INDIA SUMMARIZED

The mummified remains, covered in cattle skin, were found on January 27 in the Songinokhairkhan province. Picture: Morning Newspaper As police say lama found in lotus positon was destined for sale on black market, there are claims it was one step away from becoming a Buddha. A mummified monk found in the lotus position in Mongolia is ‘not dead’ and is instead one stage away from becoming a real-life Buddha, it has been claimed. Forensic examinations are under way on the amazing remains, which are believed to be around 200 years old, having been preserved in animal skin. But one expert has insisted the human relic is actually in ‘very deep meditation’ and in a rare and very special spiritual state known as ‘tukdam’. Over the last 50 years there are  said to have been 40 such cases in India involving  meditating Tibetan monks. Dr Barry Kerzin, a famous Buddhist monk and a physician to the Dalai Lama, said: ‘I had the privilege to take care of some med...

Female students wearing niqabs walk along a street in Syria’s  northern province of Raqqa.  Isis has imposed sweeping  restrictions on women’s personal freedoms. Noor (not her real name), a 14-year-old girl from a small village in northern Iraq, was sold 15 times, passed from one Islamic State (Isis) fighter to the next. Each time, she was raped. Noor managed to escape and made her way, mostly on foot, to a refugee camp. There, she met Yanar Mohammed, an Iraqi women’s rights activist, who told me Noor’s story. “The worst moments,” Noor said, “were when one man would sell me to another. And I would have to hear them debating what my life was worth.” I heard many more stories like Noor’s at a recent gathering of Iraqi and Syrian women’s rights activists in Istanbul. Some of the women had never met before, but they shared a common purpose: to end the scourge of rape unleashed on them by civil war and the ascent of Isis. But how to do that ? No soldier in...

The dreaded Sunni jihadi group Islamic State has been receiving significant financial backing from oil-rich Arab sympathisers outside Iraq and Syria where it controls large swaths. The Islamic State is still receiving significant financial support from Arab sympathisers outside Iraq and Syria, enabling it to expand its war effort, The Independent quoted a senior Kurdish official as saying. “There is sympathy for Da’esh [the Arabic acronym for IS, also known as Isis] in many Arab countries and this has translated into money – and that is a disaster,” Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish President, Massoud Barzani said. He said that until recently financial aid was being given more or less openly by Gulf states to the opposition in Syria — but by now most of these rebel groups have been absorbed into IS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliate, so it is they “who now have the money and the weapons”. Hussein did not identify the st...

Riyadh: An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for renouncing his Muslim faith, the English-language daily Saudi Gazette reported on February 24. The man, in his 20s, posted an online video ripping up a copy of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, and hitting it with a shoe, the newspaper reported. Saudi Arabia, the United States’ top Arab ally and birthplace of Islam, follows the strict Wahhabi Sunni Muslim school and gives the clergy control over its justice system. Under the Wahhabi interpretation of Sharia Islamic law, apostasy demands the death penalty, as do some other religious offences like sorcery, while blasphemy and criticism of senior Muslim clerics have incurred jail terms and corporal punishment. Executions in Saudi Arabia are usually carried out by public beheading. International rights groups say the Saudi justice system suffers from a lack of transparency and due process, that defendants are often denied basic rights such as lega...

Muslim cleric and leader of the Jamiat Ulema Hind, Mufti Mohammad Ilyas Qasmi, had referred to Lord Shiva as the “first messenger of Islam” in Ayodhya on February 19, asserting that Indian Muslims were followers of the Sanathan Dharma. Now, the Bareilly-based All India Faizan-e-Madina Council, a socio-political group, has announced a bounty of Rs 1,00,786 on his head. The ‘national president’ of the outfit, Mooen Siddiqui Noori, on February 23 said the cash award would be given only to a Muslim. An “Islamic” sword would also be presented to the killer. Qasmi, long known as a champion of communal amity in Ayodhya, has also said that Muslims should not be averse to being called Hindus, for the people of China were called Chinese, and the people of Japan, Japanese. “Qasmi made these strange remarks against the Sharia on insistence from the RSS. If he really had any knowledge, his comments would be backed by the holy scripture,” Noori added. Faizan-e-Madina, say its memb...

