said. “Courts and consumer fora are not experts in medical science, and must not substitute their own views over that of specialists,” Justice Katju said.Whenever a complaint is received against a doctor or a hospital, the matter must be referred to a competent doctor or a panel of doctors. “Only after that doctor or committee reports that there is a prima facie case of medical negligence, should the notice be issued,” the bench said.The judgment warned the police “not to arrest or harass doctors” unless the facts prove so or “otherwise policemen will themselves have to face legal action.”Dr Anil Bansal, secretary, Delhi Medical Association, welcomed the judgment. “It has to be understood that whenever a patient agrees to go for medical treatment, there is a chance of multiple outcomes. If the patient does not get cured, it cannot always be the doctor’s fault. Every careless act of the medical man cannot also be termed as ‘criminal’,” he said.

Dr Anoop Misra of Fortis Hospitals recalled that doctors have been attacked by patients’ families without first ascertaining facts. “Currently action is taken against doctors on the basis of public opinion. It is high time that basic rules are laid down about ways to deal with medical negligence cases.”

Dr DK Sharma, medical superintendent, AIIMS, agreed. “This judgment will definitely help doctors work without the fear of being unreasonably blamed. It is necessary that a doctor should not be held criminally responsible for a patient’s death unless proved beyond doubt that he or she showed complete disregard for the life of the patient,” Dr Sharma said.

History of Islam in India

By MV Kamath

Islam and the Muslims of India; Exploring History, Faith and Dogma; SS Gill; Penguin Books;

There is no dearth of books on Muslims in India, and indeed, here is a wide range of scholarships available on the subject. To cite a few examples; we have The Destiny of Indian Muslims by S Abid Husain (1965), Muslim Politics in Modern India by Mushir U Haq (1970), The Muslim Dilemma in India by MRA Baig (1974), Indian Muslims Since Independence by Omar Khalidi (1996) and India’s Muslims Since Independence by Mushirul Hasan (2001). Scholarship on Islam and the Muslims of India is not lacking. For all that, SS Gill’s Islam and Muslims of India is a welcome addition to existing studies, if only because his approach calls for a lot of questioning.

He is typical of the liberal ‘secularists’ of the country who finds faults with “aggressive Hindu communalism”, without making any serious effort as to why such “communalism” became “aggressive”. There are casual references to “Hindu communalism” being a “reaction to Muslim communalism” without making any serious effort again on how Hindus were treated in almost 800 years of continuous Muslim rule in India. Gill says that “Muslims fear of Hindu majority” is quite legitimate. Is that a reflection of a sense of guilt of having treated Hindus as second class citizens in their own country for over eight centuries? He describes Hindu “communalism” as “ a muted desire to set right historical wrongs”. Wouldn’t it have been more to the point to describe in precise terms what those ‘historical wrongs” are, instead of leaving them to one’s imagination?

Even the terrible cruelties perpetrated by the Moplahs of Malabar (1921-22) are dismissed casually as if no particular import. He could have read Annie Besant’s report on the subject for some guidance. Gill’s explanation for the mayhem created by the Moplahs is that they were “mostly landless labour’ with “a long history of conflict with their Nair landlords”. That is ducking the issue and does not reflect much on Gill’s objectivity. He describes the “demolition” of the so-called Babri Masjid (December 1992) as “one of the most shameful acts of violence in India”. Forget the construction of the Masjid over the remains of a demolished temple to Shri Ram—forgotten also is the demolition of other temples sacred to Hindus in their thousands. Weren’t they also “shameful acts”? Or are we to forget them?

Gill apparently does not understand hurts felt by Hindus. He does not bother ever to give us a gist of the long-drawn talks between concerned Hindus and Muslim organisations which had a stake in the Babri Masjid, and the role of ‘secularists’ in supporting Muslim intransigence. If only Muslim orthodox groups involved in the discussion had graciously conceded to Hindus their claim on the Babri site, the masjid could have been respectfully dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere. It would have been a win-win situation for both communities and the government besides. It was the secular Hindu who widened the Hindu-Muslim divide.

