Andhra politics

New Delhi rushes to join Russian energy race

India, the world’s second fastest growing economy, relies on oil and gas imports for its economic development. And, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh observed, it can no longer remain complacent in the face of China’s global campaign to acquire reliable energy supplies. Thus India has launched an aggressive campaign to secure its own dependable supplies of both oil and gas. While India’s campaign is global in scope, a major focus is clearly on Gulf, Russian, and Central Asian supplies. Therefore, India is negotiating with Iran to obtain equity access to blocs of Iranian oil and gas and to build a series of oil and gas pipelines. Among the latter are gas pipelines from Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then India, and a second one from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then to India. This latter pipeline, known as the “TAP line” denoting the three states besides India, represents an attempt to revive a proposal that was discussed in the middle 1990s only to fall apart due to the advent of the Taliban.

However, India is no less active in Russia and Central Asia as a whole, not just in Turkmenistan. At the December 3-4, 2004, summit with Russia, India announced a $3 billion investment in the Sakhalin-3 oil field and the joint Russian-Kazakh Kurmangazy oil field in the Caspian. India’s Energy Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, has stated, “What I am talking about is the strategic alliance with Russia in energy security, which is becoming, for India at least, as important as our national security.”

Indeed, India’s quest for energy is so driving a factor in its foreign policy that it agreed to have the national Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) enter what is a transparent dummy bid for the remnants of Yukos in Russia, the efficient energy producer that was destroyed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government for political reasons, in order to gain favor in Moscow’s eyes by legitimating this phony auction. Presumably this favor will lead to enhanced access to Russian energy and heightened cooperation with Russian energy firms.

Since then, the pace of Indo-Russian and Indo-Kazakh discussions has only quickened. India has announced that it will seek more investments in Russia and is pursuing new deals with Moscow that could amount to $20 billion. Russia, for its part, is open to considering deals that would bring Indian firms, particularly India’s national ONGC, into fields in the Far East, Eastern Siberia, the Barents Sea, and the Timan-Pechora region. India would participate with Gazprom, Rosneft, and Transneft and these deals could include parts of the former Yukos and was suggested earlier. Altogether, it appears that ONGC has been offered holdings in a total of 11 different Russian energy projects, including Yuganskneftgaz, the core asset of Yukos. ONGC, acting with state support, will also loan Rosneft $6 billion to help it acquire a 76.79% stake in Yuganskneftgaz. But if ONGC’s efforts to gain equity there fail, Russia has promised it an alternative stake in the Vankorskoe oil field in Eastern Siberia and 4-5 million tons of crude oil annually. Aiyar also reiterated that Russia is India’s single most important ally in the energy sector, because their strong supply matches India’s strong demand.

India is also active in Kazakhstan. It has formally bid for immediate participation in the Tengiz and Kashagan oil fields and the Kurmangazy and Darkhan exploration blocs. India is also interested in nine other exploration blocs in and around the Caspian Sea. Aiyar also offered the services of India’s Gail Ltd., a gas infrastructure firm, as a project consortium partner in Kazakhstan’s three pipelines with China. Gail is also eager to invest in gas processing and petrochemical plants in association with other Indian public-sector companies in the Kazakh towns of Atyrau and Akhtau and to improve oil recovery in older fields in Kazakhstan. In order to promote this comprehensive plan of Indian participation in all aspects of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas projects, both sides agreed to establish a joint working group to examine and develop various projects for cooperation.

India’s aggressive oil and gas diplomacy hardly stops here and is global in scope. India has also sponsored energy roundtables with OPEC and with Russia and CIS governments. Its diplomats are also pushing a plan for an Asian oil market and gas grid, essentially some sort of consumers’ club in what is already the fastest growing energy market and what will be the largest one. All these signs of activity denote India’s rising capabilities, demands, and ability to satisfy them. Henceforth India, no less than China, will be a major player in Central Asian and Russian energy issues. As it is equally interested in Central Asia for strategic reasons, India will be a factor to be reckoned with on those issues too.

(The Hindu, November 14, 2004; Vedomosti, December 8, 2004; Energy Compass, February 11; webindia123.com, January 7, February 14, 19, and 23; The Telegraph [Calcutta], February 18; thestar.com, February 23; aljazeerah.info, January 7; Moscow Times, January 11 and February 22; Nezavisimaya gazeta, February 22).

