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Rahul declared himself British Citizen: Dr. Subramanian Swamy. SoniaG, Priyanka met Lok Sabha Speaker, 45 min. Pvt. visit -- PTI

November 16, 2015, 5:42 pm
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RAHUL DECLARED HIMSELF BRITISH CITIZEN: SWAMY

Tuesday, 17 November 2015 | Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday alleged that Rahul Gandhi had declared himself as a British citizen before the authorities in the United Kingdom (UK) and demanded that the Congress vice-president be stripped of his Indian citizenship, as well as his Lok Sabha membership.
Addressing the media, Swamy said he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 12 about Rahul’s secret British citizenship and the details of his company in London. “There will be action. As per Article 9 of the Indian Constitution, an Indian citizen can’t hold the citizenship of any other country, and he will lose Indian citizenship automatically as and when he acquires another citizenship. I will also write to the Lok Sabha Speaker seeking expulsion of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament,” Swamy maintained.
“I am enclosing with this letter some authenticated documents regarding the registration in 2003 and dissolution in 2009 of a private limited company in the UK with an address located in London. The name of the company is Backops Limited and the director and secretary of this company was Rahul Gandhi.
“As you can see from the company’s annual returns, Rahul Gandhi has given his date of birth correctly but has declared himself to be a British national with an UK address,” said Swamy in his letter to Modi. Swami released a copy of the letter to the Prime Minister and a set of documents running into 13-pages, supporting his claims, to the media.
Rahul had 65 per cent shares in the company and his co-director Ulrik McKnight, a US citizen, had 35 per cent shares. McKnight is the son-in-law of former Union Minister Eduardo Faleiro.
Swamy also alleged that Rahul has an illegal undeclared account in Pictet Bank and was taken into custody on September 24, 2001 by US authorities at Logan Airport for carrying $1,60,000 in cash.
To questions on his future action, Swamy said he hopes the Government will take action on his complaint. “Why should I go to court? During the National Herald expose, the UPA was in power and so I went to court. Now it is our Government and it will take action,” he said.
In the documents produced by Swamy, Rahul had shown two London addresses in the company registry.  The first address in London was 2 Frognal Way, NW3 6XE. The other address was 51 Southgate Street, Winchester, SO23, 9EH.
Stung by Swamy’s revelations, after three hours, the Congress came out with the incorporation documents of Rahul’s till-date hidden British company Backops Limited. The document shows him as an Indian citizen.
Reacting to the Congress’ counter, Swamy tweeted that the Congress’ statement was “stupid”.  He said, the Congress statement says Rahul had stated in 2003 that he was an Indian citizen but why not in 2005, 2006 and 2009? He asked the Congress to show the entire records of the British company and who owns the house in Frognal area.
Cong rejects allegation as dirty tricks
Hitting back at Subramanian Swamy’s allegation that Rahul Gandhi was a British citizen, the Congress later came out with a detailed counter asserting its vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been an Indian citizen right from his birth and has never held the citizenship of any other country.
The Congress released the company’s Incorporation document showing Rahul as an Indian citizen. However, the party did not come out with a clarification on the other documents of the company (from 2005 to 2009) where Rahul declared himself a British citizen.
In a one-page Press release issued after a meeting, attended by Ahmed Patel and others at Rahul Gandhi’s residence at Tuglak Lane, the Congress termed the allegations as a “petty, mindless activity of the BJP and its dirty tricks department headed by Swamy” to save face after the humiliating Bihar election defeat.
“From the day he was born, Rahul Gandhi has held Indian citizenship and Indian passport and has never held citizenship of any other country nor has he represented as such. The allegation of Swamy is entirely false. The Certificate of Incorporation of the said company is enclosed and clearly mentions Rahul Gandhi as an Indian national.
“Rahul Gandhi has never held any account in Pictet Bank nor has he ever been questioned or detailed at Logon Airport with undeclared cash. This is a complete falsehood that Swamy is in the habit of falsely repeating for decades for his malicious political motives and to gain cheap publicity,” said AICC’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a statement.
“Frustrated by their humiliating defeat in Bihar elections and internal revolt brewing amongst the senior-most leadership, the BJP’s dirty tricks department led by Subramanian Swamy is resorting to petty mindless mud-slinging. The sole purpose appears to be to divert attention from inner revolt and paralysis of policy and governance being questioned all around including the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said the statement.
Earlier, shortly after Swamy’s Press conference Congress leader Ajay Maken had sought to dismiss the allegations as his publicity stunt. “Swamy is having the habit of mudslinging. He is now sidelined in the BJP. So he does all these type of activities to stay in limelight,” he said.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/rahul-declared-himself-british-citizen-swamy.html

  1. Published: November 17, 2015 01:39 IST | Updated: November 17, 2015 01:39 IST  NEW DELHI, November 17, 2015

    Rahul declared himself a British national: Swamy

    At a press conference in New Delhi, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy shared copies of the company’s annual returns, in which Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s identity is certified as British. File photo
    At a press conference in New Delhi, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy shared copies of the company’s annual returns, in which Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s identity is certified as British. File photo

    But in the Memorandum of Association, Rahul Gandhi mentioned his nationality as Indian.

    BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi of declaring himself as a British national in 2005, while holding the post of director in a U.K. private firm, Backops Limited, a charge fiercely denied by the Congress.
    At a press conference here, Dr. Swamy shared copies of the company’s annual returns, in which Mr. Gandhi’s identity is certified as British.
    However, the documents accessed by The Hindu via official database of the British government show that Mr. Gandhi had specifically declared his nationality as Indian in the Memorandum of Association signed in 2003 at the time the company was founded. Yet, in a separate listing of annual returns filed in 2005, documents show Mr. Gandhi’s citizenship as British.
    In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr. Swamy said: “As you can see from the company annual return that Mr. Rahul Gandhi has given his date of birth correctly, but has declared himself to be of British nationality with a United Kingdom address ... he held 65 per cent of the shares … .” The BJP leader alleged that prima facie there was a violation of Article 9 of the Indian Constitution, according to which every citizen of India was barred from voluntarily acquiring citizenship of any foreign State. While the United Kingdom permitted dual citizenship, India did not. Article 18 prohibited an Indian citizen from accepting even foreign titles, he said. Dr. Swamy also alleged that Mr. Gandhi had an undeclared overseas account with a Zurich-based bank.
    The Congress described the allegation as an attempt to “gain cheap publicity” and to “divert the attention” from the revolt that was brewing within the BJP after facing an electoral defeat in Bihar. “From the day he was born, Rahul Gandhi has held Indian citizenship and Indian passport and has never held citizenship of any other country nor has he represented as such,” Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.
    20 retweets20 likes


  2. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/rahul-declared-himself-a-british-national-says-bjp-leader-subramanian-swamy/article7884882.ece?homepage=true&css=print
  3.  Why is Buddhu obfuscating? He does not say my documents are forged- which show he is British citizen. So onus on him now to prove he is not.52 minutes ago
  4.  1 hour ago
    Buddhu did not deny he formed a company abroad without informing our Govt or declaring in affidavit to EC hence he is guilty on that alone!!

2 charges in my media conference: (1) Buddhu guilty illegally setting up a company abroad (2) British citizen: Admitted (1); & (2) he will !


 26 minutes ago
Buddhu was not just Director but a 65% share holder and Company Secretary. All Annual Returns have to be signed by him. Show those to us

 45 minutes ago
Document shows Rahul Gandhi as British national, but it could be an error: UK government department - ET:

 10 hours ago
As director of British firm Rahul Gandhi must have been receiving annual statements of firm. Why did he not get his nationality corrected?
 10 hours agoPanaji, Goa
He's Sonia Faleiro's husband.She writes for NYT with 0 disclosure.He's sr INC politico Eduardo Faleiro's son in law

Who is Ulrik McKnight, the UK business partner of Rahul Gandhi in Backops Services? Not much known about him, isn't it?

 8 hours ago
Rahul Gandhi could not answer questions on his MPhil degree. Rahul Gandhi now exposed of British nationality on tax returns.

 13 hours ago
Now Congress produces hidden British Co's Incorp Cert showing Rahul as Indian.Then how all certificates till 2009 showed as British Citzen?
 10 hours ago
SoniaGandhi met LS Speaker SumitraMahajan this evening. Priyanka was also present at45-minute meetwhich was described as a PVT visit - PTI



 15 hours ago
Look how a MP of our country is a citizen of some other Country. Litany of lies and deceits continues
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‘France is at war’: Hollande wants US, Russia to unite against IS

November 16, 2015, 6:17 pm
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‘France is at war’: Hollande wants US, Russia to unite against IS

  • Agencies, Paris
    •  |  
  • Updated: Nov 17, 2015 00:55 IST

French President Francois Hollande, center, flanked by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, right, and French education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, center left, stands among students during a minute of silence in the courtyard of the Sorbonne University in Paris. (AP)

French President Francois Hollande called on the United States and Russia to join forces to destroy Islamic State in the wake of Friday’s attacks across Paris that killed at least 129 people, and announced a wave of measures to combat terror in France.
In a sombre speech to both houses of parliament after the coordinated suicide bombings and shootings that sent shock waves across the world, Hollande said he would increase funds for national security, strengthen anti-terror laws and boost border controls.
“France is at war. But we’re not engaged in a war of civilisations, because these assassins do not represent any. We are in a war against jihadist terrorism which is threatening the whole world,” he told a packed chamber at the gilded Versailles Palace near Paris on Monday.
Parliamentarians gave Hollande a standing ovation before singing the national anthem in a signal of political unity following the worst atrocity in France since World War II.
“The faces of the dead people, of the wounded, of the families don’t leave my mind,” Hollande declared after France and many allies observed a minute of silence in honour of the 129 killed and 350 wounded when three teams of IS attackers targeted the national stadium, a rock concert and four nightspots on Friday with assault gun fire and suicide bombs.
“In my determination to combat terrorism, I want France to remain itself. The barbarians who attack France would like to disfigure it. They will not make it change,” Hollande declared. “They must never be able to spoil France’s soul.”
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for French airstrikes in Iraq and Syria over the past year.
Hollande said French forces would intensify its assaults and said he would meet US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days to urge them to pool their resources.
“...We must combine our forces to achieve a result that is already too late in coming,” Hollande said.

French soldiers patrol near Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. (AP)

A US-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State for more than a year. Russia joined the conflict in September, but US officials say it has mainly hit foreign-backed fighters battling its ally President Bashar al-Assad, not Islamic State.
Hollande said he would present a bill on Wednesday seeking to extend the prevailing state of emergency - granting the police and military greater powers of search and arrest, and local governments the right to suspend demonstrations and impose curfews - for another three months.
Speaking in Turkey at the same time as Hollande, Obama called Friday’s attacks a “terrible and sickening setback”, but insisted the US-led coalition was making progress.
“Even as we grieve with our French friends... we can’t lose sight that there has been progress being made,” Obama said at a Group of 20 summit.
Much of France came to a standstill at midday for a minute’s silence to remember the dead. Metro trains stopped, pedestrians paused on pavements and office workers stood at their desks.

French police stand guard as people gather to look at the Eiffel Tower that is lit with the blue, white and red colours of the French flag in Paris. (REUTERS)

Investigators have identified a Belgian national living in Syria as the possible mastermind behind the attacks, which targeted bars, restaurants, a concert hall and soccer stadium, with Brussels seen as the springboard.
“Friday’s act of war was decided upon and planned in Syria, prepared and organised in Belgium and carried out on our territory with the complicit of French citizens,” Hollande said.
Prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants -- four Frenchmen and a foreigner fingerprinted in Greece last month. His role in the carnage has fuelled speculation that Islamic State took advantage of a recent wave of refugees fleeing Syria to slip militants into Europe.
Police believe one attacker is on the run, and suspect at least four people helped organise the mayhem.
“We know that more attacks are being prepared, not just against France but also against other European countries,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told RTL radio. “We are going to live with this terrorist threat for a long time.”
Islamic State warned in a video on Monday that any country hitting it would suffer the same fate as Paris, promising specifically to target Washington.
French warplanes bombed Islamic State training camps and a suspected arms depot in its Syrian stronghold Raqqa late on Sunday -- its biggest such strike since the US-led mission launched in 2014.
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters police had arrested nearly two dozen people and seized arms, including a rocket launcher and automatic weapons, in 168 raids overnight.
“Let this be clear to everyone, this is just the beginning, these actions are going to continue,” Cazeneuve said.
Hollande said he would create 5,000 jobs in the police and security forces, and boost staff in the prison service by 2,500. He also said there would be no cuts to defence spending. He acknowledged this would break EU budget rules, but said that national security was more important.

People light candles, as they form the French flag, in remembrance of the victims of the Paris attacks at Sant Jaume square in Barcelona. (REUTERS)

Schools, museums reopen
A source close to the investigation said Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, currently in Syria, was suspected of having ordered the Paris operation. “He appears to be the brains behind several planned attacks in Europe,” the source said.
RTL Radio said Abaaoud was a 27-year-old from Molenbeek. He was also reported by media to have been involved in a series of planned attacks in Belgium which were foiled by the police last January.
Police in Brussels have detained two suspects and are hunting Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman based in Belgium. One of his brothers died in the Paris assault, while a third brother was arrested at the weekend but later released.
Schools, museums and the Eiffel Tower re-opened in Paris on Monday after a 48-hour shutdown, but some popular tourist sites, including Disneyland, remained closed.
French tourism-related stocks fell sharply on fears visitors might shun Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world, but the country’s blue-chip CAC 40 index was steady, with no long-term economic impact seen.
Police have named two French attackers -- Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of Paris, and Samy Amimour, 28, from the Paris suburb of Drancy. A source close to the investigation named two other French assailants as Bilal Hadfi and Ibrahim Abdeslam.
France now believes Mostefai was in Syria from 2013-2014 and his radicalisation underlined the trouble France faces trying to capture an elusive enemy that grew up in its own cities.
“He was a normal man,” said Christophe, his neighbour in Chartres. “Nothing made you think he would turn violent.”
Latest official figures estimate that 520 French nationals are in the Syrian and Iraqi war zones, including 116 women. Some 137 have died in the fighting, 250 have returned home and around 700 have plans to travel to join the jihadist factions.
The man stopped in Greece in October was carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad. Police said they were still checking to see if the document was authentic, but said the dead man’s fingerprints matched those on record in Greece.
Greek officials said the passport holder had crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands last month and then registered for asylum in Serbia before heading north, following a route taken by hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers this year.