Dhaka (Bangladesh) : Blogger and writer Avijit Roy has been killed and his wife, blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonna, severely injured when unidentified miscreants hacked them at TSC of Dhaka University on Thursday night. Avijit, son of former DU teacher Dr Ajay Roy and also the founder of Mukto-mona Blog, and his wife have been admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition immediately after the attack. Later, he died while undergoing treatment around 10:30pm, said Shahbagh police station OC Sirajul Islam. Bonna told the Dhaka Tribune: “Two miscreants attacked us with cleaver near TSC intersection around 8:45pm.” Witnesses said some unidentified miscreants swooped on the bloggers and hacked them mercilessly between 8:30pm and 9pm while they were returning from the book fair, leaving them critically injured. OC Sirajul said: “We do not have any clear idea about the attackers. But, the police is suspecting that those, who attacked Humayun Azad, might be behind...

Aluva (Kerala) : A nun has been allegedly received life threat for resisting a priest’s molestation attempt, a Kerala Kaumudi report has said. She has also faced threat of expulsion from the church, the report added. The nun is afraid that she could be facing the consequences that another nun had faced years ago. Nun threatened for defending herself The nun took refuge in Aluva Janaseva Sibubhavan after she was denied entry in Aluva Church convent. She said she would approach the police once her relatives from Kannur reacher here, the Kaumudi report said. The nun has been serving the convent under Italy Janova for the last 13 years, the report said. She said the priest from Idukki made sexual advances during her stay in a convent at Pachar in Madhya Pradesh. She, however, managed to escape and she was shifted to Italy after that.  On January 1, she received an order from Mother Superior to give up her nunhood, the report added.

 RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on February 23 said there was a motive behind the service Mother Teresa provided to the poor — to convert them to Christianity. Inaugurating an orphanage and a women’s home in Bharatpur, Bhagwat said, “Here we will not provide service like that rendered by Mother Teresa. It is possible that her kind of work was good but there was a motive behind that service. It was to convert those she served to Christianity. Someone wants to convert others to Christianity, that is another thing, but to do it under the garb of social service is to devalue that service. Here, nothing like that will happen. In our country, social service is done like this, selflessly, completely selflessly.” His comments come less than a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government “will ensure that there is complete freedom of faith and that everyone has the undeniable right to retain or adopt the religion of his or her choice without coercion or undue influ...

India is awaiting eagerly the Union Budget to be unveiled on 28th February. Union Budget in India forms a significant part of the country's economic policy. It would be an important moment for addressing and strategizing the economic issues of the country that is strongly merged into the global economy. The $2.1 trillion Indian economy is amidst rapid progression and is all set to achieve more growth. This year is important in particular as the country witnessed a decade of loss under the UPA government and now all eyes are set on how the new government would lay the foundation of a strong new Indian economy. Racing fast along the wave of urbanization, Indian infrastructure is making strides. Citizens here are looking forward to the Union Budget and the expectations are high. It’s time for Modi’s league to deliver all what they had promised during the Lok Sabha polls. Commoners expect that the government would come up with substantial policy cha...

Primetime TV show anchors are crying foul over Shri Mohan Bhagwat’s comments “Conversion to Christianity was the also an objective behind Mother Teresa's service to the poor” Facts reveal that Shri Mohan Bhagwat has spoken the TRUTH. a. What are the facts ? 1. Mother Teresa did great humanistic work. 2. There is enough evidence that she was instrumental in converting poor Hindus into Christians. b. Lets look at Female Domestic Servants – Most of them are Christians, though practically none of them understand Christianity to any significant level. What does this prove ? That their families converted without understanding the Religion ! This type of Conversion is Conversion by lure of money & is a conversion by deceit. Why affluent Hindus do not convert to Christianity or any other Religion. c. Humans have a habit of making a god out of man. Why can we not accept a great person with his / her personality flaws ? Why do we wish to imagine a great person as perfect ? T...

        ONCE again Shastri Bhawan has come  in limelight. Nodoubt this building has offices of many ministries and Petroleum Ministry is one of them where the news  of theft of some secret documents has poured out. And this theft has exposed the serious lapses in security arrangements. Though this is not the first time that the theft is done in Shastri Bhawan. The senior journalists of my age must remember that this is not the first theft in the building. Going back the memory lanes, I am recalling two reports published in Nav Bharat Times some about 42/43 years ago. It happens only in India that a corrupt is arrested and bails out by prevailing corrupt practices. Though the accused are under police interrogation,  till writing these lines, the arrest of  more accused was on.  Such lapses on the part of security compels to raise eye brows on the security system. Recalling back, in 1973/74, the security   lapses  were...