Gill frequently makes charges against Hindus and what he calls “saffronisation” without providing any background as to why such a thing became inevitable. He is unhappy about the way Urdu has been marginalised. He probably does not know how Tipu Sultan imposed Persian on the Kannada-speaking people of Mysore and how a predominantly Telugu-speaking Hyderabad state had imposed Urdu on it by the Nizams. And when Urdu is taken over as an exclusive Muslim language, the consequences surely could have been foreseen. Again and again Gill blames the “Sangh Parivar” for everything that has gone wrong in Hindu-Muslim relations. It would have been more to the point if Gill had studied the socio-cultural history of 800 years of Muslim rule in India to understand, if not to accept, the Hindu mindset. Gill’s explanation to Muslim thinking is that “in the context of Quranic precepts, Muslims are placed in an unenviable situation” and that “according to strict orthodox prescription, they are enjoined either to wage jehad and convert the country to Islam, failing which they should migrate”. They refuse to migrate. Where can they go? Not to Pakistan where they are unwanted. Not to Bangladesh which is already overpopulated and is itself pushing its citizens into Indian territory.

Do Hindus have to meekly accept Quranic concepts and let jehadis take over India? Or permit large-scale conversion from Hinduism to Islam? If this is the role that Muslims are supposed to play in India why blame Hindu ‘chauvinists” as Gill with such poor taste calls them? Gill wants to “understand” Muslims. He shows little interest in understanding Hindus. Gill says that the message of “holy war as a religious duty” has “seeped much deeper into the Muslim consciousness, than the Quranic precepts of peace and amity”. Which should explain so many things like the creation of SIMI and the full support given by locals to Pakistani jehadists’ terror campaign in Mumbai. Eclecticim and heterodoxy are integral to the Hindu ethos, but Gill states correctly that “this sort of doctrinal repudiation of violence could not carry any credibility with Muslims” who ridiculed Mahatma Gandhi “as a faddist and an insincere windbag”. Gill provides detailed information on the madrasas which have been multiplying in India, casting Muslim children “in a mould designed several centuries ago”.

As Gill puts it, “millions of Muslim children in India who attend madrasas are today growing up with hidebound, antiquarian attitudes which put them on the backfoot as far as competition in modern society is concerned’. Are Hindus to be blamed for that? Gill’s advice is that ‘instead of denigrating Islam and putting all Muslims on the defensive, non-Muslims must facilitate the task of modernists in Islam by paying this great religion the respect it merits”. Who says that Hindus have been denigrating Islam? It was always the other way around.

Gill says that several Islamic countries including Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have launched projects to expunge hate lessons against other religions from school textbooks”. He is obviously unaware of a report submitted by the Sustainable Development Policy of Islamabad which condemned Pakistani textbooks for spouting venom against Hinduism. Gill (1927-2007), means well but he is far too often self-contradictory. Muslims in India are hardly a minority. Next to Indonesia, India has the second largest Muslim population in the world. The Muslims in India have to learn to live in peace with their Hindu compatriots and be sensitive to their hurt feelings also. Hindus may be in a majority but there never has been a ‘Hindu rule’ as in India. It is a rule of the people, for the people and never, as in Muslim countries rule of the Muslims, for the Muslims and by the Muslims.

(Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017)

Swami Vivekananda--The patriotic saint

By Rajesh Pathak

The time when the nation had fallen into yet another shackle of slavery under the British yoke, there prevailed among the people the utter moral and intellectual confusions. Where, on one side, there were badly mushrooming mutually conflicting religious sects and sub-sects rabidly hell bent in deluding the people with their respective exclusivist theology and obscurantist rituals; on the other, utterly mesmerised with western mode of life, there grew a breed of so-called social-reformers and intelligentsia engaged in their ‘missions’ with their self-denigrating and fantastic notion of rejecting outrightly everything dharma and, ipso facto, recasting the society and everything indigenous in the western moulds. In such a crucial hour Swami Vivekananda was the one to rise on the national horizon to not only guide the people out of this confusion, but also reveal to them what true dharma and its indispensability in the national life is.