–Stephen Blank

While terrorism is going up on all sides of India now, our defense budget is actually going down, thanks to the pseudo-secularists in the Congress and leftist parties.

Defence budget: some worries

There is no reason to allow un-expended defence funds to lapse at the end of a financial year

GURMEET KANWAL

Posted online: Monday, February 28, 2005 at 0000 hours IST

The emergence of Bangladesh as the new hub of Islamic terrorism, the political uncertainty in Nepal and the spread of Maoist militancy across several states, have added new challenges to India’s traditional security threats. Despite this, India’s defence expenditure continues to decrease in real terms and as a percentage of the GDP, year after year.

It has decreased progressively from 3.59 per cent in financial year (FY) ’87-’88 to 2.3 per cent in FY ’04-’05. The gap between the needs assessed by the services and what is actually made available is invariably large. In FY ’04-’05, the services projected a requirement of Rs 1,03,150.70 crore and the finance minister made a provision of Rs 77,000 crore. The shortfall between the requirement and the allocation is 25.35 per cent.

Capital expenditure that goes towards modernisation has been the main casualty of this drop in the average annual growth rate of defence expenditure. Even as the share of capital expenditure was falling as a percentage of the defence budget (from 31.8 per cent in 1991-92 to 26.95 per cent in 1997-98), the rupee depreciated by about 75 per cent against the US dollar and other hard currencies. Given inflation, this resulted in the stoppage of the replacement of obsolescent equipment and force modernisation as whatever funds still remained in the capital account kitty had to be utilised to meet previous liabilities for weapons and equipment.

This dismal situation shows no signs of improving. Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence has argued for long that the budgetary allocations made for defence are grossly inadequate. The 11th Finance Commission had also recommended that defence expenditure be raised to around 3 per cent of the GDP by 2004-05. The finance minister’s political compulsions in not being able to raise the defence expenditure by cutting down wasteful subsidies that amount to over Rs 100,000 crore are compounded further by the inability of the MoD and MoF to fully utilise even the allotted funds. Over the last five years, on average, a budgeted amount varying between Rs 5,000 to 9,000 crore was unspent annually. Of these, large chunks of unexpended funds, approximately 75 per cent underutilisation was in funds earmarked for capital expenditure. Clearly, despite the much-trumpeted reform in procurement, the acquisition of new weapons and equipment by the armed forces is still mired in red tape.

The services continue to be plagued by large-scale shortages. Obsolescent war machines continue to be stationed for frontline duty. The air force is still flying refurbished MiG-21s with an alarming accident rate that does no credit to its fine reputation. The acquisition of a large number of force multipliers like long-range rocket, artillery and surveillance systems for the army, Scorpene submarines for the navy and replacement fighter aircraft for the air force is still under “active consideration” several decades after their requirement was first projected. The ongoing revolution in military affairs is passing India by.

During the Kargil conflict, there was a rush to import a large number of critical items of equipment and spares, including 155-mm Bofors artillery ammunition. General V.P. Malik, then army chief, had stated that the army, “would make do with what we have”. Since then, the conventional military capabilities of the armed forces, particularly the army, have been seriously degraded by a progressive decline in defence expenditure, even as commitments for internal security duties and counter-insurgency operations have increased in J&K and the Northeast.

The virtues of long-term defence planning do not need to be emphasised. Military capabilities take several decades of painstaking effort to build. These must not be subjected to the vagaries of annual budgetary exercises. Only a long-term financial commitment can ensure that systematic planning can be undertaken for the modernisation of the armed forces. Former finance minister, Jaswant Singh, had created history of sorts by instituting a rolling, non-lapsable defence modernisation fund of Rs 25,000 crore in the interim budget for FY ’04-’05. This progressive measure did not find favour with the new government.

Without such a fund, large amounts of the planned capital expenditure will continue to be surrendered, year after year, due to paralysis in decision making. There is no reason to allow un-expended defence funds to lapse at the end of a financial year. These must be carried forward, only then can long- and medium-term strategies for force modernisation be implemented.

If there is no improvement in the national security environment, economic investment will not flow to India in the quantum the nation needs to lift its people above the poverty line. The defence budget has, in fact, a far greater impact than is generally assumed.