French soldiers cross the Champs Elysees avenue passing the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. (AP)

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Rahul G British citizenship ghotala. Same website shows an Indian co. with 7 b. pound sterling. Wow!

November 16, 2015, 6:25 pm
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 6 minutes ago
Niraj Gunde of Mumbai in email to PM states in the same British Govt website a NCP leader has a company with 7 billion pounds Sterling! Wow!

Subramanian Swamy said Rahul Gandhi’s is a Citizen of UK (With Proof)

Subramanian Swamy said Rahul Gandhi’s is a Citizen of UK (With Proof)

NEW DELHI — Bhartiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy has accused Congress Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi of being a British citizen, and demanded that he be stripped of his Indian citizenship and Lok Sabha membership.
british
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Swamy has claimed that Gandhi declared his nationality as British when filing the returns of a company–Backops Ltd–he had incorporated in the UK in 2003.
The company was registered in 2003 and dissolved in 2009, according to thedocuments Swamy released to the media.
rahul-gandhi-document-british-citizen
“As you can see from the company Annual Return (on page 6 bottom of the enclosed document) that Mr. Rahul Gandhi has given his date of birth correctly but has declared himself to be of British nationality with a United Kingdom address. The annual return filed for this company on October 10, 2005 lists Mr. Rahul Gandhi as Director of the company with United Kingdom address as well as attestation of his nationality as British. Mr. Rahul Gandhi also held 65 percent of the shares of the total shares issued by this company as on that date. The same facts were repeated, viz, that is Mr. Rahul Gandhi as having British nationality in the Annual Returns filed on October 31, 2006 as well. Finally in the dissolution application as well, Mr. Rahul Gandhi states that his nationality is British as on the date he was appointed as director of the said company.””Hence I urge you to treat this matter with great urgency and immediately take necessary steps to see if this prima facie evidence is rebuttable, and if not, order that Mr. Rahul Gandhi be stripped of his citizenship and his membership of the Lok Sabha, forthwith.”Subramanian Swamy’s letter to PM Modi
NDTV journalist Sreenivasan Jain posted documents on Twitter that showed that in the incorporation documents for Backops, accessed through Companies House, UK, Gandhi’s nationality has indeed been shown as Indian, but in subsequent returns that were filed, his nationality has indeed been declared as British.
The Congress Party has dismissed Swamy’s claim as “silly”, but is yet to explain the discrepancy.
“It has been the habit of Subramanian Swamy to make silly statements in order to try and seek some publicity whenever he is sidelined. Nobody takes his statements seriously”, Congress Party spokesperson Ajay Maken said at press briefing.
In his complaint filed in a Delhi trial court, last year, Swamy accused Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi, who heads the Congress Party, of cheating and misappropriating funds during the acquisition of the now defunct English-daily National Herald.
Swamy had also approached the Enforcement Directorate to register a case against the two Congress Party leaders under Prevention of Money Laundering Act. In September, the Enforcement Directorate said that it was initiating a fresh investigations into allegations of money laundering.

 21 hours ago
Look how a MP of our country is a citizen of some other Country. Litany of lies and deceits continues
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 17 hours ago
As director of British firm Rahul Gandhi must have been receiving annual statements of firm. Why did he not get his nationality corrected?


 19 hours ago
. enrolled n UK voter list? d address n d docs released by matches wit dis address
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 19 hours ago
Multifaceted citizen with flexi citizenship. Rahul Gandhi must clarify with documents.

 19 hours ago
NDTV accesses original company docs. Clearly shows Rahul Gandhi as UK national in annual returns. Congress yet to explain discrepancy.
 19 hours ago
Tale of 2 documents: incorporation (r) shows Rahul Gandhi as Indian national, returns (l) says British.
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 19 hours ago
His name in electoral rolls of Britain creates a vacancy in Amethi
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 16 hours agoPanaji, Goa
He's Sonia Faleiro's husband.She writes for NYT with 0 disclosure.He's sr INC politico Eduardo Faleiro's son in law



Who is Ulrik McKnight, the UK business partner of Rahul Gandhi in Backops Services? Not much known about him, isn't it?

 18 hours ago
My advice to Congi: Cut your losses and say good bye to Buddhu. He has anyway lots of friends abroad to take of his welfare.

 17 hours ago
Congi explanations on TV are getting more and more like Watergate and Nixon's. Typing mistake! Just like TDK's lie about a Camb U degree!!

 15 hours ago
Even if Buddhu is Indian citizen, UK allows him to be additionally a British citizen. But not India. We do not allow dual citizenship
  1.  7 hours ago
    Why is Buddhu obfuscating? He does not say my documents are forged- which show he is British citizen. So onus on him now to prove he is not.
    851 retweets588 likes



  2.  8 hours ago
    Buddhu did not deny he formed a company abroad without informing our Govt or declaring in affidavit to EC hence he is guilty on that alone!!

  1.  7 hours ago
    Document shows Rahul Gandhi as British national, but it could be an error: UK government department - ET:
    View summary
    463 retweets279 likes



  2.  7 hours ago
    2 charges in my media conference: (1) Buddhu guilty illegally setting up a company abroad (2) British citizen: Admitted (1); & (2) he will !

 7 hours ago
Buddhu was not just Director but a 65% share holder and Company Secretary. All Annual Returns have to be signed by him. Show those to us

 5 hours ago
Why+did+RaGa+start+a+company+in+UK? via PerformanceGurus

 5 hours ago
. Another bombshell? Pawar has declared his co. is worth 70 Billion GBP

 5 hours ago
What Bjp government needs to do is serious action by investigation agencies on UPA corruption, not silly issues

 3 hours ago
Rahul declared himself British citizen: Swamy via

 3 hours ago
Who owns Totus Tennis Ltd in UK? See this : Cc :

 3 hours ago
. former British Deputy High Commissioner Mike Nithavrianakis is Karti's partner in Totus Tennis Ltd in UK

 3 hours ago
Subramanian opened the Pandora's Box of London companies of VVIPs. Rahul, Pawar, Karti names out...3 names out in 24hrs...

 3 hours ago
Rahul declared himself British citizen: Swamy via

 36 minutes ago
Congi says now typing error. Which? Indian in 2003 or British in 2005, 06, 07, 08, and 09?

 20 hours ago
BJP’s dirty tricks department led by Subramanian Swamy is resorting to petty and mindless mud-slinging (1/2)

 19 hours ago
Congi stmt is so stupid. It says Buddhu had stated in 2003 he was Indian citizen. Why not in 2005, 06 and 09? Show the entire company record




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So Rahul Gandhi is on Electoral Rolls in UK on the same address which was mentioned in Company details. Now???
199 retweets34 likes



 20 hours ago
Ra Ga 2004 Poll affidavit --see about Backop ltd andmoney held RT

 20 hours ago
Nixonian attempt at Watergate coverup-2003 Over written as Indian-Perhaps on a recent trip- But 205/6/7 British RT

 22 hours ago
Rahul Gandhi's Co-Director in London company is US Citizen Ulrik McKnight, son-in-law of former UnionMinister Eduardo Felario.Rahul have 65%

 22 hours ago
Rahul Gandhi a British national? or just a tax saving gimmick?

  1.  22 hours ago
    Rahul Gandhi in 2003 formed a Co in London- Backops Ltd declaring his citizenship as British. Till dissolving in 2009 declared as British
    618 retweets204 likes



  2. 1 more reply
  3.  21 hours ago
    Yes. He became MP from May 2014. But in mid 2003 formed British company declaring him as British Citizen.


 21 hours ago
- Dr. writes 2 PM, that RaGa shd be stripped of his LS membership -



 20 hours ago
Meeting of Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, RS Surjewala, CP Joshi, Shakeel Ahmed underway at Rahul Gandhi's residence.
 19 hours ago
8th Oct 2004 Document - 363s Annual Return
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 50 minutes ago
Without proof UK Govt can mention Rahul Gandhi "British National"? Also others nationality correct

 10 hours ago
Please see Rahul's UK residency periods from Electoral roll. While he was MP in India, he was living here.
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The Economic Times
You are here: ET Home›News›Politics and Nation


Congress' point-to-point rejection of Subramanian Swamy charges against Rahul Gandhi

By ET Bureau | 16 Nov, 2015, 06.30PM IST
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/congress-point-to-point-rejection-of-subramanian-swamy-charges-against-rahul-gandhi/articleshow/49804229.cms?prtpage=1



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Rahul Gandhi in UK electroal rolls in the addresses given in Backops Ltd...2005-2009 resident in UK

November 17, 2015, 12:47 am
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Attached are the London Electoral Rolls

Shows Rahul Gandhi was Resident during 2005 to 2006 at Frognal Way address and was resident at SouthGate Street during 2007 to 2009...Both address were Rahul's addresses in the British company registry Backops...Rahul was MP from 2004...and how he was resident in UK...UK rules say citizen from Commonwealth Countries who are resident in UL can vote in UK...so Indian MP was Resident....very good clear documents.

Displaying Rahul Gandhi London Voters List 1.jpg
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Rahul G is a British National and should be stripped of Indian citizenship & LS membership -- Dr. Subramanian Swamy

November 17, 2015, 1:19 am
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14:45:32 PM IST | Tuesday, Nov 17th, 2015
Rahul Gandhi is not an Indian: Subramanian Swamy

Story Dated : November 17, 2015


In his latest attack on his favourite target, BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy has written to PM Narendra Modi accusing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of being a British national and demanded that he be stripped of Indian citizenship and Lok Sabha membership.

In his letter, Dr Swamy has said that Gandhi, who is currently a Lok Sabha MP, is also the Director and Secretary of a company called Backops Limited in the United Kingdom.

According to Swamy, in the company’s annual returns, the Congress MP has declared himself to be a British national and has also declared an address in the United Kingdom.

Swamy claims that under Article 18 of the Constitution, Gandhi has committed an unconstitutional act and is therefore liable to stripped of his citizenship and membership of the Lok Sabha.
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CT7PSuDVAAESzz5
http://www.bignewslive.com/english/rahul-gandhi-is-not-an-indian-subramanian-swamy-2/#.VkrwNVgrJpk

Swamy produces Documents to claim Rahul Gandhi as UK National
By Michael Mitchell Nov 17, 2015

However, the documents accessed by The Hindu via official database of the British government show that Mr. Gandhi had specifically declared his nationality as Indian in the Memorandum of Association signed in 2003 at the time the company was founded. 

Swamy has written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to strip the Indian citizenship of Rahul Gandhi and subsequently disqualify his membership from the Lower House of Parliament. Article 18 prohibits an Indian citizen from accepting even foreign titles. 

The 45-year-old Congress leader was the director and secretary of the company, according to the documents that the BJP leader said he had extracted from the company law authorities of Britain. 

Swamy claimed that Backops Ltd registered in the United Kingdom had cited Rahul's nationality as British and provided a few portions of documents to buttress his claims. 

The Congress released the company's Incorporation document showing Rahul as an Indian citizen. The allegation by Dr. Swamy is entirely false. 


http://financialspots.com/2015/11/17/swamy-produces-documents-to-claim-rahul-gandhi-as-uk/

Published: November 17, 2015 01:39 IST | Updated: November 17, 2015 14:31 IST  NEW DELHI, November 17, 2015

Rahul declared himself a British national: Swamy

At a press conference in New Delhi, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy shared copies of the company’s annual returns, in which Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s identity is certified as British. File photo
At a press conference in New Delhi, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy shared copies of the company’s annual returns, in which Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s identity is certified as British. File photo

Documents accessed by The Hindu via official database of the British government show that Mr. Gandhi had declared his nationality as Indian in the Memorandum of Association signed in 2003 at the time the company was founded.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi of declaring himself as a British national in 2005, while holding the post of director in a U.K. private firm, Backops Limited, a charge fiercely denied by the Congress.
At a press conference here, Dr. Swamy shared copies of the company’s annual returns, in which Mr. Gandhi’s identity is certified as British.
However, the documents accessed by The Hindu via official database of the British government show that Mr. Gandhi had specifically declared his nationality as Indian in the Memorandum of Association signed in 2003 at the time the company was founded. Yet, in a separate listing of annual returns filed in 2005, documents show Mr. Gandhi’s citizenship as British.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr. Swamy said: “As you can see from the company annual return that Mr. Rahul Gandhi has given his date of birth correctly, but has declared himself to be of British nationality with a United Kingdom address ... he held 65 per cent of the shares … .” The BJP leader alleged that prima facie there was a violation of Article 9 of the Indian Constitution, according to which every citizen of India was barred from voluntarily acquiring citizenship of any foreign State. While the United Kingdom permitted dual citizenship, India did not. Article 18 prohibited an Indian citizen from accepting even foreign titles, he said. Dr. Swamy also alleged that Mr. Gandhi had an undeclared overseas account with a Zurich-based bank.
The Congress described the allegation as an attempt to “gain cheap publicity” and to “divert the attention” from the revolt that was brewing within the BJP after facing an electoral defeat in Bihar. “From the day he was born, Rahul Gandhi has held Indian citizenship and Indian passport and has never held citizenship of any other country nor has he represented as such,” Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

Printable version | Nov 17, 2015 3:43:35 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/rahul-declared-himself-a-british-national-says-bjp-leader-subramanian-swamy/article7884882.ece
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Using satellite imagery to reveal the course of an extinct river below the Thar Desert in the Indo-Pak region -- Ak Gupta, JR Sharma & G. Sreenivasan

November 17, 2015, 3:52 am
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International Journal of Remote Sensing

Volume 32, Issue 18, 2011

Using satellite imagery to reveal the course of an extinct river below the Thar Desert in the Indo-Pak region


Using satellite imagery to reveal the course of an extinct river below the Thar Desert in the Indo-Pak region

DOI:
10.1080/01431161.2010.495093
A. K. Guptaa*, J. R. Sharmab & G. Sreenivasanc
pages 5197-5216
  • Received: 31 Dec 2007
  • Accepted: 5 Jun 2010
  • Published online: 01 Aug 2011