After having attained super-conscious revelation, living in the virtues of divine proximity of his master—Ramakrishna Paramhansa, he chose the Vedantic ideals to dispel the myriads of false notions then held on the national and international level regarding India and dharma. Bringing the vivid illustration of dharma to light, he made the people aware of the fact that the dharma basically comprised of Karmakanda and Gyan-kanda. Karmakanda, he told, consists in Smritis and Puranas, which deals mainly with the manners, customs, practices and all forms of worships. These are codified to fulfill the needs of the circumstances prevailing in the particular course of period, hence subjected to modification from time to time. Whereas, Gyankanda is the spiritual portion of dharma comprising the Upanishads, which is also called Vedanta. This expounds all the subtle questions of cycle of life and death and everything universe comprised of. Immutable, this holds good even to this day, for it is based on the eternal truth.

Then, coming to the problems which India was facing those days, he told that what was being practised then in the name of dharma was nothing but an aberration made inroad to it (dharma), which could be well understood in the light of Vedanta. All the customs and practices i.e. Karmakanda is required to be the expression of Vedanta ideals, and, hence, any of them contradicting them (Vedanta ideals) must be rejected. Highlighting in this context the instance of untouchability prevailed then, he exhorted that it was in sheer contravention to what is essentially preached in Gita—a commentary on Vedanta. For, Shri Krishana says in it, “One who sees everyone in himself and himself in everyone, thus, seeing the same God living in all is the sage. And, therefore, the discrimination on the basis of caste is altogether unethical, against the very spirit of dharma.”

As for integrating the different sects, belonging to the cult of dualism, monism, qualified monism and such other, who were then badly indulged in bitter feud to gain supremacy over each other, Vivekananda drew their attention to the doctrines common to them. And, those doctrines, as revealed to them by Vivekananda, are—Doctrine of reincarnation; perfection is in atma (soul); the body consists of, apart from the material body of panchtatva, the mind, the intellect and, atma; infallibility of Vedas; the God is all creating, preserving and destroying power; and also, that the religion means nothing short of divine realisation or anubhuti. So also, it was his firm belief that India with its varied languages, customs and social identities could remain united but only in the virtues of dharma. For, underlying all such diversities, it is only dharma that is common to the various groups.

He, though, unequivocally emphasised for emulating spiritualism, yet he was strongly opposed to the escapist attitude viz. pseudo renunciation, more common a phenomena then. To him moksha (renunciation) means not to turn coward or stagnated to inaction. But, all the more, it is through the action only does one attain the moksha, as is pointed out by Shri Krishna in Gita.

In order to extend globally the pious mission of his elevating the nation and Hindu dharma, he toured a number of countries, representing India in various dharmasabhas (religious assemblies) held on international forums. Availing these occasions, he, through his captivating oratory power and impregnable arguments, debunked all the fallacies and contemptuous views then held by the westerners regarding everything Indian. It was the time when so as to serve their imperialistic motives the colonial-missionary nexus were abjectly indulged in coining and, thus, foisting upon the Indians the host of perverse theories and so-called findings concerning their origin, history and culture etc. In the face of one such theory—the infamous ‘Aryan invasion theory’, Swamiji put forth so many excerpts from the Vedas and other scriptures and disproved its validity. He argued that if there is any truth in it then why not even a single instance comes in its support in the Vedas which have been proved to be the most ancient and authentic source of knowledge.