The writer is senior fellow, Observer Research Foundation

The F/A-22, in Fire and Flak

By John A. Tirpak, Executive Editor

After a year in which the F/A-22’s technical and manufacturing problems were fixed, and in which the fighter proved it could perform as advertised, the Defense Department in late December moved to halt the program when it has produced fewer than half the aircraft the Air Force insists the service needs to fulfill its mission.

The cut to USAF’s top priority system was a body blow to the service and the wider US military, which is depending on the stealthy, speedy Raptors to provide the “kick down the door” capability needed to gain access to any well-defended military theater of the future. How it will do that now must be thoroughly rethought.

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A man is a prisoner of his conscience. Replace conscience with vows and you have Ram Vilas Paswan, the new kingmaker of Bihar: An edgy captive to his vows of “preferring a cup of poison to siding with a communal BJP or corrupt RJD.”

But with the Bihar electorate throwing up a decisively anti-Lalu, but equally fractured mandate, Mr Paswan has to choose between his cups of poison. If he picks the right one, it guarantees his elevation to the status of Neelkanth. The wrong cup will leave him dead and irrelevant in Bihar politics.

Standing at a difficult crossroads of his political career, Mr Paswan has only two choices - either side with the BJP-JD(U) combine with the strong possibility of becoming the Bihar Chief Minister or side with the RJD and continue playing second fiddle to his bete-noire Lalu Prasad Yadav in Central as well as State politics.

His oft-repeated rhetoric for imposition of President’s Rule in Bihar is an option which is least suitable to him. Continuing as a Cabinet Minister, devoid of a key portfolio like Home, Mr Paswan will have hardly any say in governance of Bihar under President Rule. It will merely leave Congress reaping the harvest of his efforts in breaking the stranglehold of Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav over Bihar.

Under President’s Rule, Bihar will only prove to be a fertile ground for Congress revival with Mr Paswan running a slow but sure risk of getting sidelined in his own home State from where he draws his political sustenance. So can one dismiss Mr Paswan’s demand for President Rule as mere rhetoric?

Elimination of the chances of President Rule in Bihar leaves Mr Paswan with the option of toeing the Congress-line and supporting its efforts in installing a secular government in Bihar. This primarily boils down to bringing back the RJD-led Government with the support of Lok Janshakti Party Congress, and the NCP etc.

At best, for supporting the RJD rule, Paswan could hope to get a lucrative portfolio, possibly Ministry of Railway at the Centre. It’s a proposition, which would only lead to a severe loss of face for Mr Paswan, more so in the quick aftermath of his bitter six-month-long, anti-Lalu campaign to dislodge the Rabri Devi regime.

Moreover, fairly large numbers of the newly-elected MLAs of Mr Paswan’s party belong to the upper caste and have won on the anti-RJD votes and they cannot risk annoying their constituencies by siding with Mr Lalu Yadav. This implies that any drift by Mr Paswan towards the RJD may exposes his party to the prospect of a split.

This leaves him with the third option of siding with the BJP-JD(U) combine in formation of the Bihar Government. Despite his bitter, anti-BJP rhetoric in the past, opting for the BJP-JD(U) combine may prove to be a win-win situation for Mr Paswan. For this option gives him the distinct possibility of becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar, which goes well with his development-oriented campaign for the State Assembly election.

Additionally, during the campaign of 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Mr Paswan described the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre as “a wound in the head”. Since formation of the Congress-led UPA Government, Mr Paswan has been describing Lalu-Rabri regime in Bihar as “a decomposing wound in the leg”.

Having successfully cured the head of its wound, Mr Paswan could logically be expected to proceed to treat the wound in the leg.

Additionally, a tenure as the Bihar CM, would give his party the much-needed oxygen to grow in its home State and emerge strong enough to keep the reason of the wound in the leg at bay for good.

Mr Paswan could very well take a leaf from BSP leader Mayawati’s book. Despite entering into a post-poll alliance with the BJP on three occasions, Mayawati never got the communal tag, and her party kept on growing. Political experts feel that if Mr Paswan joined hands with the NDA to become CM, he will have a chance to prove himself the real messiah of the minority community by offering them a bounty of sops in Bihar. So that he could tell the Muslims that while Lalu Prasad only exploited them in the name of secularism, he was their real champion.

Dailypioneer

Dina Nath Mishra

Let’s be open about it

In Bihar, Muslims comprise 16.5 per cent of the population and
have been the sole determinants of power for 15 years.