Abstract

Digitally processed satellite images have unearthed the hidden course of a major lost river below the sands of the Thar Desert, in the India–Pakistan (Indo-Pak) region. The great Himalayan river of the Vedic period (10 000–8000 BP) is mentioned in ancient Indian literature. It was called the ‘Saraswati’ in India and the ‘Hakra’ in Pakistan and it dried up during 4000–3500 BP. Large numbers of archaeological sites from the Harappan civilization occur along the dry river bed. The mapped course of the river is 4–10 km wide and conforms to the size described in the Rigveda. The newly described course is validated through the drilling of tube wells in the channels and through archaeological, hydrogeological and sedimentary data. An enormous quantity of potable water has been found along these channels. The path of the (main) river course, the likelihood of the river shift and the reasons for its disappearance are discussed.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01431161.2010.495093
See: http://www.draupaditrust.org/content/International%20con/Civilization/Bidyut%20K%20Bhadra.pdf

https://www.scribd.com/doc/290027845/Satellite-Images-as-Scientific-Tool-for-Sarasvati-Palaeochannel-and-its-Archaeological-Affinity-in-NW-India-Bidyut-K-Bhadra-JR-Sharma
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Rahul Gandhi should be prosecuted: Subramanian Swamy

November 17, 2015, 4:03 am
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The Financial Express

Rahul Gandhi should be prosecuted: Subramanian Swamy

By:  | November 17, 2015 4:07 PM

Continuing to maintain that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had taken British citizenship to set up a company in the United Kingdom, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday challenged the former to release documents of his ‘actual’ citizenship, and added that if it was proved that he was British, he should be prosecuted under India’s Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
“Let Rahul Gandhi release all the documents that he has in his possession. For setting up a company in Britain, if he is an Indian citizen and has not informed the Indian Government under FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act), then he is subjected to prosecution. If he has not declared it in his affidavit as a candidate for Lok Sabha, not once but twice, then he is subjected to prosecution and even removal from his membership on that basis,” Swamy told ANI.
“I have produced documents, submitted by the company in which Rahul Gandhi is the 65 percent shareholder, director and company secretary. He is informing the registrar of companies on his annual return that he is a citizen of Britain in writing, not for one year, but four years in a row,” he added.
Swamy further pointed out that Article 9 of the Indian Constitution does not allow Indians to have two citizenships.
“Rahul Gandhi should be prosecuted by deleting his citizenship and removing him from the membership of the Lok Sabha, if an enquiry proves this to be correct,” he said.
“Even Congress is not challenging the authenticity of the documents. They are only saying that he said he is an Indian when it was incorporated in 2003. I don’t know whether Rahul Gandhi changed his citizenship in 2003 or not,” he added.
Earlier on yesterday, Swamy claimed of having evidences which can prove that Rahul Gandhi is a ‘British national’.
Swamy alleged that Rahul Gandhi had declared himself as a British citizen between 2003 and 2009 in order to set up a private company in London, and has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the government strip the Congress vice-president of his Indian citizenship.
“Have written a letter to Prime Minister Modi, enclosing authenticated documents regarding registration in 2003 of a private company in Britain. Company’s name – BLACKOPS LIMITED- , Director – Rahul Gandhi who declared himself to be British national in registration papers,” Swamy said releasing the copy of his letter to PM at a press conference here on yesterday.
First Published on November 17, 2015 4:07 pm
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/india-news/rahul-gandhi-should-be-prosecuted-subramanian-swamy/166710/99/print/
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Subramanian Swamy's letter to Lok Sabha Speaker on Nov 17, 2015 seeking clarification from Rahul Gandhi on Brtish Citizenship shown in his London based company Backops Ltd

November 17, 2015, 4:50 am
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Subramanian Swamy's letter to Lok Sabha Speaker on Nov 17, 2015 - seeking clarification from Rahul Gandhi on Brtish Citizenship shown in his London based company Backops Ltd

Excerpts:

“This establishes that Mr. Rahul Gandhi holds foreign citizenship of Britain and consequently by virtue of Article 9 of the Constitution of India he is deprived of his Indian citizenship since he voluntarily acquired the citizenship of Britain…Besides FCRA and PMLA, he has broken several other laws of the country – if indeed as an Indian citizen he incorporated a company in Britain without intimation to the Indian authorities… at the very minimum Mr. Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP has violated the ethics code to be observed by Members of Parliament and therefore you may call for an explanation from him on issue arising from the facts mentioned in the enclosed authentic documents. And, if you feel following his explanation if any, a prima facie case still remains, you may refer this matter to the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha to determine whether Mr. Rahul Gandhi can continue as a Member of Parliament by virtue of the fact that not only he is guilty of gross violation of ethics but also that he is not a citizen of India – which is a mandatory requirement to be a Member of Parliament. Hence that by a Resolution of the House, the Amethi Lok Sabha seat be declared vacant, and thus communicated to the Election Commission.”

https://www.scribd.com/doc/290031767/Subramanian-Swamy-s-Letter-to-LS-Speaker-on-Nov-17-2015-on-Rahul-Gandhi-s-British-Citizenship
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Rahul Gandhi’s past businesses: A BPO firm, shops, land -- Manoj CG, Indian Express

November 17, 2015, 4:03 pm
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Rahul Gandhi’s past businesses: A BPO firm, shops, land

Written by Manoj C G | New Delhi | Published:November 18, 2015 12:31 am
rahul gandhi, bihar, bihar elections, bihar polls, modi, narendra modi, pm modi, rahul latest newsCongress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has alleged that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had declared himself a British citizen with a UK address in documents related to a company called Backops Limited that he floated in that country in 2003. The Congress has rejected the allegation, and said “somebody (may have) committed an error while uploading (the document)”.
Here’s the summary of Rahul’s commercial dealings over the years, as submitted in his affidavits to the Election Commission, and in filings to the Registrar of Companies.
Backops Services Private Limited
This New Delhi-based start-up BPO company with an authorised capital of Rs 25 lakh is believed to have been incorporated in 2002. Backops is said to have been a call centre-like operation providing engineering detail and structural planning services to large overseas civil engineering firms. The election affidavit filed by Rahul Gandhi in 2004 showed he owned 83 per cent share in Backops.
In 2004, the capital investment of the company amounted to Rs 2.5 lakh, and it had a bank balance of Rs 3 lakh. The other director in the company was said to be Rahul’s family friend, Manoj Muttu.
Subsequently, Rahul transferred his stake in the company to his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Documents filed by Backops Services Private Limited in 2010 show that Priyanka had 91.67 per cent holding in the company. She was appointed an Additional Director on March 25, 2009. The remaining 8.33 per cent stake was held by Muttu.
Backops Limited
This company was incorporated in the United Kingdom in 2003. Rahul was one of the company’s two directors — the other being a US citizen named Ulrik McKnight. According to Rahul’s 2004 election affidavit, the bank account of Backops Limited with HSBC UK had a balance of US $ 18,600. The firm was dissolved in 2009.
Shops
Rahul had purchased two shops in Metropolitan Mall in Saket in New Delhi in 2006, with super built-up areas of 514.44 square feet and 996.98 square feet. In his 2009 election affidavit, Rahul had declared that the combined value of these two properties stood at around Rs 1.63 crore. He sold the shops for Rs 5.28 crore some time in 2012-13.
Other properties
Rahul purchased two commercial properties in Gurgaon’s Signature Towers-II. He booked these properties in October 2010 — one for over Rs 1.44 crore, the other for Rs 5.36 crore.
Land
Rahul bought 6 acres, 3 kanals and 13 marlas of land in Mauja-Hasanpur village in Hodal Tehsil of Faridabad district in 2008. In 2012, he gifted this land to his sister Priyanka without any monetary consideration.
http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/rahul-gandhis-past-businesses-a-bpo-firm-shops-land/
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स्वर्गीय अशोकजी सिंघल. The contributions he has made to protect Dharma shall sustain everyone.

November 17, 2015, 4:48 pm
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स्वर्गीय अशोकजी सिंघल के लिए सरसंघचालक डॉ. मोहनराव भागवत तथा सरकार्यवाह श्री सुरेश (भय्याजी) जोशी द्वारा श्रद्धांजलि.
स्वर्गीय अशोक जी सिंघल के निधन से सारे विश्व के हिन्दू समाज को गहरा शोक हुआ है. उनके लम्बे संघर्षमय जीवन का अंत भी मृत्यु के साथ लम्बा संघर्ष करते हुए हुआ. श्री अशोक जी राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ के प्रचारक थे. संघ की योजना से उन्हें विश्व हिन्दू परिषद का दायित्व दिया गया था.
विश्व हिन्दू परिषद के माध्यम से हिन्दू समाज में चैतन्य निर्माण करते हुए उन्होंने हिन्दू समाज का सिंहत्व जाग्रत किया. श्री रामजन्मभूमि मंदिर निर्माण आन्दोलन को एक महत्व के मुकाम पर लाने में उनकी महत्व की भूमिका रही है. भारत के सभी श्रेष्ठ साधू - संतों के साथ सतत आत्मीय संपर्क के कारण उन्होंने सभी साधू – संतों का विश्वास एवं सम्मान अर्जित किया था. हिंदुत्व के मूलभूत चिन्तन का उनका गहरा अध्ययन था जो उनके वक्तव्य एवं संवाद द्वारा हमेशा प्रकट होता था.
ऐसे एक सफल संगठक एवं सक्रिय सेनापति को हिन्दू समाज ने आज खो दिया है. गत कुछ दिनों से अपने स्वास्थ्य के कारण विश्व हिन्दू परिषद् का कार्यभार अपने सुयोग्य साथियों को सौंप कर मार्गदर्शक के रूप में वे कार्य कर रहे थे. स्वतंत्र भारत के हिन्दू जागरण के इतिहास में श्री अशोक जी का संघर्षशील  एवं जुझारू नेतृत्व सदा के लिए सभी के स्मरण में रहेगा.
उनकी दिवंगत आत्मा को सद्गति प्रदान हो ऐसी हम परमात्मा से प्रार्थना करते है.


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Posted By VSK Tamilnadu to Vishwa Samvad Kendra - Tamilnadu at 11/17/2015 09:10:00 PM

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: VHP INT'L HQs DELHI(Goutam Chatterjee) <vhpintlhqs@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 8:03 PM
Subject: sad news: Ma. Ashokji Singhal (Patron, Vishva Hindu Parishad) passed away at 02.24 P.M. today (November 17Tue, 2015) at Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon
To: PATHEYKAN JAIPUR Newsletter/Magazine/Patrika <patheykan@gmail.com>



 

NIDHAN OF MA. ASHOKJI SINGHAL – HINDU HRIDAY SAMRAT AND LEADER OF AYODHYA MOVEMENT

We are sorry to be the bearers of sad news, but our Maananiya Ashokji Singhal (Patron, Vishva Hindu Parishad) passed away at 02.24 P.M. today (November 17Tue, 2015) at Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon near New Delhi from irreversible pulmonary complications. He had developed pulmonary infection and pneumonia during his short visit to his ancestral home in Allahabad and on 20th October he was brought back by Air Ambulance and admitted to ICU in Medanta. Things had improved, he was feeling well and discharged on November 12 and brought to VHP Karyalay at R.K. Puram, New Delhi, but again the breathing problem started and he was re-admitted to the hospital on 13th November night in a critical condition. His vital signs were taken care of by ventilator, medicines, dialysis and other processes and there was a semblance of rejuvenation and stability. The Home Minister of Bharat, some other central Ministers and prominent people had gone to Medanta to see him. His vital signs began sinking again and today he went, in the presence of his nephews and their family members who had come from all over the country and senior VHP office-bearers, to his Ishtadev for further work leaving behind his 90 year old mortal coil which off late he was finding uncooperative with his ever proactive mind and thoughts for the cause of holistic, altruistic, syncretic, uncompromising cultural nationalism and Bharat Mata Ki Jai. His uncooperative physical health notwithstanding, he undertook a month-long organizational trip along with three of his Sah-Yogis to the UK, Holland and USA in August-September last. Today is Chhath Puja day – the Sun’s Day -  and the seasoned Karma Yogi chose this auspicious day to give up his overworked aged body after paying due taxes for well-using it for so long.

After political independence, the country has seen many movements including the two biggest ones – the one being the Sampurna Kranti movement led by Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan in 1975 and the other being the Sri Rama Janma Bhumi movement in the 90s (for cultural independence, national honour and cultural nationalism) led by Ma. Ashokji Singhal with the blessings of the Sant Samaj of Bharat who loved this bachelor Sannyasin (monk) in white wear as their most competent, obedient and reliable son who 24X7 served the cause of Maa Bhaarati for over 70 years! He gave confidence, self-esteem and pride to the Hindus in Bharat and elsewhere in the world including our NRI and PIO communities who all form 1/6th of the seven billion global population who earlier, under the pseudo-secular offensives, had become chronically apologetic about being Hindu.            

From the hospital, his mortal remains would be brought to the house of his nephew at New Delhi, then at 08.30 P.M. for 1½ hours to the VHP Karyalay at Ramakrishna Puram-VI and then taken to the Sangh Karyalay (Keshav Kunj), Jhandewalan, New Delhi where Karyakartas, Sah-Yogis, friends, admirers and others can pay their floral tributes till 04.00 P.M. tomorrow (18.11.2015) and at 04.30 P.M. the Antim Sanskar would take place at the Nigambodh Ghat – the cremation ground, continually active for funeral services since long before the times of Indraprastha (now Delhi) – the Capital of the kingdom of the Pandavas during the Mahabharata period over 5,000 years ago – on the banks of the holy Yamuna. Mananiya Sarakaryawah Shri Bhaiyyaji Joshi and Ma. Sah-Sarakaryawah Sri Bhagaiyyaji would join all Karyakartas in performing the Antyeshti Kriya tomorrow.   