Communist academic mafia writes NCERT books in India

By Sudarshan Kumar Kapur

We must concede that even the most machiavellian tricksters and pranksters cannot match the ingenuity and sophistry of the Communist comrades in the art of inventing invectives and contriving innuendoes for those who do not agree with their views or political pretensions. Inured and brainwashed by alien dogmas and dialectical materialism propounded by Karl Marx, they have lost all sense of shame, sincerity and morality and have consequently turned opportunists and exploiters of highest degree.

Under the spell of the ghost of Marxism, they have developed over the years a feeling of extreme repugnance for the doctrines of nationalism and patriotism and denounce and deride whatever is national or Indian—Indian history, Indian culture, Indian ethos, Indian values, Indian languages, Indian religions, national heroes and patriots. Ironically, it goes to the credit of Communist comrades and their leaders to have substantially contributed to the evolution of a large vocabulary of political jargon they use to denunciate their opponents. The vocabulary expressed for their antagonists includes epithets like bourgeois, anti-proletariat, imperialist, fascist, communalist, revisionist, responsivist, anti-secular though they themselves, without any exception, possess all these traits in good measure and can be called and named as such. They are the hypocrites of the highest order playing dirty politics in the country today. The truth is that they have not only been betraying the national interest since 1942 but have always exploited the gullible Indian workers and toiling masses and brazenly betrayed them.

It is a well-known fact that during the period of 1940s, most of the Indian communists believed in pan-communism rather than Indian nationalism. They worked as agent-saboteurs of Russia and torpedoed the struggle for freedom of the country and betrayed their countrymen. After Independence also, they pursued the same avocation and were staunch henchmen of Soviet communism and therefore they always ignored national interests. Instead they have been serving till today the interests of their Soviet and Chinese masters, at the cost of national interests. The greatest failure of Nehru has been that he had not an intrinsic ability and sense to evolve a truly national and Indian mode of administration which behooved an independent country i.e. India. Rather, he was swayed by the Soviet model of administration, planning and development which advocated concentration of all power and decision making in the hands of few at the top, and all his liberal western education and upbringing was of no avail and failed him. The commies took full advantage of Nehru’s failure on this account and his other great weakness was his familiar and political ambition to prop Indira Gandhi as heir apparent.

Indira Gandhi’s political vulnerability and her autocratic and dictatorial bent of mind coupled with her lust for power and ambition for imposing dynastic hegemony over the country gave these commies god-spent opportunity to exploit the situation as it obtained then. They flocked around Indira Gandhi and her pygmies in her support to promote the interests of Indira Gandhi’s Congress party and under this guise started serving their selfish interests and looting the public exchequer—all this in the name of ameliorating the lot of the common people and the proletariat, as they are presently doing and blackmailing the Congress, thanks to pitiful political vulnerability of its topmost foreign-born leader. During last four decades or so, they must have set up several frontal non-governmental organizations professedly to help the poor, down-trodden, organized and unorganized urban and rural workers, both men and women and other classes of the proletariat and must have got built huge building and ivory towers at prime locations in metropolises, state capitals and other big and small cities of the country pretendedly from meagre and hard earned subscriptions of Indian workers but mainly funds received from foreign agencies like KGB and grants received from Indian government or by other fair or foul means. The net result is that these communist comrades, the so-called messiahs of the poor and the downtrodden, hold, manage or control properties worth hundred of crores of rupees. Personally, they lead a luxurious life, live in palatial bungalows, travel in air-conditioned cars and aeroplanes, get them medically treated in the elite hospitals. In communist jargon, they are the capitalists in real terms. Such leaders can be truly called parasites as they survive, live and thrive on the poverty of the common people and workers. Their common minimum programmes are a hoax and a fraud on common people and the starving millions. It is a cruel and insensitive joke. It is a treacherous device to hoodwink and blackmail the masses.