Muslims have played a major role in shaping Indian politics. They
form 13.4 per cent of our population. States where Muslims account for
more than 10 per cent of the population are Lashkadweep (95.5 per
cent), J&K (67 per cent), Assam (31 per cent), W Bengal (25 per cent),
Kerala (24.7 per cent), Bihar (16.5 per cent), Jharkhand (13.8 per cent),
Karnataka (12.2 per cent), Uttaranchal (11.9 per cent), Delhi (11.7 per
cent) and Maharashtra (10.6 per cent).

Muslims are concentrated in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam,
especially in districts bordering Nepal. Western UP has been witnessing a
demography change for some time .

When Nationalist forces rang alarm bells just after the release
of the 2001 Census figures, the secular brigade derided it as a saffron
propaganda. Left wing Economic and Political Weekly of January 29,
2005, devoted an entire issue to it. By their hair-splitting arguments
about fertility differentials by religion literacy and female-to-male
ratio, they pooh-poohed the “saffron propaganda”.

A decade back, former IB chief T V Rajeshwar wrote an alarming
piece about religious demographic changes in certain parts of India and
warned the country that the threat of another Partition is looming
large. He is former Uttar Pradesh Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri. When the UPA
Government came to power, the so-called saffronite governor was
summarily dismissed and Rajeshwar was brought in his place.

Most writers and researchers who have flexed their intellectual
muscles to disapprove the so-called saffron propaganda have banked on
Muslim illiteracy for the rise in Muslim population. This impression is
quite erroneous.

Dr Omar Khalidi was born in Hyderabad and emigrated to the US in
1977. He did his masters from Harvard University and PhD from the
University of Wales. Currently, he is teaching in the Massachusetts
University of Technology as a staff member of the Agha Khan programme.

In his interview to Radiance Views, a Jamaat-e-Islami weekly, he
said: “We need Muslim-majority districts for three reasons. First,
concentrated areas provide security. Second, they provide an environment
that is conducive to our cultural independence. Third, they provide a
political base through which our people can be elected. At present,
constituencies have been created in a way that our numbers don’t add up to
elect adequate legislators…. Hyderabad and Rangareddy in Andhra Pradesh
and Gulbarga and certain talukas could be merged to create a Deccan
province. Similarly in Bihar, the regions of Katihar, Kishanganj and
Purniya can be made into an Urdu-speaking province or a Union Territory.
There are regions in Bengal and UP where Muslims can be in majority.
Though, a large number of Muslims would still be left out, having these
strongholds is important for their future. This would ensure proper
political representation in States and we would have our voice in Parlia!
ment…. A decade ago, it was not fashionable to talk about reservation
for Muslims. Today, Muslims have reservation in Kerala and Karnataka.
In Andhra, too, we are likely to get reservation. Don’t judge everything
from what’s happening today. Huq liye jaten hain pesh nahin kiye jate.”

The cat is out of the bag. The ummah has to Islamise the whole
world. Jehadis are fighting for it. In India, they, too, have an agenda.
Dr Khalidi has just put it in words and has, in fact, given a clarion
call. Jinnah propounded the ‘Two-Nation Theory’ and carved out a nation
of Dar-ul-Islam (land of believers). The rest of India is Dar-ul-Harb
(land of non-believers) which needs to be conquered.

Our brand of secularism has not just partitioned India, but
several other countries as well. Those who do not learn from history are
condemned to repeat it. Indians don’t mind a Barkatullah as Chief Minister
of Rajasthan. In fact, most Indians celebrated the rise of Dr APJ Abdul
Kalam as President. It was his merit not religion that enabled him to
reach the position. But Muslim appeasement by political parties must be
condemned.

Our intellectuals and secular parties have an ostrich like
altitude. Indians failed to understand Islam, an expansionist political
religion. Even now, our intellectuals cry foul whenever the question of
demographic aggression and high percentage of increase in Muslim population
is raised.

Ex-ISI chiefs versus Musharraf —Khaled Ahmed Urdu Press Review

The three ISI generals reflect badly on the intellectual resource of the ISI, but Musharraf is saved by the fact that these gentlemen are also strategically inept. Out of the three, one is most light-weight but we should not be misled by his example into thinking that all fanatically religious people are intellectually deficient

Retired generals usually try to remain on the right side of the reigning chief of the army staff. But a group these days is breaking the unspoken rule. Most of them have a reputation of being swashbuckling in their own way. It becomes worrisome when generals retired from the intelligence agencies speak in terms more suited to the space devoted in the Urdu press to nationalist passions.

Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt (January 9, 2005) ex-ISI chief General (Retd) Javed Nasir said that those who were making concessions to India should be ashamed of themselves after India refused to accommodate Pakistan’s right approach on Baglihar Dam. He said that after Baglihar on the Chenab river India would start building a dam on Jhelum River. Then what would the government do? He said if everyone could be defied on the question of uniform then why couldn’t everyone be defied on the question of Kalabagh Dam which was more important than the uniform? If Pakistan were to stop being distracted (idhar udhar dekhna) Bharat could be taught a lesson.

Mr Javed Nasir was once a supporter of Musharraf. That was the period in which Kargil happened. After being relieved from the ISI rather unceremoniously, he was ensconced in Lahore looking after Sikh yatrees and setting up their gurudwara ‘supra’ committees that would raise hackles in India. He didn’t care that his support to Kargil would be taken ill by prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Then Musharraf took over and removed Javed Nasir from his job in Lahore. Now the ex-ISI general has joined the anti-Musharraf chorus started by General Hameed Gul and General Asad Durrani, the latter criticising the Wana Operation recently on GEO TV. The three ISI generals reflect badly on the intellectual resource of the ISI; but Musharraf is saved by the fact that these gentlemen are also strategically so inept. Out of the three, Javed Nasir is the most light-weight. But one should not be misled by his example into thinking that all fanatically religious people are intellectually deficient. The fourth general, this time non-ISI, who has decided to take on Musharraf is General Faiz Ali Chishti who once famously said that Pakistan had neglected to educate its masses because ‘you don’t keep good furniture in the house if the roof is leaking’.

Quoted by daily Insaf (January 7, 2005) leader of Jamaat Dawa (former Lashkar-e-Tayba) Hafiz Saeed stated that the Northern Areas of Pakistan were being turned apostate (murtad) through the Aga Khan Foundation. He said Pakistan was not Islamic therefore each Muslim should enforce Shariat in his house. He said Hindus, Jews and Christians were active in the garb of NGOs and were being protected by them.

Hafiz Saeed is invariably lethal. He is now building up the mythical case of an Ismaili conspiracy in the Northern Areas. Using the word murtad is significant because the punishment for a murtad is death in the eyes of the Islamists. The above statement is a clear invitation to a ‘permissible’ vigilante attempt on the lives of poor non-Muslims and Islamic sects the hardline clergy doesn’t like.

According to Insaf, (January 7, 2005) monitoring committee of Multan local government warned that all actresses taking part in cultural shows and theatre should change their names in case such names meant something sacred or were associated with sacred personalities. The committee said that the actresses should present themselves to the committee but perform wuzu (Islamic ablution) before arriving and should be clad in burqa.

Multan is showing signs of future trouble. Our intelligence agencies should profile the city. The work should be done by our universities, but they have long since stopped doing any useful sociological research. The Multan committee is moving towards violence against culture. All the tell-tale signs are there.

Columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan wrote in Jang (January 18, 2005) that Raja Munawwar was an armchair commentator these days because he was not ‘fit’ with the new set-up. Raja Sahib told a gathering of friends that today Sardar Akbar Bugti was pretending to be the commander of the Baloch against the federal government but in the 1970s he was himself the ruler of Balochistan when military action was started there under Pakistan’s most popular ruler, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Then Raja Sahib gave he example of Indira Gandhi who took action in East Punjab to quell the separatism of the Sikhs and gave her life but did not give up the writ of the state there.

Balochistan has Baloch nationalism which may decline into warlordism if it wins. It has little chance of winning because of the trespass of the Pushtun in the province. Two kinds of tribalisation is in process. The Baloch tribalisation and the Pushtun one, both pre-modern in their essence. Lack of development — without assigning blame in a complex scenario — has fixed the province in the amber of retarded evolution. The state anywhere in the world is irreducibly coercive by its very nature. It depends on how it sweetens the bitter pill to re-establish its writ in Balochistan.

