Akhilesh Yadav ditches Harvard talk
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN | Apr 27, 2013, 12.16 AM IST

Akhilesh Yadav opted out of the Harvard presentation at the last minute.

WASHINGTON: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav cancelled a presentation he was to make at Harvard University on Friday, a day after his cabinet colleague Mohammed Azam Khan was reportedly stopped for extended questioning at the Boston airport.

Yadav was listed as a panel speaker in the spring symposium of Harvard's South Asia Initiative on the subject "Harvard Without Borders: Mapping the Kumbh Mela." But evidently, Harvard's outlook on borders was not shared by the department of homeland security when it held up minister Khan at the airport. Yadav later opted out of the presentation at the last minute due to what organizers said was "unforeseen circumstances."

The organizers said Jawed Usmani (Uttar Pradesh chief secretary) would stand in for Akhilesh Yadav and Mohammed Azam Khan. Others listed in the panel of speakers are Prof Diana Eck, Prof Gregg Greenough and Prof Rahul Mehrotra, with Prof Tarun Khanna serving as moderator.

The extended questioning of India's VIPs, particularly those from the Muslim community, has become a hot button issue between New Delhi and Washington. Although the diplomatic corps on both sides smooth things over with glowing reviews of bilateral relations and frequently apologies for real or perceived excesses, the state department usually cedes to the department of homeland security, which calls the shots in matters of airport security even when there is diplomatic protocol involved.

US officials say on background that much of the misunderstanding stems from India's "VIP culture" where ministers and officials claim diplomatic privileges - even when they have none - while objecting to even basic security and questioning. According to some accounts, Mohammed Azam Khan was flagged for secondary questioning which lasted for only ten minutes. But the frequency with which Indian Muslim personalities complain about airport questioning suggests there is more to it than meets the eye.

The Indian embassy has taken up the latest episode with the state department, officials said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Akhilesh-Yadav-ditches-Harvard-talk/articleshow/19746996.cms

1,300-year-old Buddhist temple stone used by family as a doorstep sells for £500,000 at auction after BBC's Antiques Roadshow and Sotheby's turned it away

THE ANCIENT CITY WHERE THE STONE CAME FROM
The city has been awarded a UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
It lies 205 km north of the capital Colombo, on the banks of the historic Malvathu Oya.
It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and one of the country's eight World Heritage Sites.
The sacred city was established around a cutting from the 'tree of enlightenment', the Buddha's fig tree.
It was brought there in the 3rd century B.C. by Sanghamitta, the founder of an order of Buddhist nuns.
Anuradhapura, a Ceylonese political and religious capital that flourished for 1,300 years, was abandoned after an invasion in 993.
It was left hidden in dense jungle but now its palaces, monasteries and monuments, is now accessible to visitors once again.
Source: UNESCO

Ancient temple one tonne stone step one of only seven left in existence
Relic had been brought back from Sri Lanka by a tea planter in the 1950s
It had been used as a doorstep by the owners, who called it the 'pebble'
Seller Bronwen Hickmott now 'plans to go shopping' with the money

By AMANDA WILLIAMS
PUBLISHED: 20:26 GMT, 23 April 2013 | UPDATED: 06:50 GMT, 24 April 2013

An ancient Buddhist artefact discovered being used as a doorstep and valued at £30,000 has been sold for more than £500,000.
The granite relic was given to Bronwen Hickmott’s parents by a tea planter who returned to Britain from Sri Lanka in the 1950s.
Mrs Hickmott inherited the 2.4m-long (8ft) stone from her mother and father and began using it as a doorstep at her home in Exeter, Devon - affectionately calling it 'the pebble'.

Ancient: This 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple step has been sold for more than £500,000 at auction

But an expert who spotted the one tonne stone in a photograph later confirmed it was actually a Buddhist temple step - up to 1,300 years old.
It was put up for auction with a pre-sale estimate of £30,000 to £50,000 but sold yesterday for ten times as much - £553,250.
Mrs Hickmott said she was 'over the moon' at the sale, and that rival auction house Sotheby’s had previously shown no interest in helping her research the origin of what she called ‘The Pebble’.
And she told how she was also turned down by producers of BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow.
She likened the response of Sotheby’s and the BBC producers to that of shop staff in hit film Pretty Woman who famously refuse to serve Julia Roberts - and miss out on a fortune when she goes on a spending spree.
Mrs Hickmott said: 'They have had a Pretty Woman moment. It was a big mistake. I bet they are kicking themselves now.'
She added: 'We are over the moon. We did not have a clue what ‘The Pebble’ would sell for.
'It was very exciting and as the amount increased we were left speechless and holding our breath.
'I have loved ‘The Pebble’ virtually all my life. I always knew it was something special - but never knew how special.