His Asthi (relics) would be taken to 51 places all over Bharat – East, West, North, South - including Haridwar, Mathura, Ayodhya, Allahabad, Varanasi, Chitrakoot, Arunachal Pradesh, etc. – where the leading members of his beloved Sant Samaj would pay their tributes to him – and then the Asthi would be either immersed at the traditional/popular Asthi Visarjan rivers/water bodies in the respective areas or given Bhoo-Samadhi as per the local tradition. On November 22Sunday, 2015, a Shraddhanjali Sabha would take place in a 5,000 capacity Stadium near Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium from 3 to 6 P.M. under the chairmanship of Param Pujya Sarasanghachalak Mananiya Dr. Mohan Rao Bhagwat.
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- CHAMPAT RAI      
SECRETARY GENERAL
VISHVA HINDU PARISHAD
SANKAT MOCHAN ASHRAM
RAMAKRISHNA PURAM SECTOR-6
NEW DELHI – 110 022 BHARAT (INDIA)
TeleFax (00-91) (011) 2610 3495, 2617 8992
00-91 (0) 9811119040
E-Mail: vhpintlhqs@gmail.com
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विशेष सूचना
माननीय अशोक जी सिंहल का आज दिनांक 17-11-2015 को दोपहर 02.24 बजे निधन हो गया। उनका पार्थिव शरीर आज रात्रि 08.30 बजे विश्व हिन्दू परिषद कार्यालय, रामकृृष्णपुरम लाया जायेगा तथा रात्रि 10.00 बजे केशवकुंज, झण्डेवाला (संघ कार्यालय) में अंतिम दर्शन के लिए ले जाया जाएगा।
कल दिनांक 18-11-2015 को सायंकाल 04.30 बजे निगमबोध घाट में अंतिम संस्कार किया जाएगा। 



हिन्दू हृदय सम्राट और अयोध्या आन्दोलन के पुरोधा   श्री अशोक सिंहल जी का निधन
 
नब्बे के दशक में श्रीराम जन्मभूमि आन्दोलन जब अपने यौवन पर था, उन दिनों जिनकी सिंह गर्जना से रामभक्तों के हृदय हर्षित हो जाते थे, उन श्री अशोक सिंहल को संन्यासी भी कह सकते हैं और योद्धा भी; पर वे जीवन भर स्वयं को संघ का एक समर्पित प्रचारक ही मानते रहे।
अशोक जी का जन्म आश्विन कृष्ण पंचमी (27 सितम्बर, 1926) को उ.प्र. के आगरा नगर में हुआ था। उनके पिता श्री महावीर सिंहल शासकीय सेवा में उच्च पद पर थे। घर के धार्मिक वातावरण के कारण उनके मन में बालपन से ही हिन्दू धर्म के प्रति प्रेम जाग्रत हो गया। उनके घर संन्यासी तथा धार्मिक विद्वान आते रहते थे। कक्षा नौ में उन्होंने महर्षि दयानन्द सरस्वती की जीवनी पढ़ी। उससे भारत के हर क्षेत्र में सन्तों की समृद्ध परम्परा एवं आध्यात्मिक शक्ति से उनका परिचय हुआ। 1942 में प्रयाग में पढ़ते समय प्रो. राजेन्द्र सिंह (रज्जू भैया) ने उनका सम्पर्क राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ से कराया। उन्होंने अशोक जी की माता जी को संघ के बारे में बताया और संघ की प्रार्थना सुनायी। इससे माता जी ने अशोक जी को शाखा जाने की अनुमति दे दी। 
1947 में देश विभाजन के समय कांग्रेसी नेता सत्ता प्राप्ति की खुशी मना रहे थे; पर देशभक्तों के मन इस पीड़ा से सुलग रहे थे कि ऐसे सत्तालोलुप नेताओं के हाथ में देश का भविष्य क्या होगा ? अशोक जी भी उन देशभक्त युवकों में थे। अतः उन्होंने अपना जीवन संघ कार्य हेतु समर्पित करने का निश्चय कर लिया। बचपन से ही अशोक जी की रुचि शास्त्रीय गायन में रही है। संघ के अनेक गीतों की लय उन्होंने ही बनायी है। 
1948 में संघ पर प्रतिबन्ध लगा, तो अशोक जी सत्याग्रह कर जेल गये। वहाँ से आकर उन्होंने बी.ई. अंतिम वर्ष की परीक्षा दी और प्रचारक बन गये। अशोक जी की सरसंघचालक श्री गुरुजी से बहुत घनिष्ठता रही। प्रचारक जीवन में लम्बे समय तक वे कानपुर रहे। यहाँ उनका सम्पर्क श्री रामचन्द्र तिवारी नामक विद्वान से हुआ। वेदों के प्रति उनका ज्ञान विलक्षण था। अशोक जी अपने जीवन में इन दोनों महापुरुषों का प्रभाव स्पष्टतः स्वीकार करते हैं।
1975 से 1977 तक देश में आपातकाल और संघ पर प्रतिबन्ध रहा। इस दौरान अशोक जी इंदिरा गांधी की तानाशाही के विरुद्ध हुए संघर्ष में लोगों को जुटाते रहे। आपातकाल के बाद वे दिल्ली के प्रान्त प्रचारक बनाये गये। 1981 में डाॅ. कर्णसिंह के नेतृत्व में दिल्ली में एक विराट हिन्दू सम्मेलन हुआ; पर उसके पीछे शक्ति अशोक जी और संघ की थी। उसके बाद अशोक जी को विश्व हिन्दू परिषद् के जिम्मेदारी दी गयी।
इसके बाद परिषद के काम में धर्म जागरण, सेवा, संस्कृत, परावर्तन, गोरक्षा.. आदि अनेक नये आयाम जुड़े। इनमें सबसे महत्त्वपूर्ण है श्रीराम जन्मभूमि मंदिर आन्दोलन, जिससे परिषद का काम गाँव-गाँव तक पहुँच गया। इसने देश की सामाजिक और राजनीतिक दिशा बदल दी। भारतीय इतिहास में यह आन्दोलन एक मील का पत्थर है। आज वि.हि.प. की जो वैश्विक ख्याति है, उसमें अशोक जी का योगदान सर्वाधिक है। 
अशोक जी परिषद के काम के विस्तार के लिए विदेश प्रवास पर जाते रहे हैं। इसी वर्ष अगस्त-सितम्बर में भी वे इंग्लैंड, हालैंड और अमरीका के एक महीने के प्रवास पर गये थे। परिषद के महामंत्री श्री चम्पत राय जी भी उनके साथ थे। पिछले कुछ समय से उनके फेफड़ों में संक्रमण हो गया था। इससे उन्हें सांस लेने में परेशानी हो रही थी। इसी के चलते 17 नवम्बर, 2015 को दोपहर में गुड़गांव के मेदांता अस्पताल में उनका निधन हुआ।

प्रस्तुति - विजय कुमार, संकटमोचन आश्रम, रामकृष्णपुरम्, सेक्टर 6, नयी दिल्ली - 110022


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विश्व हिन्दू परिषद केन्द्रीय कार्यालय
संकटमोचन आश्रम,
रामकृष्णपुरम, से.-6,
नई दिल्ली-22
Tel. 011-26178992, 011-26103495,09871672407
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Brief Biographical History of Maananiya Sri Ashokji Singhal
Sri Ashokji Singhal (b. 1926 CE, Agra) – Patron of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP/World Hindu Council) – is a leading social and cultural rejuvenator and consolidator of the national society of Bharat (India), one who, by virtue of his being an engineer and student of science from Banares Hindu University and coming from an illustrious family of engineers, administrators and followers of the Himalayan/Indic Tradition from Teertharaj Prayag, combines in his vision and mission the alacrity of the modern scientific temperament with the illumination of the holistic & altruistic Rishi-Krishi culture of Bharat.

VHP under his dynamic and inspiring leadership and through its 73,555 branches/units in Bharat, 20 overseas national chapters, 35,900+ service projects in the fields of education, health, self-reliance, self-employment, rural empowerment, Gram Shiksha Mandir (Rural Education Temples), Ved Vidyalayas, etc., and mass-awakening and mobilization programmes like the Ekaatmataa Yagna (Countrywide Unity Rally) in which over 100 million people participated, has been strengthening the grassroots level of the Hindu society.

He is fully convinced and strongly tries to convince leaders from different walks of life in Bharat that so far as the work for the country in terms of Suraksha (national security), Samriddhi (national prosperity) and Swaabhimaan (national self-esteem and Gross Domestic Happiness) is concerned, none should differentiate between people in terms of religion, creed, gender, caste, language, race, etc. It is the Vote Bank Politics which is responsible for the disunity and discrimination in Bharat. This could be remedied if the people follow the principles of Sanatan Dharma and holistically, altruistically and syncretically address all the troubles. He celebrates Maharshi Aurobindo's view that "Sanatan Dharma is our nationhood". "National Reconstruction" in his view is, therefore, the right Mantra. He laments that, unfortunately, instead of the Mantras of "Desh Nirman" and "Samaj Nirman", "Vote Bank Politics" has now become the 'core Mantra' in the country.   

He made the Sri Rama Janma Bhumi Ayodhya matter a catalyst for the said vision and mission of national reconstruction, core integrity and unity. He articulated it at their respective levels to the classes and the masses constituting the 1.25 billion people of Bharat. He caught the imagination of the people as his answers were unquestionable and sometimes his questions were unanswerable in the matter. The issue catalysed greater awakening, mobilization of manpower and time and socio-economic service activities with the effort to reach out to the 600-thousand villages of Bharat. It made people all the more motivated workers for national reconstruction in their own way. The D-7, viz., Desh (country), Dharma (Laws and Principles that uphold nature and life), Dev (Divinities), Devasthaanams (Places of Worship), Daya (Compassion), Daan (Charity) and Daman of Shadaripus, is the hallmark combination of his view of Ram Rajyam that motives his actions and that of his Sah-Yogisand millions of Karyakartas and like-minded people. 

Sri Ashokji Singhal explores the wide realms of Hindu thought and action thorough consultations with the learned Sant-Mahatmas, scholars and also from a common man’s perspective of things and events and gives us a panacea to address the matters concerning the Hindu society in Bharat and the Hindu presence elsewhere and position the Hindu fraternity and its cultural commonwealth spread across many countries and continents as an invincible and holistically catalyzing force in a world with a 7 billion population where every 6th person is a Hindu. He bridges the gap between Hindu life and Rishi spirit, realizing that the highest Rishi spirit must be given currency so that every person tries to become a Saint-Scientist or a Scientist-Saint with the Rishi-goal to transform earthly existence and express through life the Divine Truth locked in matter.

As the leader of various movements and projects, he has been on a hectic and strenuous tour to all nooks and corners of Bharat and many parts of the world since the 1950s meeting people, addressing audiences, tackling the media, propagating the Hindu cause and winning friends and disarming critics.

It is a rare privilege and our great good fortune to have him with us, alas, only for a brief duration, which is too short for us but too long for him since he has so many calls and pressures on his valuable time.

It is a rare opportunity to hear him. Every word he has to say is meaningful, significant and an enrichment for us all. The pseudo-secularists find his questions on the subject of 'national reconstruction' unanswerable and his answers unquestionable.
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Sharad Pawar and a British Company -- a few questions -- PerformanceGuru Staff & Moneylife

November 17, 2015, 4:57 pm
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 21 seconds ago
Shard Pawar&Rs 5,39,000 Crore: Address listed by SGFX (145-147, St John Street,London, EC1V 4PW) "there are 32406 companies registered:) RT

Veeresh Malik 14 hours ago
The address listed (145-147, St John Street, London, EC1V 4PW) is on all sorts of scam alert lists. As on date, "there are 32406 companies registered at 145-157 ST JOHN STREET, LONDON, ENGLAND, EC1V 4PW in Islington. 24254 companies are active, 8144 companies are dissolved and 8 companies are in liquidation."

Just search the address and everything under the sun pops up.


 12 hours ago
The strange case of a £70 bn, UK company in which Sharad Pawar was a director

The strange case of a £70 bn UK company, in which Sharad Pawar was a director
MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM | 17/11/2015 06:05 PM |   
SGFX Financials came into existence in December 2010, had Sharad Pawar as a director for a few weeks, within months showed an injection of a breath-taking £70 bn and got dissolved in November 2012 
Sharad Pawar, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was a director in a UK-registered company SGFX Financials Co UK Ltd, for a few weeks, reveals documents, attributed in twitter to Niraj Gunde by Bhatiya Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy.
According to the UK company filing database, companieshouse.gov.uk, Mr Pawar was appointed as board member of SGFX Financials Co on 13 December 2010 and left the company on 5 January 2011. The filing also notes Mr Pawar's occupation clearly as Minister, Government of India.
SGFX Financials Co's incorporation filing as on 13 December 2010, shows Mr Pawar as one of the directors at that time. Besides Mr Pawar, there are two more directors, Sarvesh Narendra Gade and Shahanaz Ashraf Bharde mentioned in the filing. It states total number of shares at 500 with nominal value of £700,755 (British pounds). While Gade held 375 shares, Bharde, who is also mentioned as company secretary, had 125 shares at a nominal value of £1401.55, the statement filed on 13 December 2010 shows. More about the directors later.
On the day, when Mr Pawar left the company, there is one more filing by SGFX Financials Co, which shows its increase in its number of shares. In this filing, the number of shares allotted is stated as 4,500, takings SGFX Financials Co's total shares to 5,000 at £1401.55 per share. This took the total capital of the company to £7,007,750 (£7.00 million).
According to the company filings, 2011 was a very hectic year for SGFX Financials Co. There were a lot of appointments and terminations taking place. But, most important, is that the capital was increasing very rapidly. From £7.00 million British pounds on 5 January 2011, it increased to £700.775 million on 20 March 2011. As if, this was not enough, again the capital zoomed to £70.077 billion as on 29 June 2011. In short, as soon as Mr Pawar left the company on 5 January 2011, within next five months, the capital of SGFX Financials Co grew one-lakh times to £70.077 billion from a mere £700,755. Who put in this money? Where did this money come from? Where did it vanish?
Following an application from SGFX Financials Co, the UK Registrar of Companies issued a notice for dissolving the company on 14 August 2012. Three months after that SGFX Financials Co was termed as a dissolved company.
Coming back to SGFX Financials Co directors, Mr Gade, as per information available in public domain, was director of three companies registered in the UK. He was appointed director SGFX Financials Co twice. He was also director of Angel Investments Co UK Ltd and Online Currency Exchange of UK Ltd. Mr Gade, born in January 1985, has mentioned his occupation as businessman, as per the information. What is interesting is that all these three companies, in which Mr Gade was a director between June 2010 and May 2013, are now dissolved. 
Ms Bharde, another director and company secretary of SGFX Financials Co, was born in March 1975. Similar to the Mr Gade, she too was director of Angel Investments Co UK Ltd, according to information available in public domain. 
Another interesting factor in this entire episode is that all the companies registered and dissolved in the UK have their namesake companies registered in India with the same directors. For example, there is a company registered on 5 July 2013 as Online Currency Exchange of India Ltd (U74900MH2013PLC245277) with an address from Vashi Infotech Park in Navi Mumbai. Mr Gade is the common director in both the Indian and UK registered company. Only difference is that in the Indian entity, Ms Bharde’s name is mentioned as Shahanaz Sarvesh Gade. In addition, there is one more director, Razin Ashraf Bharde, who seems to be a brother of Ms Shahanaz.
Even SGFX Financials Co of UK has its namesake in India registered as SGFX Financials Ltd (U65999MH2011PLC216863). This company has three directors, all associated with SGFX Financials Co of UK. Besides Mr Gade and Ms Bharde, there is Chidambareswara Rao Kalla who is mentioned as director in the Indian entity. Mr Rao Kalla was director of SGFX Financials too in the UK.