Columnist Irshad quoted Baloch Sardar Ataullah Mengal in Jang (January 18, 2005) saying that out of the 33,275 Frontier Constabulary soldiers only 300 were from Balochistan. The coast guard on the coast of Sindh and Balochistan contained only 3 percent Baloch, 19 percent Sindhis, 16 percent from the NWFP and 62 percent Punjabis. In Balochistan the government ran 586 checkpoints which meant that every one thousand population of the province had a checkpoint over them. He said the ratio of checkpoint to population was more severe in Balochistan than in Indian Held Kashmir.

Since there is hardly any police in Balochistan, removing the checkpoints will leave the province without any semblance of the writ of the state. A sardar should not speak on this because he (usually) has his personal army that will fill the gap if you remove the checkpoints he wants removed. For the sake of good politics, let someone else make the plaint.

Writing in Jang (January 18, 2005) Nazir Naji stated that there was authentic news that the Baloch youth was being sent to the American-dominated Gulf states where they were being trained for a final ‘secular’ insurgency in Balochistan. This was what was meant when Chaudhry Shujaat said that a foreign power was involved in Balochistan. The US was not happy with Musharraf over the many things he had promised to do, therefore, the Americans were putting into action their plan of separating Balochistan with its natural resources. Under the new situation the traditional Baloch leadership would become irrelevant. This meant that the state of Pakistan and the sardars would both lose out.

Who in the region is free of American domination? The Baloch boys could be sent to Islamabad where Musharraf is the strong American proxy. The Gulf Arabs hate the US just as we do. How can the Gulf be a safe place? If you say this to the Americans they say this news is mere fantasy. Where is the proof that the Americans are separating Balochistan from Pakistan? *

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_25-2-2005_pg3_5

The Ant-Hindu , anti-India coalition of several Indian-American humanitarian Associations, comprising of Muslim, Christian, and pseudo secular Indian groups are moving ahead with its campaign to tarnish Hindu Image and India by protesting the visit of Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat to USA . According to our sources , these groups are funded by clandestine members of Pakistani Intelligence ISI , acting as members of this coalition , Pakistan government embassy is watching the developments closely and giving media support by using pakistan friendly journalists , and also soon pulling strings in congress to issue a statement by a congressmen . For them Narendra Modi ” who bears the responsibility for the extraordinary oppression and violence directed against the religious minoroties in Gujarat ” , this is ironic to make such unwarrent statement , giving an impression that this is the first time a riot took place in Gujarat . It has to be reminded that this is 13th riot that took place in the city of Goadhra, and Gujarat had a history of communal riots under congress governments . Since these self styled seculars and humanitarian associations loath anything Hindu , and in particular their hate towards BJP and RSS , they are vociferous about leaders of BJP and RSS . They are stone silence about 1984 Ant-Sikh riots where congress leaders and workers butchered over 3000 innocent sikhs .

This is not first time they are doing such acts , earlier RSS Spokesperson Mr.Ram Madhav was invited to leatures in US universities, these same groups protested againts such visit . We urge all Patriotic citizens and Indian diaspora to watch these anti-india , ant-hindu individuals and entities and build the awareness network to protect India and it;s reputation . These people are TRAITORS to put in in one word , and hope you all know what to do with these traitors , just equate these worthless morons as pakistanis and ostracize from our community .

This HATE HINDU , HATE INDIA “Coalition is implementing a multiprong campaign, that comprises of political action, media action, disseminating information to the public and holding protest rallies.”

So far they did following

1. Letters signed by a large number of Indian-American professors in the faculties of various universities in US, have been sent to:

- US Secretary of State Condeleza Rice, requesting her to deny entry to Modi into US.

- County Executive of Brovard county (Ft Lauderdale) FL, requesting him to deny Modi entry to the County Convention Center, where the AAHOA convewntion is being held.

- Senior Officebearers of AAHOA requesting them to rescind the
invitation to Modi to their convention (March 24-26).

Copies of these letters have been distributed to a large number of US and Indian newspapers and media outlets.

2. Advertisements are being developed for publication in US newspapers in cities that Modi is likely to visit.

3. Preparations are being made to hold protest rallies at the site of Modi’s public meetings in various cities.

This campaign requires thousands of dollars for the many expenses , our Intelligence sources say that Saudi Arabian embassy official has also promised to part finance their activity along with Pakistani Embassy officials . Though it appears very trivial for ordinary Indian citizens and diaspora, this is a international conspiracy to destablise India and it’s Image before the world , the sickening fact is people have joined hands with our enemies are Indian Passport carrying people , Indian diaspora , working in various academia and Media circles in USA .These are the same people who attacked Indian Charity organization IDRF some timeback .