Coming again to the anti-national and unpatriotic nexus between the Congress party and the communist parties since the days of Indira Gandhi’s regime, the wily commies took full advantage of the fragile position of Indira Gandhi and planted and installed their own men, bed fellows and lackeys in almost all fields, especially in academic field and media. Through Nurul Hassan, the then Central Education Minister, they got their own men appointed in important positions in universities, colleges and apex institutions like UGC, NCERT, ICHR, ICSSR, JNU, ASI, etc. In fact, Nurul Hassan was the founder-father of the School of Distortion of Indian history and so-called historians of today’s secular brand were his footmen and orderlies. They, also, got their minions and leftists installed in highly circulated English newspapers and TV channels including Akashvani and Doordarshan. These appointees, who were otherwise persons of mediocre intelligence and calibre, masqueraded as eminent intellectuals, historians, thinkers, literary critics, educationists, academics etc and are often invited by TV channels as panelists to harp on their communal brand of secularism. These lackey were required to discharge some specific tasks in the manner that could serve the political interest of their masters. Take for example, the case of history textbooks writers. The chief task required to be performed by these writers was to glorify the Muslim invaders and rulers and also the Nehru dynasty, namely Moti Lal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru and denigrate and deride those national heroes and patriots, who fought against the foreign rulers or opposed them, in the books written by them.

Two examples from NCERT school texts would suffice to show how brazenly and impudently these demagogues and high priests of secularism, born out of the unholy wedlock of emergencists and communists, have distorted Indian history and denigrated the national heroes of our freedom movement.

About Lala Lajpat Rai who was a pioneer of All India Trade Union Congress and presided its first session in 1920 and was the Congress president in 1923, known as Sher-e-Punjab, Bipin Chandra of JNU writes in Modern India (A history textbook for class XII, pages 236, 237)— “….The result was that the growing feeling that all people were Indians first received a set back. Even the Swarajist Party, whose main leaders Moti Lal Nehru and C R Das, were staunch nationalists, was split by communalism. A group known as Responsivists including Madan Mohan Malviya, Lala Lajpat Rai and N C Kelkar, offered cooperation to the government so that the so-called Hindu interests might be safeguarded. They accused Moti Lal Nehru of letting down Hindus, of being anti-Hindu, of favouring cow-slaughter, and of eating beef. The Muslim communalists were no less active in fighting for the loaves and fishes of office.”

About Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bipin Chandra writes in the same text(page 266)— “With the collapse of Japan in the war during 1944-45, the INA too met defeat and Subhas Bose was killed in an aeroplane accident on his way to Tokyo. Even though his strategy of winning freedom in cooperation with the fascist powers was criticised at the time by most Indian nationalists, by organising INA he set an inspiring example of patriotism before the Indian people and Indian army.”

Now what impressions can the students get from the above texts. Let us summarise them.

1. Moti Lal Nehru and C R Das were staunch nationalists.

2. Madan Mohan Malviya, Lala Lajpat Rai and NC Kelkar were communalists.

3. Raising voice against cow-slaughter and beef-eating was communal and the nationalists like Moti Lal Nehru and C R Das were anti-Hindus, favoured cow-slaughter and beef-eating.

4. Malviya, Lajpat Rai and Kelkar were fighting for the loaves and fishes of office.

5. Netaji Subhas Bose cooperated with the fascist powers and was their friend/ stooge.

6. Indian nationalists were critical of his role.

7. He was more patriot rather than a nationalist. Nationalism is different from patriotism.

This is how these secularists have brain washed the whole generation of people and Indian students during last three decades or so. Any reform in the curriculum or the system would shatter their citadel and vested interests they have developed during these years at the cost of national interests.

(The writer can be contacted at 660/10, Krishna Colony, Gurgaon-122 001 (Haryana))

The nine ways of devotion to God [Sant Ravidas Jayanti—February 9]

By Rajesh Pathak

Navdha Bhakti, as expounded in Ramcharit-manas, originally consists in the nine ways of devotion to God. But, as the medieval period approached there came to be added in this Navdha Bhakti another cult in virtue of Ramanand Swami. Known as Madhurya Bhakti, in this tenth cult Bhakta[devotee], having no other desire, loves God only for the love’s sake.