Sharad Pawar and a British Company – a few questions

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Sharad Pawar and a British Company - a few questions
Sharad Pawar and a British Company - a few questions
Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar (born 12 December 1940) is an Indian politician who serves as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress. He passed 10th standard from Maharashtra Board. He previously served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on three separate occasions and held the posts of Minister of Defence and Minister of Agriculture in the Government of India. Pawar hails from the town of Baramati in the Pune district of Maharashtra. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha where he leads the NCP delegation. He holds a position of prominence in national politics as well as the regional politics of Maharashtra.

Pawar has served as the Chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from 2005 to 2008 and as the president of the International Cricket Council from 2010 to 2012. On 17 June 2015, he was re-elected as president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, a position he held from 2001 to 2010 and in 2012 also.

Member of Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra from 2014, he was Chief Minister of Maharashtra during the periods 18 July 1978 – 17 February 1980, 26 June 1988 – 25 June 1991 & 6 March 1993 – 14 March 1995.

He was Minister of Agriculture during 23 May 2004 – 26 May 2014 & Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution during 2004–2011 He was also President of the International Cricket Council during 2010–2012. He was Member of the Lok Sabha for Baramati during 1991–2009.

He is President Nationalist Congress Party (1999–present).

The interesting point is that he was Director in a UK based company called SGFX financial Company UK which was incorporated on 13th December 2010.The Company SGFX financials Ltd was incorporated with 145-157 St John Street, London EC1V4PW as the address.

The Company secretary was Mrs Shahanaz Ashraf Bharade and Directors are Mr. Sarvesh Narendra Gade Indian Business man [Born 1985] and Mrs Shahanaz Ashraf Bharade [Born 1975] with Indian Nationality and Sharad Chandra Govindrao Pawar [born 1940] Indian –Minister Govt of India. 

The authorised capital of the company was700775 GBP with 500 shares, with Sarvesh Gade holding 375 shares at GBP and Shahanaz Bharde holding 125 shares at 1401.55 GBP per share.[total aggregating to GBP 700775]. The agent for the company was Companies Made Simple Ltd.

After this the developments are interesting/ intriguing. On 05/01/2011 namely 23 days after joining Pawar resigned as Director. So did Sarvesh Narendra Gade.

Then on 21/01/2011 namely after 16 days of his resignation Sarvesh Gade was re-appointed as Director. 

Then on 16/3/2011 Chidambareshwara Rao Kalla [Born 1973] was appointed as Director. He is an Indian businessman from Vizag.

And on 18/03/2011 Mr Jitu Jeremiah [born 1983] of Israel is appointed as Director. This Jitu resigns on 28/04/2011 within a month and is reappointed as Director on 11/05/2011 – within 13 days. He again resigns on 24/05/2011 –within 13 days and get re-appointed on 15./06/2011 within 22 days.

The company is dissolved on 27/11/2012.

A timeline of the history of the Directors coming in and going out is shown below:
SGFX Company Directors time line
All these documents are accessible online at Companies House.

To quote Winston Churchill (he said this about Russia), SGFX is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.

Questions:
  • Can a cabinet minister in the Government of India be also a director in a company registered in UK? Kindly note that Pawar was the Agriculture minister at that time (A fact that is confirmed in the document).
  • What was the nature of business of SGFX Financials Ltd? Was it trading in shares or weapons?
  • The company’s paid up capital was raised from £7 million ($10.5 million) to £700 million ($1.05 billion) to £70 billion ($105 billion). Why did the company raise so much cash?
  • Why was the Israeli Director Jitu Jeremiah having such successive short tenures – multiple resignations and re-inductions?
  • Did company paid any dividends to Pawar?
The most Teflon coated leader of the country who is known as “Mr. Clean” since he has never been involved in the public knowledge in any scandal – needs to come more clean now.
Will the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Shri Hamid Ansari take up this matter?

1. The conversion rate used is 1 GBP = 1.5 USD.
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Full text of statement issued by 46 academics against "leftist" historians

November 17, 2015, 5:27 pm
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Published: November 17, 2015 22:15 IST | Updated: November 18, 2015 03:16 IST  November 17, 2015

Full text of statement issued by 46 academics against "leftist" historians

A group of eminent historians, archaeologists and scholars have responded to two separate statements on the issue of 'rising intolerance'— one issued by 53 academic historians and the other, an open letter by academic historians and social scientists of India at academic institutions overseas — saying they are "neither intellectual nor academic in substance, but ideological and, much more so, political."

Here's the full text of their statement:

On 26 October, 53 Indian historians voiced alarm at what they perceived to be the country’s “highly vitiated atmosphere” and protested against attempts to impose “legislated history, a manufactured image of the past, glorifying certain aspects of it and denigrating others....” This was soon followed by an “Open letter from overseas historians and social scientists”, 176 of them, warning against “a dangerously pervasive atmosphere of narrowness, intolerance and bigotry” and “a monolithic and flattened view of India's history.”

Such closely-linked statements appearing with clockwork regularity in India and abroad — there have been several more from various “intellectual” circles — are a well-orchestrated campaign to create a bogeyman and cry wolf. They are neither intellectual nor academic in substance, but ideological and, much more so, political.

As historians, archaeologists and academics specializing in diverse aspects of Indian civilization, we wish to respond to these hypocritical attempts to claim the moral high ground. Many of the signatories of the above two statements by Indian and “overseas” historians have been part of a politico-ideological apparatus which, from the 1970s onward, has come to dominate most historical bodies in the country, including the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), and imposed its blinkered view of Indian historiography on the whole academic discipline.

Anchored mainly in Marxist historiography and leftist ideology, with a few borrowings from postmodernism, the Annales School, Subaltern and other studies, this new School, which may be called “Leftist” for want of a better term, has become synonymous with a number of abusive and unscholarly practises; among them:

1. A reductionist approach viewing the evolution of Indian society almost entirely through the prism of the caste system, emphasizing its mechanisms of “exclusion” while neglecting those of integration without which Indian society would have disintegrated long ago.
2. A near-complete erasure of India’s knowledge systems in every field —philosophical, linguistic, literary, scientific, medical, technological or artistic — and a general underemphasis of India’s important contributions to other cultures and civilizations . In this, the Leftist School has been a faithful inheritor of colonial historiography, except that it no longer has the excuse of ignorance. Yet it claims to provide an accurate and “scientific” portrayal of India!
3. A denial of the continuity and originality of India’s Hindu-Buddhist-Jain-Sikh culture , ignoring the work of generations of Indian and Western Indologists. Hindu identity, especially, has been a pet aversion of this School, which has variously portrayed it as being disconnected from Vedic antecedents, irrational, superstitious, regressive, barbaric — ultimately “imagined” and, by implication, illegitimate.
4. A refusal to acknowledge the well-documented darker chapters of Indian history , in particular the brutality of many Muslim rulers and their numerous Buddhist, Jain, Hindu and occasionally Christian and Muslim victims (ironically, some of these tyrants are glorified today); the brutal intolerance of the Church in Goa, Kerala and Puducherry; and the state-engineered economic and cultural impoverishment of India under the British rule. While history worldwide has wisely called for millions of nameless victims to be remembered, Indian victims have had to suffer a second death, that of oblivion, and often even derision.
5. A neglect of tribal histories : For all its claims to give a voice to “marginalized” or “oppressed” sections of Indian society, the Leftist School has hardly allowed a space to India’s tribal communities and the rich contributions of their tribal belief systems and heritage. When it has condescended to take notice, it has generally been to project Hindu culture and faith traditions as inimical to tribal cultures and beliefs, whereas in reality the latter have much more in common with the former than with the religions imposed on them through militant conversions.
6. A biased and defective use of sources : Texts as well as archaeological or epigraphic evidence have been misread or selectively used to fit preconceived theories. Advances of Indological researches in the last few decades have been ignored, as have been Indian or Western historians, archaeologists, anthropologists who have differed from the Leftist School. Archaeologists who developed alternative perspectives after considerable research have been sidelined or negatively branded. Scientific inputs from many disciplines, from palaeo-environmental to genetic studies have been neglected.
7. A disquieting absence of professional ethics : The Leftist School has not academically critiqued dissenting Indian historians, preferring to dismiss them as “Nationalist” or “communal”. Many academics have suffered discrimination, virtual ostracism and loss of professional opportunities because they would not toe the line, enforced through political support since the days of Nurul Hasan. The Indian History Congress and the ICHR, among other institutions, became arenas of power play and political as well as financial manipulation. In effect, the Leftist School succeeded in projecting itself as the one and only, crushing debate and dissent and polarizing the academic community.

While we reject attempts to portray India’s past as a glorious and perfect golden age, we condemn the far more pernicious imposition by the Leftist School of a “legislated history”, which has presented an alienating and debilitating self-image to generations of Indian students, and promoted contempt for their civilizational heritage. The “values and traditions of plurality that India had always cherished in the past” are precisely those this School has never practised. We call for an unbiased and rigorous new historiography of India.
1. Dr. Dilip K. Chakrabarti , Emeritus Professor, Cambridge University, UK; Dean, Centre of Historical and Civilizational Studies, Vivekananda International Foundation, Chanakyapuri, Delhi; member, ICHR
2. Dr. Saradindu Mukherji , historian, retired from Delhi University; member, ICHR
3. Dr. Nanditha Krishna , Director, CPR Institute of Indological Research, Chennai; member, ICHR
4. Dr. M.D. Srinivas , former professor of theoretical physics; former vice-chairman, Indian Institute of Advanced Study; chairman, Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai; member, ICHR
5. Dr. Meenakshi Jain , associate professor of history, Delhi University; member, ICHR
6. Michel Danino , guest professor, IIT Gandhinagar; member, ICHR
7. Prof. B.B. Lal , former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India
8. Dr. R.S. Bisht , former Joint Director General, Archaeological Survey of India
9. Dr. R. Nagaswamy , former Director of Archaeology, Govt. of Tamil Nadu; Vice Chancellor, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram
10. Dr. B.M. Pande , Former Director, Archaeological Survey of India
11. Prof. Dayanath Tripathi , former Chairman, ICHR; former Head, Dept. of Ancient History, Archaeology and Culture, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur; former Visiting Professor at Cambridge, British Academy
12. Prof. R.C. Agrawal , President, Rock Art Society of India; former Member Secretary of ICHR
13. Prof. K.V. Raman , former professor of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, University of Madras
14. Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam , Dancer and Research Scholar
15. Prof. Kapil Kapoor , former Rector, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antararashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha (Maharashtra)
16. Prof. Madhu Kishwar , Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
17. Dr. Chandrakala Padia , Vice Chancellor, Maharaja Ganga Singh University (Rajasthan); Chairperson, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
18. Sachchidanand Sahai , Ph.D. (Paris), National Professor in Epigraphy, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Advisor to Preah Vihear National Authority under the Royal Government of Cambodia; member, ICHR
19. Dr. J.K. Bajaj , Director Centre for Policy Studies, Former Member ICSSR
20. Dr. Makarand Paranjape , Professor of English, JNU; Visiting Global South Fellow, University of Tuebingen
21. Dr. Nikhiles Guha , former professor of history, University of Kalyani, West Bengal; member, ICHR
22. Prof. Issac C.I. , member, ICHR
23. Prof. (Dr.) Purabi Roy , member, ICHR
24. Prof. Jagbir Singh , Former Professor and Head, Dept. of Punjabi, University of Delhi; Life Fellow, Punjabi University, Patiala.
25. Dr. G.J. Sudhakar , former Associate Professor, Dept. of History, Loyola College, Chennai
26. Dr. Bharat Gupt , Former Associate Professor, Delhi University
27. Prof. O.P. Kejariwal , Central Information Commissioner & Nehru Fellow
28. Dr. S.C. Bhattacharya , former Professor and HOD, Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Allahabad University; former National Fellow, IIAS, Shimla
29. Prof. S.K. Chakraborty , former professor, Management Centre for Human Values, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
30. Dr. Amarjiva Lochan , Associate Professor in History, Delhi University; President, South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture & Religion (SSEASR) under IAHR, affiliated to the UNESCO
31. Dr. R.N. Iyengar , Distinguished Professor, Jain University, Bangalore
32. Professor (Dr) R. Nath , former Professor of History, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
33. Kirit Mankodi , archaeologist, consultant to Project for Indian Cultural Studies, Mumbai
34. Prof. K. Ramasubramanian , Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit, IIT Bombay; Council Member International Union for History and Philosophy of Science; member, Rashtriya Sanksrit Parishad
35. Dr. M.S. Sriram , Retired Professor and Head, Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Madras; Member Editorial Board, Indian Journal of History of Science; Former Member, Research Council for History of Science, INSA
36. Dr. Amartya Kumar Dutta , Professor of Mathematics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
37. Dr. Godabarisha Mishra , Professor and Head, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Madras
38. Dr. R. Ganesh , Shathavadhani, Sanskrit scholar
39. Sri Banwari , Academic and Journalist; former Resident Editor, Jansatta
40. Dr. S. Krishnan , Associate Professor, Dept of Mathematics, IIT Bombay
41. Dr. Rajnish Kumar Mishra , Associate Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
42. Dr. Vikram Sampath , Director, Symbiosis School of Media and Communication; former Director of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) - SRC; historian and author
43. Prof. K. Gopinath , Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
44. Prof. M.A. Venkatakrishnan , former Professor and Head, Dept. of Vaishnavism, Madras University
45. Dr. Sumathi Krishnan , Musician and Musicologist
46. Dr. Prema Nandakumar , Author and translator
47. Dr. Santosh Kumar Shukla , Associate Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/historians-archaeologists-scholars-call-for-unbiased-and-rigorous-new-historiography-of-india/article7888794.ece
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Statement on Hypocrisy and Indian History-A public statement by concerned Indian historians, archaeologists and scholars of Indian civilization

November 17, 2015, 6:20 pm
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Petitioning Concerned Indians

Statement on Hypocrisy and Indian History






Please sign this petition to express your support of the important statement below. If you do not mind, make sure you keep your name visible and add a comment. Thank you.