We are living through interesting times, not beause it is the Budget season. The air in Chennai is rife with the possibility of mid-term, snap polls in August 2005, just a year after the repeal of the anti-conversion law in Dravidanadu.

These polls should be channeled to include polls for Lok Sabha, by deft intervention by NDA activists who should encourage people like M. Karunanidhi (MK) to get angry every day until Aug. 2005. Here are two reports about the reason for M Karunanidhi’s anger against Congress (aka Antonia Maino) and his recalling 6 central ministers of DMK for an emergency political review session in Chennai on Feb. 27. Maybe, they will get back in time to show secular solidarity when the Budget is unveiled on Feb. 28. Maybe, not.

There is another angle to the problem. The marriage of convenience between Antonia Maino and Jayalalithaa seems to have been forged around August 2004 after J. withdrew the anti-conversion law in absolute haste. This is just a stab in the back for MK coming from an UPA of which he was an architect.

Since the repeal of the anti-conversion law, two major events have occurred related to the role of these two — Mother India and Mother Dravidanadu — 1. Golden Star of Honour and Dignity Award given to J. in Oct. 2004 by Mallavarapu Prakash (Bishop of Vijayawada), india rep. and Natalya Krivutsa (Vice-Chariperson, Intl. Human Rights Defense Committee, Ukraine); 2. Binny Hinn show in Bangalore which honoured Grace Brenta, the rep. of Antonia Maino. Both events highlight the bonhomie achieved by the duo promoting the christist agenda. The award on Feb. 24, by Rotary Intl. (Benjamin Christian) on J’s birthday is an icing on the cake. All the walls of Chennai city are plastered with glory posters hailing the Thanga Tarakai (Tamil translation of Golden Star).

Naturally, this should have made M. Karunanidhi worried that he is not even being recognized as the sole representative of Tolkappiya Tamil since World Federation of Tamil Youth Inc. is celebrating J as the Best Statesperson of the nation ever. (The Inc. is headed by Dr. Vijay Prabhakar, a physician, who had authored a biography of J which earned him a Ph.D. given by National Theological Christian College, Chicago). Dr. Prabhakar was in the city in the wake of the tsunami on the same day when KA Paul of Paul Charity City in Hyderabad arrived in his private jet and who did they and Mallavarapu Prakash meet? J.

Bishop of Vijayawada, Mallavarapu Prakash was made Chairman of Tamilnadu Minorities Welfare Commission. Imagine a man from Vijayawada guiding Dravidanadu minority concerns.

MK has seen through the new coalitions emerging between AIADMK and Congress (read: J and Antonia Maino) as exemplars of secular politics (read, encouraging evangelists and proselytizers). No wonder MK is worried.

That the hindu are taken for granted in this one-uppance to pamper the conversion melas is obvious. MK didn’t realise that he was walking into the trap set by J when he unwittingly supported J’s actions against Kanchi matham. He was blinded by his passion for anti-brahmin rhetoric. Now he should be seeing through the broader political alliance game being played out in Dravidanadu well beyond brahmin, into anti-hindu claptrap.

It is for investigative journalists to figure out if the awards are mere plaques or if they are packed in greenbacks.

Now, what should leaders like George Fernandes and LK Advani do? I think they will do well to focus on preventing a third-front emerging, led by commies.

NDA should work for a broader-based, expanded network of NDA as a direct opposition to Antonia Maino-Surjeet-J alliance. If such an opposition is posited, wind will be taken out of Surjeet’s secular sails. Being secular will become a symbol of being national security risks.

We will talk about what the expanded NDA should do when in power. For now, just corner the trio into a phony secular trap: Antonia Maino-Surjeet-J . Encourage MK to get angry every day. It looks as though an opportunity to forge an anti-secular, pro-hindu, national, swaabhimaan coalition is emerging.