Later, when the devotees of the cult swelled to a sizeable number, they formed their own separate sect, Rasik Sampradaya. Born in 1399 AD near Mughalsarai, Ravidas, a cobbler by caste, was one of the great saints belonging to the Rasik Sampradaya; others being Kabir, Dahnna, Sain, Pipa, Padmavati, etc.—all from depressed class, and initiated by Ramanand Swami.

It is believed that since Ravidas’s parents were in close proximity of Ramananda Swami and held him on high esteem, he graced them with the child Ravidas by the power of his tapa [austerity]. And, as the time passed, the influence of Ramanand Swami on the family manifested more and more in Ravidas, who began to incline towards bhakti; so much so that his parents grew concerned of his future. And, they deputed him in the family business and even married him, thinking it might divert his mind to physical world. Yet, not deflecting from the chosen goal, Ravidas continued to earn the knowledge of Vedas, Upanishads and so on in the divine proximity of Ramananda, along with doing the ancestral profession of footwear. Whenever he would get a chance he accompanied Swamiji in participating religious polemics then held from place to place. Then, a time also came when even the greatest of contemporary sages began to surrender themselves before Ravidas in such polemics.

The tales of Ravidas’s spiritual wisdom soon spread all around, and when they reached the ears of the king of Kashi, he invited him to his palace. So mesmerised the king got to be to encounter the splendour in the bhakti of Ravidas that he offered him the highest honour of royal priest, one privileged with performing of ceremonial worship of Sri Rama of royal temple. But, this unprecedented step led to deep discontentment and jealousy among the orthodox Brahmins, as none other than Brahmin could have ascended to this supreme holy seat till then. There goes a very interesting legend regarding this episode: Seeing that the Brahmins would not so easily be pacified, Ravidas offered them a challenge that whoever by virtue of his bhakti would be able to call Thakur [statue of Sri Ram] near himself from the temple he would have the privilege to be seated on the palanquin and be taken around the Kashi by others giving their shoulders to the palanquin. And, when one by one all the Brahmins tried and failed to do so, Ravidas through the sheer miracle of his intense bhakti appeased Sri Ram and had him sit on his lap. Thus, according to the bet, the Brahmins,all their ego drained off, gave their shoulders to the palanquin, with Ravidas seated majestically on it, and took it around the city.

Ravidas by now had attained that divine state that the people of all the hues began to throng from far flung places to hear his religious discourses. Far ahead of his contemporaries in knowledge and outlook, he laid great emphasis on removing all kind of distinctions in religious and social affairs in his discourses. Rejecting the exclusivist approach to Dharma, he preached that moksha could be attained through either of the paths, Sakara or Nirakara. Being spiritual, he was, as a matter of fact, above the worldly bondage, yet he was not averse to the national exigencies of his time. Deeply hurt with the plight of Hindus then, he unequivocally condemned Mughals for treating them [Hindus] as ‘Kafirs’. So also, adoring the value of freedom, he called the slavery as a sin.

It was the time when Rana Sangha was the king of Chittorgarh. Once, with his wife, Ratnakuwari Jhali, visited Kashi to have holy dip of Ganga. Coming to know of Ravidas from the folk there, they approached to his hut to join the satsang [religious congregation]. Divine bliss which they realised in virtue of satsang left such a deep impression on them that they accepted Ravidas as their Guru, and invited him to Chittorgarh as the royal guest. And, later, there came many occasions when Ravidas kept visiting them. And, from these visits born the great devotee of Sri Krishna, Mirabai—the daughter-in-law of Rani Jhali. It is said that Ravidas was the first to lay the seed of devotion in Mirabai. Ravidas made Chittorgarh his permanent home on the request of Rani Jhali. And, there one day this great soul departed to heavenly abode.

(The writer can be contacted at D-327, Nehru Nagar Bhopal, MP)