Relic: Despite once adorning a Sri Lankan temple the intricately carved step had been marking the end of a concrete path outside a bungalow in Sussex

'A few years back when I was trying to research what it was, Sotheby’s turned it down.
'I also tried the Antiques Roadshow but the producers said they knew nothing about it.'
It was not until Sam Tuke, from the Exeter branch of Bonhams, showed the step to the auction house’s art experts in London that its origin was identified.
Mrs Hickmott said: 'That is the first time we realised what we had got in the garden but we never expected it to make anywhere near as much money.
'We shall be sharing the proceeds with our family - our brothers and sisters and children.
'But for now we are celebrating in London. I am going shopping tomorrow.'
The museum piece from the Anuradhapura period, between 400BC to 1017AD, is decorated with carvings of lions, horses, elephants and birds.
It is said to symbolise the four stages life - growth, energy, power and forbearance.
Bonhams spokesman Julian Roup said: 'There was a huge amount of interest so it wasn’t that much of a shock, though we didn’t expect it to sell ten times the estimate.
'The Hickmotts are absolutely delighted. To say that they were astonished is something of an understatement.'
Sri Lanka’s ancient city of Anuradhapura is now a Unesco world heritage site.
It is just one of seven temple steps from the ancient Sri Lankan city of Anuradhapura left in existance today.
The popularity of ancient Eastern art has greatly increased in recent years and the step is expected to sell for a £30,000 to £50,000 when it goes on sale at an auction.
The city of Anuradhapura is the greatest monastic city of the ancient world that dates from the middle of the 5th century BC. It is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313725/1-300-year-old-Buddhist-temple-stone-used-family-doorstep-sells-500-000-auction-BBCs-Antiques-Roadshow-Sotherbys-turned-away.html

Zakir Naik’s Peace [Terror] TV Banned in India

What is highly worrisome is that even the roads built by the Border Roads Organisation behind possible frontlines are too narrow and too easily interruptible

http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/intrude-violate-and-then-offer-to-discuss.html


Intrude, violate, and then offer to discuss


Claude Arpi


25 April 2013


[What can India do in the face of Beijing’s brazenness? One way out would be to postpone Premier Li Keqiang's visit to India. But New Delhi will probably prefer to ‘engage' China. We have been doing this for decades]


Would you call it an intrusion, incursion, transgression or violation?

It does not matter, as it is ‘perceptional’!

Let us look at the facts: For centuries, the Great Himalayas were an incident-free customary natural border between Tibet and India.

Then in 1950, the Chinese invaded the Roof of the World. Progressively, the People’s Liberation Army spread over the Tibetan plateau, building roads, airstrips and setting up garrisons.

The border became the Line of Actual Control. Now, the LAC has become ‘perceptional’. This is a convenient appellation for the Chinese as they can enter at will places they perceive as ‘theirs’, plant their tents or send their yaks to graze.

The Times of India reported that New Delhi “has recorded well over 600 ‘transgressions’ — the Government’s euphemism for cross-border intrusions — all along the unresolved 4,057 km Line of Actual Control by the People’s Liberation Army”. And this, over the last three years alone.

The latest Chinese ‘perceptional’ land- grabbing, marks a new leap forward; this time, the Chinese have come much deeper into India’s territory and in a larger number.

According to media reports, a large group of Chinese soldiers set up a camp some 10 km inside the Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector of Ladakh on April 15. To make things worse, two helicopters apparently provided logistic support to the Chinese troops.

India asserted its own ‘perception’ two days later, sending a battalion of Ladakh Scouts to camp some 500 metres from the Chinese position.

An officer told The Times of India: “Our soldiers are conducting ‘banner drills’ (waving banners and placards at the Chinese troops to show it is Indian territory) through the day.”

Reuters quotes another official: “Ladakh in particular…is being targeted. Though Chinese troops usually go back after marking their presence, they are increasingly coming deeper and deeper into our territory with the aim to stake claim to disputed areas.”

The Indian Government says one should not worry, that many mechanisms are in place: “The two countries are in touch with each other to resolve the row.”

It is true that an Agreement on the Establishment of a Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs was signed on January 17, 2012, but it is clear that the Chinese use these mechanisms (including the 1993 and 1996 border agreements) to do what they please.

A question should be asked: Why is the LAC still not defined?