Statement on Hypocrisy and Indian History

Hypocrisy and Indian History
A public statement by concerned Indian historians, archaeologists and scholars of Indian civilization
17.11.2015  
On 26 October, 53 Indian historians voiced alarm at what they perceived to be the country’s “highly vitiated atmosphere” and protested against attempts to impose “legislated history, a manufactured image of the past, glorifying certain aspects of it and denigrating others....” This was soon followed by an “Open letter from overseas historians and social scientists”, 176 of them, warning against “a dangerously pervasive atmosphere of narrowness, intolerance and bigotry” and “a monolithic and flattened view of India's history.”
             Such closely-linked statements appearing with clockwork regularity in India and abroad — there have been several more from various “intellectual” circles — are a well-orchestrated campaign to create a bogeyman and cry wolf. They are neither intellectual nor academic in substance, but ideological and, much more so, political.
            As historians, archaeologists and academics specializing in diverse aspects of Indian civilization, we wish to respond to these hypocritical attempts to claim the moral high ground. Many of the signatories of the above two statements by Indian and “overseas” historians have been part of a politico-ideological apparatus which, from the 1970s onward, has come to dominate most historical bodies in the country, including the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), and imposed its blinkered view of Indian historiography on the whole academic discipline.
            Anchored mainly in Marxist historiography and leftist ideology, with a few borrowings from postmodernism, the Annales School, Subaltern and other studies, this new School, which may be called “Leftist” for want of a better term, has become synonymous with a number of abusive and unscholarly practises; among them:
1.        A reductionist approach viewing the evolution of Indian society almost entirely through the prism of the caste system, emphasizing its mechanisms of “exclusion” while neglecting those of integration without which Indian society would have disintegrated long ago.
2.        A near-complete erasure of India’s knowledge systems in every field —philosophical, linguistic, literary, scientific, medical, technological or artistic — and a general underemphasis of India’s important contributions to other cultures and civilizations. In this, the Leftist School has been a faithful inheritor of colonial historiography, except that it no longer has the excuse of ignorance. Yet it claims to provide an accurate and “scientific” portrayal of India!
3.        A denial of the continuity and originality of India’s Hindu-Buddhist-Jain-Sikh culture, ignoring the work of generations of Indian and Western Indologists. Hindu identity, especially, has been a pet aversion of this School, which has variously portrayed it as being disconnected from Vedic antecedents, irrational, superstitious, regressive, barbaric — ultimately “imagined” and, by implication, illegitimate.
4.        A refusal to acknowledge the well-documenteddarker chapters of Indian history, in particular the brutality of many Muslim rulers and their numerous Buddhist, Jain, Hindu and occasionally Christian and Muslim victims (ironically, some of these tyrants are glorified today); the brutal intolerance of the Church in Goa, Kerala and Puducherry; and the state-engineered economic and cultural impoverishment of India under the British rule. While history worldwide has wisely called for millions of nameless victims to be remembered, Indian victims have had to suffer a second death, that of oblivion, and often even derision.
5.        A neglect of tribal histories: For all its claims to give a voice to “marginalized” or “oppressed” sections of Indian society, the Leftist School has hardly allowed a space to India’s tribal communities and the rich contributions of their tribal belief systems and heritage. When it has condescended to take notice, it has generally been to project Hindu culture and faith traditions as inimical to tribal cultures and beliefs, whereas in reality the latter have much more in common with the former than with the religions imposed on them through militant conversions.
6.        A biased and defective use of sources: Texts as well as archaeological or epigraphic evidence have been misread or selectively used to fit preconceived theories. Advances of Indological researches in the last few decades have been ignored, as have been Indian or Western historians, archaeologists, anthropologists who have differed from the Leftist School. Archaeologists who developed alternative perspectives after considerable research have been sidelined or negatively branded. Scientific inputs from many disciplines, from palaeo-environmental to genetic studies have been neglected.
7.        A disquieting absence of professional ethics: The Leftist School has not academically critiqued dissenting Indian historians, preferring to dismiss them as “Nationalist” or “communal”. Many academics have suffered discrimination, virtual ostracism and loss of professional opportunities because they would not toe the line, enforced through political support since the days of Nurul Hasan. The Indian History Congress and the ICHR, among other institutions, became arenas of power play and political as well as financial manipulation. In effect, the Leftist School succeeded in projecting itself as the one and only, crushing debate and dissent and polarizing the academic community.
           While we reject attempts to portray India’s past as a glorious and perfect golden age, we condemn the far more pernicious imposition by the Leftist School of a “legislated history”, which has presented an alienating and debilitating self-image to generations of Indian students, and promoted contempt for their civilizational heritage. The “values and traditions of plurality that India had always cherished in the past” are precisely those this School has never practised. We call for an unbiased and rigorous new historiography of India.
1.        Dr. Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Emeritus Professor, Cambridge University, UK; Dean, Centre of Historical and Civilizational Studies, Vivekananda International Foundation, Chanakyapuri, Delhi; member, ICHR
2.        Dr. Saradindu Mukherji, historian, retired from Delhi University; member, ICHR
3.        Dr. Nanditha Krishna, Director, CPR Institute of Indological Research, Chennai; member, ICHR
4.        Dr. M.D. Srinivas, former professor of theoretical physics; former vice-chairman, Indian Institute of Advanced Study; chairman, Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai; member, ICHR
5.        Dr. Meenakshi Jain, associate professor of history, Delhi University; member, ICHR
6.        Michel Danino, guest professor, IIT Gandhinagar; member, ICHR
7.        Prof. B.B. Lal, former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India
8.        Dr. R.S. Bisht, former Joint Director General, Archaeological Survey of India
9.        Dr. R. Nagaswamy, former Director of Archaeology, Govt. of Tamil Nadu; Vice Chancellor, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram
10.    Dr. B.M. Pande, Former Director, Archaeological Survey of India
11.    Prof. Dayanath Tripathi, former Chairman, ICHR; former Head, Dept. of Ancient History, Archaeology and Culture, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur; former Visiting Professor at Cambridge, British Academy
12.    Prof. R.C. Agrawal, President, Rock Art Society of India; former Member Secretary of ICHR
13.    Prof. K.V. Raman, former professor of Ancient Indian History & Archaeology, University of Madras
14.    Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, Dancer and Research Scholar
15.    Prof. Kapil Kapoor, former Rector, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antararashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha (Maharashtra)
16.    Prof. Madhu Kishwar, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
17.    Dr. Chandrakala Padia, Vice Chancellor, Maharaja Ganga Singh University (Rajasthan); Chairperson, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
18.    Sachchidanand Sahai, Ph.D. (Paris), National Professor in Epigraphy, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Advisor to Preah Vihear National Authority under the Royal Government of Cambodia; member, ICHR
19.    Dr. J.K. Bajaj, Director Centre for Policy Studies, Former Member ICSSR
20.    Dr. Makarand Paranjape, Professor of English, JNU; Visiting Global South Fellow, University of Tuebingen
21.    Dr. Nikhiles Guha, former professor of history, University of Kalyani, West Bengal; member, ICHR
22.    Prof. Issac C.I., member, ICHR
23.    Prof. (Dr.) Purabi Roy, member, ICHR
24.    Prof. Jagbir Singh, Former Professor and Head, Dept. of Punjabi, University of Delhi; Life Fellow, Punjabi University, Patiala.
25.    Dr. G.J. Sudhakar, former Associate Professor, Dept. of History, Loyola College, Chennai
26.    Dr. Bharat Gupt, Former Associate Professor, Delhi University
27.    Prof. O.P. Kejariwal, Central Information Commissioner & Nehru Fellow
28.    Dr. S.C. Bhattacharya, former Professor and HOD, Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, Allahabad University; former National Fellow, IIAS, Shimla
29.    Prof. S.K. Chakraborty, former professor, Management Centre for Human Values, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
30.    Dr. Amarjiva Lochan, Associate Professor in History, Delhi University; President, South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Culture & Religion (SSEASR) under IAHR, affiliated to the UNESCO
31.    Dr. R.N. Iyengar, Distinguished Professor, Jain University, Bangalore
32.    Professor (Dr) R. Nath, former Professor of History, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
33.    Kirit Mankodi, archaeologist, consultant to Project for Indian Cultural Studies, Mumbai
34.    Prof. K. Ramasubramanian, Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit, IIT Bombay; Council Member International Union for History and Philosophy of Science; member, Rashtriya Sanksrit Parishad
35.    Dr. M.S. Sriram, Retired Professor and Head, Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Madras; Member Editorial Board, Indian Journal of History of Science; Former Member, Research Council for History of Science, INSA
36.    Dr. Amartya Kumar Dutta, Professor of Mathematics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
37.    Dr. Godabarisha Mishra, Professor and Head, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Madras
38.    Dr. R. Ganesh, Shathavadhani, Sanskrit scholar
39.    Sri Banwari, Academic and Journalist; former Resident Editor, Jansatta
40.    Dr. S. Krishnan, Associate Professor, Dept of Mathematics, IIT Bombay
41.    Dr. Rajnish Kumar Mishra, Associate Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
42.    Dr. Vikram Sampath, Director, Symbiosis School of Media and Communication; former Director of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) - SRC; historian and author
43.    Prof. K. Gopinath, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
44.    Prof. M.A. Venkatakrishnan, former Professor and Head, Dept. of Vaishnavism, Madras University
45.    Dr. Sumathi Krishnan, Musician and Musicologist
46.    Dr. Prema Nandakumar, Author and translator
47.    Dr. Santosh Kumar Shukla, Associate Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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Grill Rahul on UK Citizenship, Dr.Subramanian Swami urges LS Speaker, Hon'ble Sumitra Mahajan

November 17, 2015, 6:50 pm
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GRILL RAHUL ON UK CITIZENSHIP, SWAMI URGES LS SPEAKER
Wednesday, 18 November 2015 | Pioneer News Service | New Delhi

Stepping up his attack on Rahul Gandhi, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday approached Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to seek an explanation from the Congress vice-president and Lok Sabha member for declaring himself a British citizen in a company floated by him in London. 
The BJP, on its part, said Rahul should clarify as the documents on his British nationality were legally valid ones.  BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said the party was seeking an explanation as the issue pertains to Rahul’s nationality and it was now in public domain.
Meeting the Speaker in the evening with documents of Rahul’s company Backops Ltd, Swamy urged Mahajan to seek a clarification from the Congress vice-president and refer the matter to the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha for a detailed probe, if she felt a prima facie case still remains.
In his written complaint to the Speaker, Swamy pointed out that Rahul, as the company secretary of Blackops Ltd, had declared himself a British citizen in the company’s annual returns of 2005 and 2006.
He maintained the same citizenship status in the documents for dissolving the firm in 2009, Swamy said adding the Congress VP had also mentioned in all the documents (2005-2009) that he was living in London. Rahul was elected as an MP from Amethi in 2004.
Swamy said all these documents prima facie establish that Rahul holds British citizenship and violated Article 9 of the Indian Constitution. “Rahul failed to disclose, as required under Indian law, the setting up of a commercial company abroad, assuming that he is still a citizen of India and has not taken any other citizenship as the Congress Party claims,” said Swamy.
“In view of the above, at the very minimum Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP has violated the ethics code to be observed by Members of Parliament and therefore you may call for an explanation from him on the issues arising from the facts mentioned in the enclosed authenticated documents.
“And, if following his explanation, you feel a prima facie case still remains, you may refer this matter to the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha to determine whether Rahul Gandhi can continue as a MP by virtue of the fact that not only is he guilty of gross violation of ethics but also that he is not a citizen of India, which is a mandatory requirement to be a MP. Hence that by a Resolution of the House, the Amethi Lok Sabha seat be declared vacant, and thus communicated to the Election Commission, said Swamy in his complaint to the Lok Sabha Speaker.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/todays-newspaper/grill-rahul-on-uk-citizenship-swami-urges-ls-speaker.html
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After Paris Attacks, a Darker Mood Toward Islam Emerges in France -- NYTimes

November 17, 2015, 8:47 pm
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After Paris Attacks, a Darker Mood Toward Islam Emerges in France


16 November 2015

Paris

November is not January. 

That thought has been filtering through the statements of most French politicians and the news media, and most people seem to understand.

Unlike the response in January after attacks at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and elsewhere left 17 dead, there were no grand public appeals for solidarity with Muslims after theFriday attacks that left 129 dead in Paris. 

There were no marches, few pleas not to confuse practitioners of Islam with those who preach jihad.

Instead, there was a palpable fear, even anger, as PresidentFrançois Hollande asked Parliament to extend a state of emergency and called for changing the Constitution to deal with terrorism. 

It was largely unspoken but nevertheless clear: SecularFrance always had a complicated relationship with its Muslim community, but now it was tipping toward outright distrust, even hostility.

The shift could be all the more tempting because the government is struggling to find its footing politically as it is threatened on its far right by the anti-immigrant National Front party.

Already, tough talk from officials in the government shows them shifting rightward, calling for new scrutiny of mosques, extending the state of emergency and possibly placing restrictions on the 10,000 or more people loosely indexed as possible threats to the state. 

France needs to “expel all these radicalized imams,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared Saturday.

France had already been expelling handfuls of imams in recent years. 

But the attacks have not ceased, and experts point out that the paths to radicalization more typically run through the prisons or the war in Syria, not the mosques. 

At the same time, there are whiffs of hardening feelings — mosque desecrations over the weekend, and harsh words between non-Muslims and Muslims in the crowds mourning.

The concern among Muslims in France is palpable. 

“We’re already feeling the backlash. It started right away,” said Latetia Syed, 17, whose family gathered on Sunday near the Bataclan concert hall, where 89 people were killed on Friday, to pay respect to the victims. “There was a flood of violent language on Facebook to kill Muslims.”

France’s imams “are all worried,” said Hassen Farsadou, the head of a group of Muslim associations in the Paris suburbs. “We are trying to figure out how to handle this.”

Fear and suspicion are pervasive. “Today, I went to the gym, and I was wearing my helmet,” said Aykut Kasaroglu, a shop worker in the immigrant-rich Montreuil district. “The policeman stopped me and told me to take it off so they could see me. Everyone is suspicious.”

The grim public mood, with hardened jaws and frowns on the emptied streets, is bubbling up. Deep shades of distinction that previously separated France’s political groupings — left, right and far right — on how to handle the terrorist threat, or even how to deal with France’s large Muslim community, are blurring.