Dhanyavaadah.Kalyanaraman

DMK summons its Ministers from Delhi

Chennai/New Delhi, Feb. 25. (PTI): The sharp remarks of Union Minister E V K S Elangovan demanding a share in power for his party, Congress, in Tamil Nadu has stirred a hornet’s nest, creating strains in relations with DMK, which has summoned all its ministers at the Centre for a meeting on Sunday in Chennai. A meeting of the party’s High Level Action Committee has been convened in Chennai to discuss the “current political situation”, a party statement said. However, the Congress high command stepped in quickly to douse the fire dissociating itself from the remarks of the Minister of State for Commerce.

A day after Elangovan’s reported remarks at a party meeting in Chennai that the Congress party was being run not to put “others in the saddle” in the state, the DMK, under whose leadership the UPA coalition swept all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry last year, called all its ministers to Chennai. The DMK statement did not refer to Elangovan’s remarks but party sources said the meeting of the High-Level Action Committee would discuss that.

Elangovan, a former PCC president, however, stuck to his statement in Delhi saying “revival of Kamaraj rule”, an euphemism for Congress in power, was the declared policy of the Congress since 1967 and there was nothing new in it. “I have not spoken against anybody and I have high regards for DMK president M Karunanidhi,” he added.

http://www.newstodaynet.com/25FEB/LD2.HTM

Brave officials give Bihar its best polls

By Amarnath Tewary in Patna
Thursday, 24 February , 2005, 11:40
Bihar elections have always been a bloody affair. But this time, thanks to some gutsy officials, it has been conducted in a fairly orderly fashion.

Though ten people lost their lives during the last phase of poll, it was relatively a violence-free election in Lalu’s Bihar. And thanks to the security, more people came out to vote.

Aware of the topography of the State’s electoral firmament, the Election Commission sought the services of a steel-framed, upright officer KJ Rao as a special in-charge of Bihar elections. The message was loud and clear: Nothing beyond the guidelines would be tolerated. Full Coverage:State polls 2005

Taking serious note of the spineless Bihar bureaucracy, Rao made some changes, much to the discomfiture of the ruling party boss and his coterie of officials.

Before the first two phases of elections, he asked for a panel of names of officials from the State government, but he soon ordered certain officials to be posted at certain places.

This was bound to cause monstrous resentment within the ruling part. “Now the EC has started acting arbitrarily. It doesn’t think it necessary to ask for the recommendation of the names of officers”, reacted RJD spokesman Shivanand Tiwari. Officers KK Pathak, CK Anil were asked to take charge of Gopalganj and Siwan districts and Ratn Sanjay and Shobha Ahotkar were sent as SPs of Siwan and adjoining Chhapra districts. Soon after taking charge, the officers started playing the law and order tune in their respective areas.

Gopalganj DM KK Pathak ordered externment of Lalu’s infamous brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav from the district till elections were over. The new Siwan DM soon pounced upon the most feared-Sultan of Siwan Mohd Shahabuddin.

The much-feared Shahabuddin was transferred to Patna Beur Jain from the Siwan jail for security reasons. When the ‘crown prince’ got bail, the DM passed an order for his externment from the district for six months under state Crime Control Act. The message swept though the district.

On his part, the AK-56-wielding SP, Ratn Sanjay made his cell phone number public and requested people to contact him “anytime, for anything”.

An infuriated RJD supreme Lalu Prasad cried foul and termed as “violation of the constitutional rights of a citizen”, the externment of his party MPs, including Mohammed Shahabuddin and Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav.

Such confident, educated and self-made officers from lower middle calss families are the ones going to bring about the change in the functioning of govt machinery. With the remnants of british educated, angreji tasting and arrogant ones gradully losing ground to the home grown desi officers, things have to improve. These are the signs of a self confident ordinary Indian. The Sangh and its sister organisations are doing a commendable job in infusing Indian masses with nationalism and Indian moral values.

PROFILE
——————–
Ratan Sanjay

Date of Birth: 9/January/1974

Date of Joining IPS 28/December/1998

Designation SP, Bhabhua

Home State :Uttar Pradesh Year of Allotment 1998

Education Qualification : M.A.

http://www.svpnpa.gov.in/advs.asp?a=0&c=4&y=1998

From a Forum

The Ant and the grasshopper: retold….

CLASSIC VERSION…

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION…

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

BBC, CNN, NDTV show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
grasshopper. Opposition MP’s stage a walkout. Left parties call for “Bharat Bandh” in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]”, with effect from the beginning of the winter. The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by BBC,CNN and NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it “a triumph of justice”.