File picture of former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair. New Delhi : One of the country’s leading scientists and former ISRO chairman, G Madhavan Nair, today propounded the theory that some  shlokas  in the Vedas mention the presence of water on the moon, and that astronomy experts like Aryabhatta knew about gravitational force much before Issac Newton. The 71-year-old Padma Vibhushan awardee said the Indian Vedas and ancient scriptures also had information on metallurgy, algebra, astronomy, maths, architecture and astrology way before the western world knew about them. Speaking at an international conference on Vedas, he however, added that the information in vedas was in a “condensed format”, which he said made it difficult for modern science to accept it. “Some  sholkas  in one of the Vedas say that there is water on the moon but no one believed it. Through our Chandrayaan mission, we could establish that and we were the first ones to find that o...

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, 7 Race Course Road, New Delhi. February 17, 2015 Dear Prime Minister Subject : Impartial Commission of Inquiry on foreign funded NGO’s and creation of National Social Service Fund to support genuine social service organizations. We the undersigned request you for an appointment to discuss the following issue in detail. Foreign funded NGOs (FFNGOs) have been on the government’s watch list for a while now. Both NDA and UPA governments have had serious issues with several such FFNGOs. But the actions taken against a select few do not appear to be the product of a well thought out policy. The following is a partial list of charges against some of the FFNGOs:  Misappropriation of funds, lack of transparency and accountability : A CBI analysis of NGOs across the country showed that of the 22,39,971 NGOs functioning in 20 States, only 10% (about 2,23,428) submitted annual returns. Of 5,684 NGOs in the si...

India army soldiers KOLKATA:India’s defence preparedness has hit a roadblock, thanks to the Trinamool Congress government of West Bengal. To thwart China’s military plans near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and incursions violating it, the Indian Army and Indian Air Force have been planning to expand their operations in north Bengal and set up new bases. But such plans have run into trouble because of the land acquisition policy of the Mamata Banerjee regime. The Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) proposals to expand the army cantonment at Kalimpong and set up an armoured corps division and a “composite aviation base” in north Bengal hang in the balance as the state government has remained silent over land acquisition since the last two years. To break the deadlock, senior officers of the Eastern Command held a “civil-military liaison” meeting with senior officials of the state government last month. A MoD official said: “Not acquiring land from farmers for industr...

People should remember these names who are supporting Teesta Setalvad who cheated 2002 Gujarat riot victims and protest lawfully against them ! In this file photo social activist  Teesta Setalvad speaks  to the media during a press conference  in Ahmedabad. AFP Photo/ Sam Panthaky Kolkata   :  A group of prominent intellectuals from India and abroad, including linguist Noam Chomsky, have issued a statement in solidarity with social activists Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, saying they are “shocked to see this persisting spirit of vendetta against an effort to enforce legal and moral accountability for … massacre in Gujarat”. Setalvad and Anand grabbed headlines following the 2002 Gujarat riots for standing by the victims and exposing the role of the state administration, attracting global attention. Titled “Politics of Vendetta Shall not Defeat the Cause of Justice”, the statement was signed by Chomsky, historians Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar, eco...

According to a report published in CNN, the United Nations were looking into claims that ISIS was engaged in “harvesting organs from slain civilians and gaining financial benefits by trafficking the body parts.” New York  : According to a report published in CNN, the United Nations were looking into claims that ISIS was engaged in “harvesting organs from slain civilians and gaining financial benefits by trafficking the body parts.” “Some of the bodies we found are mutilated … that means some parts are missing,” Iraq’s ambassador to the UN, Mohamed Alhakim was quoted as saying by CNN. “These terrorist groups have desecrated all human values. They have committed the most heinous criminal terrorist acts against the Iraqi people whether Shia, Sunni, Christians, Turkmen, Shabak or Izadis,” he stated. Alhakim further added that there were openings in the back of the bodies where the kidneys would be located. “This is clearly something bigger than we think,” Alhakim said. “These...

Torture of Sikh Women & kids by Mughals. Stockton, California : The history of Sikhism is closely associated with the history of Punjab and the socio-political situation in medieval India. Sikhs distinction was further enhanced by the establishment of the Khalsa, by  Guru  Gobind Singh in 1699. Sikhism was created by  Guru  Nanak, a religious leader and a social reformer during the fifteenth century in the Punjab region. The religious practice was formalized by Guru Gobind Singh on 13 April 1699. The latter baptized five persons from different social backgrounds to form Khalsa. The Mughal Empire was founded by Babur, a Central Asian ruler who was descended from the Turko-Mongol conqueror Timur on his father’s side and from Chagatai, the second son of the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, on his mother’s side. Ousted from his ancestral domains in Central Asia, Babur turned to India to satisfy his ambitions. He established himself in Kabul and then pushed steadily sou...