“We know, and it is cruel to say it, that on Friday it was French who killed other French,” Mr. Hollande told a rare joint emergency session of Parliament on Monday. “There are, living on our soil, individuals who from delinquency go on to radicalization and then to terrorist criminality.”

Similar words, references to France’s “enemy within,” recently have provoked an uproar, particularly on the left. But this time Mr. Hollande’s speech was met with universal applause, a singing of the national anthem and some rare praise from the far-right National Front leader, Marine Le Pen.

As for the audience newly receptive to Ms. Le Pen, “certainly it will grow,” said Bernard Godard, a leading French expert on Franco-Muslim relations and former Interior Ministry official.

Anti-Muslim feelings that had been kept under wraps may no longer be so discreet,Mr. Godard suggested. 

On Sunday, tensions flared when a Frenchman, approaching a group of Muslim women in head scarves who were paying homage to the Bataclan victims at a makeshift shrine, began inveighing against the Quran as a source of inspiration for extremists.

“The Quran says that nobody can take a life,” said one of the women, Abiba Trabacke, who was wearing a blue head scarf. She likened the killers to Nazis, adding: “They have nothing to do with us.”

But the man persisted, and several women in the entourage burst into tears.

“We are calling for peace and love,” one said.

“Shut up!” a bystander yelled at them. “This is not the time to get into this.”

Mrs. Trabacke turned to the growing crowd. “You see this head scarf that I’m wearing?” she asked. “This is my conviction; it comes from God.”

How this might play out in coming weeks is hinted at in rapidly evolving propositions for how best to use the notorious “S files,” an index of thousands of people considered possible threats to the state — on the basis of dubious associations, for instance, or even online threats. 

At least one of the attackers at the Bataclan, Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, was on the S list; so were the two brothers who shot up Charlie Hebdo in January and a train attacker thwarted by three Americans in August.

Each time, there has been an outcry in France over why a dangerous individual known to the state was not stopped beforehand. 

Each time officials have explained that a place in the S files is not the basis for an arrest.

Since Friday, there have been the customary calls from the right and far right for crackdowns on the lists’s members, with a top National Front functionary on television Monday seeming to call for imprisoning all of them. 

The former President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested electronic monitoring. But this time the left-wing government was careful not to dismiss a heightened role for the S files.

“You can’t dismiss any tool,” Mr. Valls, the prime minister, said on radio about the files. “We are not setting aside any solutions.” 

As his boss, Mr. Hollande, put it to lawmakers on Monday, “With the acts of war of Nov. 13, the enemy has crossed a new line.”

The question, rights advocates say, is how far the government can go in restricting the rights of a mostly law-abiding minority without further alienating its more marginal members and driving them to the militants.

The Socialist government, with its intensified bombing campaign in Syria and its promises of an internal crackdown, is trying to stay ahead of a deeply uneasy public. But experts say its efforts may not be enough.

Ms. Le Pen’s criticism of Mr. Hollande on Monday may be more significant than her unusual praise. 

The president had failed to mention the “fight against Islamism” or the “indispensable cleaning out of the cellars and suburbs gangrened by criminality,” she said. 

In the National Front lexicon, Ms. Le Pen’s words —“suburbs” and “criminality” — are often code for Islam and Muslims.

“There is a serious risk, in public opinion, that people will become more radical,” Mr. Godard said. “Maybe people will now say, ‘No, no, no Islam in the public space, not anymore.’”


Reporting was contributed by Nabih Bulos, Alissa J. Rubin, Elian Peltier and Aurelien Breeden.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/europe/after-paris-attacks-a-darker-mood-toward-islam-emerges-in-france.html?emc=edit_th_20151117&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=50568392

Paris attacks: No security can stop Isis – the bombers will always get through

Patrick Cockburn


17 November 2015


[Only the total destruction of the terrorist group, through US air support for Assad’s ground forces, can keep Europe safe] 


The “Islamic State”, as Isis styles itself, will be pleased with the outcome of its attacks in Paris. 

It has shown that it can retaliate with its usual savagery against a country that is bombing its territory and is a power to be feared at a time when it is under serious military pressure. 

The actions of just eight Isis suicide bombers and gunmen are dominating the international news agenda for days on end. 

There is not a lot that can be done about this. People are understandably eager to know the likelihood of their being machine-gunned the next time they sit in a restaurant or attend a concert in Paris or London. 

But the apocalyptic tone of press coverage is exaggerated: the violence experienced hitherto in Paris is not comparable with Belfast and Beirut in the 1970s or Damascus and Baghdad today. 

Contrary to the hyperbole of wall-to-wall television coverage, the shock of living in a city being bombed soon wears off. 

Predictions of Paris forever trembling in expectation of another attack play into the hands of Isis.

A further disadvantage flows from excessive rhetoric about the massacre: instead of the atrocities acting as an incentive for effective action, the angry words become a substitute for a real policy. 

After the Charlie Hebdo murders in January, 40 world leaders marched with linked arms through the streets of Paris proclaiming, among other things, that they would give priority to the defeat of Isis and its al-Qaeda equivalents. 

But, in practice, they did nothing of the sort. 

When Isis forces attacked Palmyra in eastern Syria in May, the US did not launch air strikes against it because the city was defended by the Syrian army and Washington was frightened of being accused of keeping President Bashar al-Assad in power. 

In effect, the US handed Isis a military advantage which it promptly used to seize Palmyra, behead captured Syrian soldiers and blow up the ancient ruins.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the G20 meeting in Turkey that “the time for talking is over” and there must be collective action against “terrorism”. 

This sounds like an impressive Turkish stand against Isis, but Mr Erdogan has explained that his definition of “terrorist” is wide-ranging and includes the Syrian Kurds and their paramilitary People’s Protection Units (YPG) whom the US has found to be its best military ally against Isis. 

Mr Erdogan’s enthusiasm for attacking Kurdish insurgents in Turkey and northern Iraq has turned out to be much stronger than his desire to attack Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham.  

There is little sign that the G20 leaders gathered in Turkey have understood the nature of the conflict in which they are engaged. 

Isis’s military strategy is a unique combination of urban terrorism, guerrilla tactics and conventional warfare. 

In the past, many states have used terrorism against opponents, but, in the case of Isis, suicide squads focusing on soft civilian targets at home and abroad are an integral part of its war-making strategy. 

When the YPG captured Isis’s border crossing into Turkey at Tal Abyad in June,the group retaliated by sending fighters in disguise to the Kurdish city of Kobani where they slaughtered over 220 men, women and children. 

When Russia started its air campaign against Isis and extreme jihadists on 30 September, Isis responded with a bomb planted on a Russian plane leaving Sharm el-Sheikh that killed 224 passengers.
  
Another mistake made by G20 leaders is to persistently underestimate Isis. 

David Cameron said it should not be dignified by the name “Islamic State”,but unfortunately it is a real state and one which is more powerful than half the members of the UN, with an experienced army, conscription, taxation and control of all aspects of life within the vast area it rules. 

So long as it exists, it will project its power through suicide operations like those we have just seen in Paris. 

Because the potential target is civilian populations as a whole, no amount of increased security checks or surveillance is going to be effective. The bomber will always get through.

The only real solution is the destruction of Isis:this can only be done by a US and Russian air campaign against it in partnership with those on the ground who are actually fighting it.

The US Air Force has done so effectively with the YPG, enabling them to defeat Isis at Kobani, and with the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, who captured the city of Sinjar last week. 

But the US baulks at attacking Isis when it is fighting the Syrian army or the Shia militias in Iraq. 

Given that these are the two strongest military formations fighting Isis, America’s military punch is being pulled where it would do most good.  

Given the international sympathy for the French after the massacre in Paris, it is inevitable that there is almost no criticism of France’s muddle-headed policy towards the Syrian conflict. 

Earlier this year, in an interview with Aron Lund of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of the leading French experts on Syria, Fabrice Balanche, who is currently at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that “in 2011-12 we suffered a kind of intellectual McCarthyism on the Syrian question: if you said that Assad was not about to fall within three months you could be suspected of being paid by the Syrian regime”. 

He noted that the French foreign ministry took up the cause of Syrian opposition, while the media refused to see the Syrian revolt as anything other than the continuation of revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. 

They were blind to sectarian, political and social divisions which meant that there were always two sides to the Syrian civil war. 

With the state bureaucracy, army general staff and security services packed with Alawites, it is almost impossible to get rid of Mr Assad and his regime, whose leaders come from the Alawite community, without the state collapsing, leaving a vacuum to be filled by Isis and its al-Qaeda counterparts.


Despite the latest terrorist attacks, there is still no long-term policy to prevent it happening again.
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Vedic studies are not a recent phenomenon --Yellapragada Sudershan Rao

November 17, 2015, 9:47 pm
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Vedic studies are not a recent phenomenon: Yellapragada Sudershan Rao
Interview with Chairman, Indian Council of Historical Research
G Sreedathan  October 03, 2015 Last Updated at 21:44 IST
Yellapragada Sudershan Rao
Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) chairmanYellapragada Sudershan Rao speaks to G Sreedathan on controversies surrounding the government body. Rao says the colonial mind is so deeply entrenched in the Indian psyche, that they somehow want to keep Aryan migration alive for purposes better known to them. Edited excerpts:

Historians and academicians allege that you have been appointed to head ICHR to suit the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)'s notion of history. Even economist Amartya Sen had said you have not done any worthwhile historical research. What do you have to say about it?

Professor Amartya Sen's coinage Argumentative Indian very well applies to the present generation of the Indian intellectual class. The ancient Indian intellectual tradition was based on tarka, wherein two discussants would put forth before the assembly of scholars what all they know about the contested topic, supported by pramana. The merits and demerits of this intellectual exercise were assessed by the collegium and one would gracefully acknowledge the weakness of his proposition. The judgment was objective and impartial. You can take the example of Sankaracharya and Mandana Mishra, where Mandana Mishra's wife was the judge. Mandana Mishra accepted his defeat, took to sanyasa and became Sankara's disciple. The present class of argumentative intellectuals thrive by condemning others and their views. Their arguments mostly follow their political ideologues. The idea of appropriating history is generated from the idea of political aggrandisement. One becomes vocal and vociferous when he imagines a threat to his holding. Not being an Argumentative Indian, I might have disappointed Professor Amartya Sen and the likes. Their disillusionment is so unbearable to them, that they set aside minimum decency and professional ethics in condemning the other. However, I thank them for showing interest in me, and I take their comments in good stead for my introspection.

In one of the interviews, you have said there was a need to look at history from an Indian perspective. What is the problem with the Marxist or, for that matter, Western narrative or approach to historiography? Is there a need for an Indian perspective?

Your question itself says that we have been looking at our history from the Western window. The post-independent historiography till now is dominated by the Marxist thought. All our historical perspectives are based on the Western theories on society, economy, and culture. We can easily identify the birth of these social theories in the Enlightenment Era in Europe. These theories and understandings, are, thus, based on the European experience, limited to a few centuries. Even if we apply empiricist methods of social sciences to historical studies, the wider sample is always desirable. In such a case, India offers a huge corpus of inscriptions, artefacts, and monuments, dating back to at least four millennia. The much-developed orature backed by continuous, well-developed civilisation, stable society, prosperous economy, diversified religious practices, profound knowledge systems, and philosophies from times unknown must be more welcome for an unbiased historian to work on. (Orature is a body of poetry, tales, etc, preserved through oral transmission as part of a culture.) Let us see history as it stands before us, without using a coloured glass in the guise of 'proper' perspective. General people believe that intellectuals would lead them to know what is/was real. We historians have a greater responsibility than a general intellectual.

According to newspaper reports, there is an effort to push back the antiquity of the Vedas by some Vedic scholars. Is ICHR associated with this project?

Vedic studies are not a recent phenomenon. The study of the Vedas has been continuous since times much before our historical period began. We need not try to push its antiquity backwards. The efforts of dating Vedic literature by Western scholars and English-knowing Indian scholars are also known to us for at least two centuries. In the pre-Independence period, the problem drew the attention of both colonial and national intellectuals. In the post-Independence period, the Marxist school took the brief from the colonial and imperialist schools, coming in the way of every sincere effort to find the truth. Not only archaeologists, many other scientists belonging to disciplines, geology, anthropology, astronomy, etc, have attempted in their ways to find the antiquity of the ancient Indian civilisation. A scientist searching for truth must be open-minded to accept what comes out in his research. The present trend of hypothetical research and trying to justify our own hypothesis does harm to historical studies. A historian should allow himself to be led by his data. He should not resort to select data to confirm his opinion. The Marxist school starts with the assumption that the present is definitely better than the past. This determinism conditions the writing of history. While (socialist philosopher) Karl Marx could substantiate this linear progression with his understanding of the European past; India offers a totally different picture, where astonishing culture and civilisation coexisted with uncivilised but cultured tribal life, each thriving in peaceful coexistence. Civilisation, too, had several levels of development simultaneously at several pockets. The same phenomenon still continues in India, while the West has gone for a uniform pattern. These aspects of the Indian life and culture offer great inspiration and scope to the present genre of historians to work on.

This move may bring back the debate on the Aryan invasion theory. What is your view on the Aryan invasion theory?

