INDIA SUMMARIZED

GWALIOR: After Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's jibe on corruption, the BJP's Lok Sabha leader of opposition  Sushma Swaraj  also targeted Prime Minister  Manmohan Singh  for his recent claim that he was given an empty glass to fill in 2004. Addressing a Madhya Pradesh  BJP  workers' conclave here on Friday, Sushma Swaraj said: "The BJP-led NDA gave a full glass which has been emptied by rampant and repeated corruption by the  UPA  Centre.'' Two days after the PM's statement on getting an empty glass from the previous NDA government Modi took a dig at him on May 24 and said that the glass was not empty but full with corruption. "The common man has gone bankrupt with  inflation  as UPA ministers kept filling their pockets and looting the government treasury,'' Swaraj argued. "The BJP-led NDA government did not need to restrict subsidized LPG for domestic consumption to six cylinders per family. What made the UPA to impose that ...

Jayalalithaa - DNA Slamming the latest hike in prices of petrol and diesel, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalaithaa today charged the Centre with "fooling" people by reducing the rates of petrol earlier with an eye on the just concluded Karnataka Assembly elections. "Central government had not just reduced prices of petrol since March 16 keeping in mind the Karnataka elections, but had also suspended revising diesel prices. Increasing the prices of diesel twice and petrol once after polls is a fooling act," she said in a statement here. Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) had announced a hike of 75 paise a litre for petrol and 45 paise for diesel in the backdrop of the weakening Indian rupee. Jayalalithaa said it was not acceptable that depreciation of the rupee was a reason for today's price revision. The depreciation was sparked by Central economic policies, deficit in rupee's value and future trading in forex market, she charged. The chief minister ...

“We will not compromise on the principle of secularism. PM candidate should have impeccable secular image.” Thus spoke Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at his party Janata Dal (United)’s national executive meet in Delhi. Secularism is a word that has long been abused and misused in the Indian political context. For long, we have been fed the falsehood that secularism demands treating all religions as equals. We have been conditioned to believe that secularism means we need to have public policies that tolerate all religions equally. Nothing can be farther from the truth than this definition advocated by vested interests. Treating all religions equally and fairly is Religious Pluralism and not secularism. Secularism in fact means “religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.” It also means “a doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations.” There is a remarkable difference between “treating all religions as equal” and “r...

There was an interesting news on Wednesday. It said that Uttar Pradesh Government, headed by a young Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, has given a Minister of State post to a Muslim cleric two days ago. Giving this post basically means that he was not democratically elected, but was specially appointed at the discretion of the Chief Minister. Then we heard that there were protests by BJP against this move. Most casual observers would then move on to the next news item. What’s so special in a seemingly pro-Hindu BJP protesting against a secular Government giving Minister status to a Muslim Maulana? That’s probably the thought process of a typical Left liberal person in India. Hey, wait, there’s a lot more to this. Spare a few minutes. This particular case involves a prominent Muslim cleric of Barelvi Sect,  Mohammed Tauqeer Raza Khan . He’s now an adviser in Handloom Department – a Minister of State. Khan is the Itihaad-e-Millat Council president a...

A Sikh man’s appeal that he be allowed to wear turban while on his police duty was dismissed by an Irish court. The court of Justice Kevin Feeney dismissed the challenge by Ravinder Singh Oberoi to a refusal to allow those training for the Garda Reserve to wear a turban while on duty, The Irish Times reported. Justice Feeney on Thursday said a member of the reserve is not an employee and he could not ignore the clear meaning of the Garda Siochana Act under which members of the force are employed. The Garda Reserve is a voluntary unpaid body drawn from the community to assist the existing police service at times when extra personnel are required. Oberoi, a member of the Irish Sikh community, had completed the first three stages of training for the Garda Reserve when he was told he would have to wear a full Garda uniform and could not wear a turban. That decision meant he was unable to continue his training and become a member of the reserve, Oberoi said. He made a complain...

I have been carrying an intellectual burden since my undergraduate days as a result of quotidian prejudice. This burden is a response to confrontations with Christians of varying shades of fundamentalist Churchianity and professors alike. This prejudice has a history and seeks to contextualise troubling perceptions that communities have about each other. Where does the ardhanaareeshwara figure in this scheme of things? It is, indeed, not in our tendency to overlook and underestimate our tolerant selves. When I first read about identity as one of the filters through which the social sciences can be studied, I began to mitigate my spiritual predilections in order to suit the zeitgeist. I was disturbed because I was unable to have conversations about Hinduism with those Christians who sought to debase my principles by substituting them with theirs. I remained their foe when I asked the most elementary questions like why can’t we define a plural religious culture? This is, unarguably...

The Hindu BCCI chief N. Srinivasan is flanked by Sanjay Jagdale (left), BCCI Honorary secretary and Ajay Shirke, Honorary Treasurer. Mr. Jagdale and Mr. Shirke resigned on Friday. File photo Two top BCCI officials -- secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke -- on Friday quit from their respective posts in a bid to put pressure on beleaguered BCCI president N Srinivasan in the wake of the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal. Mr. Jagdale said he quit from his post as he was deeply hurt by the current crisis that has hit Indian cricket. “Yes, that’s true, I have resigned from the post of honorary secretary of BCCI,” Mr. Jagdale said. “I don’t want to comment further but I am deeply hurt by the recent developments in Indian cricket. I thought it’s better to get out so that some new faces come in and deal with it in a better way,” he added. He, however, refused to divulge the details of the resignation letter sent to Srinivasan. “I can’t comment about the resi...

NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of  CBI  issuing summons to a senior IB official over the Ishrat Jahan encounter case,  BJP  on May 31 accused the  Centre  of misusing the intelligence agency for "political gains", saying it could hurt national security.  "BJP has cautioned repeatedly that under the Congress-led UPA, the misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation is rampant. We fear the  Intelligence Bureau  too is being misused by the UPA government," party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said here.  She said IB shares critical intelligence with the states and an outcome of such a work arrangement was seen on 15 June 2004, when 4 terrorists including Isharat Jahan and Pranesh Pillai alias  Javed Sheikh  were killed. Gujarat police acted on IB information about their movements.  "...in 2010, media reported that David Headley, the brain behind the Mumbai attack implicated Ishrat as a fideyeen of the LeT. Strangely, the ...

Posted by  hinduexistence  on May 31, 2013 5 bomb blasts in Mathura’s Kosikalan at late night to frighten Hindus. Many Hindus injured.  Hindu Existence Media Bureau | Mathura | 31 May 2013  :: The callous Uttar Pradesh Govt. is now totally failed to protect the safety and security of Hindu citizens in UP. The Muslim operators in the UP Govt. are now involved in a nasty game to frighten Hindu populace by the subversive elements connected with different fanatic groups including HuJi. The pro Muslim ruling party lead by Mullah Mulayam Singh and the Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav, son of Mulayam, both are trying to give an open patronage to the Islamic fundamentalists in many way. Some days before Akkhilesh Singh tried to drop out all cases against two HuJi operators connected with 2007 serial blasts in different courts in UP. Afterwards the  UP Govt. extended a 6 lakh rupee support to the family of such a HuJI operator  died recent...

Posted by  hinduexistence  on May 31, 2013 While bloody swines are talking,  prick their tongues with  red hot iron rods. – Jebril. Bring Muslim quota Bill, will back it: Akhilesh to UPA L to R. UP Cabinet minister Azam Khan (Deptt. of Minority Welfare), UP CM Akhilesh Yadav and Union Minority Affairs Minister K Rehman Khan, in Lucknow on Tuesday.  Photo: Vishal Srivastav. Express news service | Lucknow | Wed 29 May 2013::  Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday asked Union Minister for Minority Affairs K Rehman Khan to bring in a constitutional amendment Bill for providing reservation to Muslims. “Providing reservation to Muslims without amendment to the Constitution is not possible. We are ready to support it whenever you bring such a Bill,” Akhilesh stated at a joint press conference with the Union minister at his official residence. In its manifesto of Assembly elections, the SP had promised reservation to Mu...

Former  CAG   Vinod Rai , who faced intense attack from government over  2G  spectrum report which pegged the presumptive loss at Rs 1.76 lakh crore, has said the audit had been conducted as per the global norms and insisted he never commented on policy formulation.         He said the attack by the government was not personal, observing the relationship between the executive and auditor is usually adversarial.         "We have made our position very clear. We have audited as per guidelines laid down by the international community," Rai told Karan Thapar in  CNN-IBN's  show Devil's Advocate.         Rai was responding to a question on whether he had second thoughts in projecting the 2G loss figure in the report.         Rai, who demitted office on May 22, also said that CAG does not comment on policy formulation.        "I have very...

A Delhi High Court judge on May 31 recused himself from hearing a plea of senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler challenging a lower court order by which the CBI was asked to further investigate his role in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. "In any case, I am not going to hear it. Put this matter on July 3 before another bench," Justice Kailash Gambhir said, without assigning any reasons for his recusal from the hearing. Yesterday, Tytler had moved the court challenging the trial court order setting aside the CBI's closure report giving him clean chit in the 29-year-old case and directing the probe agency to examine eye-witnesses and people claiming to have information about the riots. Seeking quashing of the trial court order, Tytler has in his plea said, "The trial court order is contrary to the scheme of code of CrPC. The method and mode of investigation by a probe agency is the absolute prerogative of the agency and it is not for the court to direct the agency ...

 May 30 -- The home ministry has asked the  Supreme Court  to set aside an  Andhra Pradesh High Court  judgment making it mandatory for a  criminal case  to be filed against the police every time they kill an  alleged terrorist  or a Maoist guerrilla in a gunfight. In its affidavit filed in  the Supreme Court , the home ministry said if  criminal cases  were to be registered against police personnel every time a cop kills a Maoist in a gunbattle, "the very existence of India as a state will become untenable". Besides, if this principle of mandatory criminal cases were to be accepted, the 26/11 terrorist  Ajmal Kasab  would have had the right to file a case against the National Security Guard commandos who would have had to defend their action in their private capacities. The home ministry affidavit said an attempt to murder case was registered after every gunfight against the private party that engages with se...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Pakistani Taliban on May 30 acknowledged the death of their deputy leader in a drone attack, and one subgroup unilaterally announced a successor to his position, portending a possible rift. The Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said the deputy, Wali ur-Rehman, was among six people killed in a C.I.A. drone strike outside Miram Shah on Wednesday morning, confirming earlier accounts by Pakistani security officials. Mr. Ehsan said his group was withdrawing its earlier offer of peace talks with the Pakistani government, and would take revenge for Mr. Rehman’s death. “The Pakistani government is involved in the American drone campaign by providing ground intelligence to the C.I.A.,” he said in a telephone interview. A Taliban commander, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the militants would also step up attempts to target American bases linked to the C.I.A. inside Afghanistan, believing they help orchestrate drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal be...