The fathers of this theory have denounced it after they realised during the Second World War that they burnt their fingers. But it was continued in Indian intellectual circles further for some years in the post-Independence era, but they too had to moderate the theory as Aryan migration. The colonial mind is so deeply entrenched in the Indian psyche, that they somehow want to keep it alive for purposes better known to them.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/vedic-studies-are-not-a-recent-phenomenon-yellapragada-sudershan-rao-115100300854_1.html
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An open letter to Dr. PM Bhargava on his return of Padma Bhushan award -- Jayasree Saranathan

November 18, 2015, 12:29 am
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An open letter to Dr P. M. Bhargava on his return of Padma Bhushan award – Jayasree Saranathan

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Admin
Dr P. M. Bhargava
Indian WomanRespected Dr Bhargava,
This letter comes from an ordinary citizen of this country who thinks that Padma awards are given to those Indians who are regarded as jewels in the crown of India and who have added glory to the Nation by their exceptional contribution in some fields that make India a great nation. When I read the news reports that you have returned it, I wondered what you were trying to convey. Is it because you no longer consider your contribution as a worthy something or you consider that India is not a worthy nation to have you honored?
In your letter of return to the President you have cited the reason as “an expression of my concern at the currently prevailing socio-politico situation in the country.” (The link to the news report that I read is here). So you think that the prevailing conditions in the country are not good; in other words you think our country is not doing great. By returning the award do you mean to convey that India is not a worthy nation to have you as a jewel of honor? Or you don’t want  an honor from a country that is “divisive, unreasonable and unscientific” – the description you have given to the RSS for which the BJP is the political front, to quote your words.
According to the news report you go on to quote Mr Mohan Bhagawat on what he thinks on the role of woman (“that marriage is a contract according to which the woman is supposed to be only a housewife and not work outside”). I don’t know in what context Mr Bhagawat had said that, because technically speaking ‘Vivaha’ is a contract of complementary roles for the partners to run a household while fulfilling their Purusharthas. If one works outside, the other works at home. But what struck me was that you have taken objection to this as a reason for returning the Padma award!
Looking back in time when you received this award, Dr Bhargava, there was a huge controversy raging on Shah Banu case. You received the award in 1986 and in the same year the Rajiv Gandhi Government overturned the Supreme Court verdict on alimony to the hapless Muslim housewife and enacted a new act that was divisive, autocratic and yielding to religious bigotry. The same President who conferred the award on you sanctioned that act. I don’t know which happened first, you receiving the award or the act that changed the fate of Muslim women.
My question is where were you and your sensibilities when such a draconian act was enacted purely based on the tenets of a religion? Why didn’t you refuse the award then or return the award at that time itself? After all, Mr Bhagawat’s comment is not going to change the life of an average Hindu housewife. But the Shah Banu act did spell doom on countless Muslim women and for all the years since then. Where was your humanism and spirit of inquiry at that time? Or was it developed by you only later and has woken up now on hearing Mr Bhagawat speak?
The Hindu report then quotes you calling the Dadri incident as a plan controlled by the BJP. May I ask you the proof you have in hand to make this accusation? You are a person steeped in scientific temper and rational thinking and therefore you cannot be expected to make claims without proof. What is the proof you have for this that made you take an extreme step of returning the award which was not returned even in 1986 despite the more provocative Shah Banu case?   
I have another question for you in this connection. If the ruling Governments are responsible for the incidents like the Dadri one, would you in the same breath take the Congress party and the Government in Karnataka to task for the lynching of Prashanth Poojary? Have you at least expressed your displeasure over the killing of Poojary? Why this hypocrisy for you and your fellow intellectuals and awardees?
Quoting the Dadri case you have lamented that the BJP wants to control what we eat, what we read and so on. But your attention must in fact turn to those places where even naming one’s child is controlled by the Government. Don’t you know that one cannot name one’s child as Rama in Saudi Arabia (read here)? But In India there are many Hindus who voluntarily name their kids with Christian and Muslim names. But you won’t come across an Indian Muslim or Christian naming his child as Rama or Krishna or any Hindu name. Such is the level of tolerance among them – the minorities for whom your heart was bleeding when you returned the award.
You said, “Minorities are made to feel that they are second class citizens of the country”. You invoke the clause ‘intolerance’ in this context. I know that you are a pioneering head of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) of Hyderabad. CCMB has earned an eternal name in having discovered the ANI and ASI genes (excuse me for the colloquial terms) as mother of all Indian population. An ordinary citizen that I am, this kind of researches led me to know more about the genesis of minorities in India. You as one engaged in such studies must have very well known that the Muslims of India whom you call as minorities were indeed culturally transformed ones and not genetically different from the Hindus.
A research study published in 2006 by Ramana Gutala, Denise R. Carvalho-Silva, Li Jin, Bryndis Yngvadottir, Vasanthi Avadhanula, Khaja Nanne, Lalji Singh, Ranajit Chakraborty and Chris Tyler-Smith did show that Muslims of India were indigenous people culturally changed into their present religion. It was found out that “Islamization in India did not involve large-scale replacement of Hindu Y chromosomes”.
Similar results were published in the Journal of Human Genetics in June 2009  by another group of researchers consisting of Muthukrishnan Eaaswarkhanth, Bhawna Dubey, Poorlin Ramakodi Meganathan, Zeinab Ravesh, Faizan Ahmed Khan, Lalji Singh, Kumarasamy Thangaraj and Ikramul Haque who said that “the spread of Islamic faith in the Indian subcontinent was predominantly cultural transformation associated with minor gene flow from West Asia” and that they are closest to the geographical neighbors of the Hindu communities – implying that these Muslims were originally Hindus and were converts later.
Yet another study by the Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, done on the mtDNA of Sunni and Shia Muslims of Uttar Pradesh showed that they are of Indian origin and when integrated with Y chromosome results showed the Indo Hindu to Islamic conversion in those two populations of UP (abstract here).
All this information, known to me from news paper publications must have been known to you as one in the related scientific field. What is the message these studies convey? Are they not a proof of integrated India where Muslims are not minorities but are natural sons of this soil whose ancestors were not as fortunate as the Hindus in their surroundings in having escaped from the atrocities heaped on them by the invaders? Why your scientific temper and urge for things scientific failed you to understand the cultural history of Muslims? If I were in your place I would have striven for unifying Hindus and Muslims as one stock using more and more of such studies and have truly lived up to the Padma honour given by the country.
You are known for the spirit of inquiry and humanism. Where were they when you quoted Charaka Samhitha? You attributed the following to Charaka Samhitha: “The flesh of the cow is beneficial for those suffering from the loss of flesh due to disorders caused by an excess of vayu, rhinitis, irregular fever, dry cough, fatigue and also in cases of excessive appetite resulting from hard manual work”. How many Hindus do you think subscribe to this remedy? The spirit of inquiry taught by Krishna is not to accept even his teaching verbatim but to think and act. Even if it is true that Charaka Samhitha gave this prescription, don’t you think that this sounds too general and not specific as a medicine for the said diseases? I never heard of anyone who ate beef for getting relief from dry cough and nor have known any Ayurvedic doctor prescribe beef for rhinitis or fever. The spirit of inquiry must teach us what to follow and what to discard.
More than the spirit of inquiry, it is compassionate humanism that must dominate our thinking if something like eating beef is prescribed by the scriptures. Ahimsa is the supreme Dharma declared by Hindu scriptures. The Swasti Vachan of Vedas wishes good will for all plants, bipeds and quadrupeds besides wishing peace at all levels of existence. Such being the compassion and care for all beings in our surroundings, how can a Hindu medical scripture subscribe a cure that can be got through violence? I expected you to condemn and not concur with this passage from Charaka Samhitha – as one known for reformist and humanist tendencies – and denounce beef on compassionate grounds.
Your thirst for scientific inquiry also seems to have taken a back seat, as you seem to have ignored the many research findings on harmful and adverse effects of beef on human health and environment. Just before you returned the award,WHO and UNEP published their findings on need to avoid eating beef. How come you failed to take note of them?
From your comment that the present government is least knowledgeable and least concerned about science, it is known that this government is not up to your level of knowledge. Let it be so. But couldn’t you have exhibited the knowledge of the highest order by recognizing the right to life for the cows and other animals who share most of our genes? Why couldn’t your knowledge of biology infuse a sense of love and respect for the fellow living things with which we share our space? You must have been in the forefront of promoting compassion for other lives.
That four lettered word b… was a bad word even to utter for the Hindus not because the Hindus were less knowledgeable or low in scientific temper. It is because they have a heart full of compassion and gratitude for the animal that gives them food and livelihood. Knowledge makes one powerful, but compassion makes one Godly. Knowledge that does not teach compassion is a waste. Don’t you agree Dr Bhargava?
With respects,

Jayasree Saranathan

The article from The Hindu that made me write to you:
P.M. Bhargava sends back Padma Bhushan award to President
» Jayasree Saranathan is a freelance writer and non-commercial, research-oriented astrologer in Chennai. She blogs at Non-Random Thoughts, where this open letteroriginally appeared.

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Police Arrest 5 Near Paris; Woman Detonates Explosive Vest -- NYTimes

November 18, 2015, 12:43 am
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Started on Nov 18, 2015
A police anti-terror raid is underway in the north Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Wednesday.
Heavy gunshots were heard in the area earlier in the night, with shooting reportedly ceasing at approximately 4:45 CET.


LIVE: 2 killed, 5 arrested in standoff north of Paris

By: AP | New Delhi | Updated: November 18, 2015 2:49 pm
French police are currently raiding a neighbourhood in Saint Denis, northern Paris. APFrench police are currently raiding a neighbourhood in Saint Denis, northern Paris. AP
A woman wearing an explosive suicide vest blew herself up today as heavily armed police tried to storm a suburban Paris apartment where the suspected mastermind of last week’s attacks was believed to be holed up, police said.
They said one man was also killed and five people arrested in the standoff, which began before dawn and was continuing more than four hours later.
One person remained holed up in the apartment.
A senior police official said he believed Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian Islamic State militant, was inside the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with five other heavily armed people.
The official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to police rules but is informed routinely about the operation, said scores of police stormed the building and were met with unexpectedly violent resistance.
Another police official not authorized to be publicly named because of police rules said four police officers were injured. No hostages were being held.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said SWAT teams arrested three people in the apartment. It said they haven’t been identified yet. Another man and woman were detained near the apartment, the office said in a statement.
Residents said an explosion shook the neighborhood at about 4 a.m. (0300GMT). “Then there was second big explosion. Then two more explosions. There was an hour of gunfire,” said Baptiste Marie, a journalist who lives in the neighborhood.
Another witness, Amine Guizani, said he heard the sound of grenades and automatic gunfire. “They were shooting for an hour. Nonstop. There were grenades. It was going, stopping. Kalashnikovs. Starting again,” Guizani said.
Sporadic bangs and explosions continued, and at 7:30 a.m. (0630GMT) at least seven explosions shook the center of Saint-Denis. Reporters at the scene could hear what sounded like grenade blasts from the direction of the standoff.

Investigators have identified 27-year-old Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as the chief architect of attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people and injured 350 others.
In Saint-Denis, police cordoned off the area nearby, including a pedestrian zone lined with shops and 19th-century apartment buildings. Riot police cleared people from the streets, pointing guns at curious residents to move them off the roads.
Seven attackers died in Friday’s gun-and-bomb rampage through Paris. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the carnage.

French authorities had previously said that at least eight people were directly involved in the bloodshed: seven who died in the attacks and one who got away and slipped across the border to Belgium.

http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/paris-heavy-gunfire-reported-in-suburb-likely-anti-terror-operation/

Police Arrest 5 Near Paris; Woman Detonates Explosive Vest

By  and AURELIEN BREEDEN
PARIS — A woman died when she detonated an explosive vest and five people were arrested when the French police conducted an early-morning raid on Wednesday in the northern Paris suburb of St.-Denis aimed at detaining the Belgian militant suspected of organizing the attacks that killed 129 people on Friday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the police raid started at 4:20 a.m. and had targeted six suspects.
Three men hiding out in an apartment were taken in by special police forces, the prosecutor’s office said, although it did not release the three men’s identities.
A man and a woman were also captured near the apartment and have been taken in, the authorities said.
The prosecutor’s office said the target of the raid was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian militant suspected of organizing the attacks. There was no confirmation of whether Mr. Abaaoud was in the apartment at the time of the raid.
The raid appeared to focus on an apartment near Place Jean Jaurès, a main square in St.-Denis not far from the Stade de France, where three of the seven attackers who died on Friday blew themselves up.




The police swarmed through the area and cordoned it off before dawn, emptying the streets and warning inhabitants who were awakened by the gunfire to stay inside.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve joined President François Hollande at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday morning to monitor the operation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/world/europe/paris-attacks.html?emc=edit_na_20151118&nlid=55714762&ref=cta&_r=0
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Kaalaadhan, sequence of Indian financial history. NaMo, restitute kaalaadhan, rewrite history.

November 18, 2015, 12:57 am
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Paris terror attacks: Political cartoonist illustrates the difference between Isis and Muslims

November 18, 2015, 1:56 am
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Paris terror attacks: Political cartoonist illustrates the difference between Isis and Muslims

'Isis is not Islamic,' says cartoonist Jen Sorensen
Mosques have reportedly been deliberately set on fire following the Paris terror attacks in which 129 people were killed AFP
A political cartoonist has highlighted the differences between members of Isis and people of the Islamic faith in the wake of a growing anti-Muslim sentiment across the world.
It follows the terror attacks which took place in Paris on Friday, killing 129 people and injuring hundreds.
Jen Sorensen illustrated the cartoon, entitled ‘How to tell the difference between Isis and Muslims’, in response to the American GOP presidential candidates encouraging their Democratic counterparts to use the term ‘radical Islam’ when referring to Isis during their debate on Saturday.
However Democratic candidates including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders declined to do so, Fox News reported.
Jen Sorensen @JenSorensen
How to tell the difference between ISIS and Muslims: http://fusion.net/comic/234149/paris-attacks-how-to-tell-difference-isis-and-muslims/ …pic.twitter.com/2wYxzosZDr
Ann @atrzy
@JenSorensen Thank you the best tweet I've seen today! pic.twitter.com/eLKTfS0UIF
 · Chandler, AZ, United States
View image on Twitter
Ms Sorensen, the editor of Fusion Comics, said on her website it was "hard to imagine [the GOP] making similar demands that various acts of homegrown terrorism be called the work of ‘radical Christians’.”

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“Many would argue that simply committing such an act means one is not a true Christian. By the same token, Isis is not Islamic, as Islam is understood and practiced by the overwhelming majority of the world’s Muslims. So why insist on the label, unless you have an axe to grind about a faith you deem inferior?”
“Isis thinks in terms of a ‘clash of [civilisations]’ and (surprise!) so do American right-wingers. Anyone framing this issue as The West vs. Islam is playing right into Isis’s hands,” said Ms Sorensen.
The illustration comes after reports of a number of attacks on mosques around the world following the events that took place in Paris.
The Bishopbriggs Cultural Centre in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, was set on fire on Tuesday and a Police Scotland spokeswoman said sit was being “treated as wilful fire-raising”.
A mosque in Canada was believed to be deliberately set on fire on Saturday while acts of vandalism against mosques and Islamic centres in the US were also reported.
The world mourns Paris attacks - in pictures
Since the Paris attacks, public support for allowing Syrian refugees to settle in Britain has also dropped, according to a YouGov poll for The Times.
But human rights groups have warned Europe against turning its back on refugees.
Amnesty International said: “Now more than ever, we must stand in solidarity with everyone who has suffered violence and war – including refugees. Sealing off Europe’s borders isn’t the answer.”
Additional reporting by agencies

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