What was the point of successive National Security Advisers meeting their Chinese counterparts 15 times since 2003 if they are unable to define an ‘actual’ line?

The blame is usually put on the ‘insincerity’ of the Chinese side which is not ready for the slightest compromise, but it is also a fact that instinctively the Indian leadership prefers to hide behind a ‘mechanism’, to not ‘hurt’ our Chinese neighbours’ feelings or ‘makes things worse’, especially when the Chinese Premier is expected in New Delhi.

A telling incident is worth recalling. In September 1956, 20 Chinese crossed over the Shipki-la pass into Himachal Pradesh. A 27-member Border Security Force party met the Chinese the same day. They were told by a Chinese officer that he had been instructed to patrol right up to Hupsang Khad (four miles south of Shipki La, the acknowledged border pass).

The BSF were advised “to avoid an armed clash but not yield to the Chinese troops.”

New Delhi did not know how to react. A few days later, Prime Minister Nehru wrote to the Foreign Secretary: “I agree with [your] suggestion… it would not be desirable for this question to be raised in the Lok Sabha at the present stage.”

The Indians MPs, being unpredictable, may raise a hue and cry. So, it is better to keep it secret and eventually mention it ‘informally’ to Chinese officials, thought the Prime Minister.

Finally, the Ministry of External Affairs told Beijing:

“The Government of India are pained and surprised at this conduct of the Chinese commanding officer.”

This was 56 years ago. Is the situation different today?

Chinese incursions continued in the 1950s in Garwal (Barahoti), Himachal Pradesh (Shipkila) and then spread to Ladakh and the North-East Frontier Agency. Mao’s regime could have only been encouraged by the Government of India’s feeble complaints. Hundreds of such protests have been recorded in the 15 volumes of the White Papers published till 1965 by the Union Ministry of External Affairs. Read them and you will know that nothing is new under the Himalayan Sun.

New Delhi should have noticed earlier that Beijing did not want to settle the border. In March 1954, TN Kaul, the Joint Secretary negotiating the ‘born in sin’ Panchsheel Agreement with China, thought he was being clever to name a few border passes in the accord and that it would be enough to automatically define the frontier. He was in for a big surprise when the Chinese presented a draft that read: “The Chinese Government agrees to open the following mountain passes in the Ari [Ngari] District of the Tibet Region of China for entry by traders and pilgrims of both parties: Shipki, Mana, Niti, Kungribingri, Darma and Lipu Lekh”.

China ‘permitted’ India to cross Indian border passes. Though the Chinese later agreed to rephrase the article, Beijing never agreed that the border had thus been demarcated. Kaul had been taken for a ride.

During the Sino-Indian border talks in Beijing in 1960, the Chinese reiterated, “The negotiations and Agreement of 1954 did not involve at all the question of delimiting the boundary between the two countries.”

A few months earlier, Chinese Premier Chou Enlai stated that the two sides had been able to settle all questions “ripe for settlement”.

Then, the Five Principles were incorporated in the Preamble of the Agreement. The Report of the 1960 border talks says: “Mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity assumed clear and precise knowledge of the extent of each other's territory. Two states with a common boundary could promise such respect for territorial integrity and mutual non-aggression only if they had a well-recognised boundary.”

It was not the case; it is not the case 59 years later.

What can India do?

One solution would be to postpone Premier Li Keqiang’s visit. However New Delhi will probably prefer to ‘engage’ China, in which case, one possibility would be to ‘fix’ the borders by re-opening several border passes.

The reopening of the Demchok route in Ladakh would not only ‘pin’ the border in this area, but also allow Indian pilgrims to reach the Kailash-Mansarovar area in relatively comfortable conditions.

Another border post which would make a difference, if re-opened, is the old trade route via the Karakoram pass. By building a border infrastructure, both sides would have to agree on a LAC, if not a proper border in the area; some gaps between the border posts may remain, but they could be tackled at a later stage. It’s true, though, that the ‘perceptional’ intrusions occurred mainly in the gaps. To fix a few border posts would, however, go a long way in solving the dispute.

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RELATED PLEASE :


http://www.c3sindia.org/china-internal/3558


XINJIANG-TIBET: CONTINUING WEAKNESSES IN CHINA’S PERIPHERAL SECURITY


B.Raman

April 26, 2013


Ten Uighurs, three Hans and two Mongols working for the Ministry of Public Security in Xinjiang and six Uighur separatists were killed on the morning of April 23,2013, in an incident in the Selibya Township in the Bachu county, in the Kashgar area of China’s Xinjiang province. The area of the incident is near Xinjiang’s borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

2. The Information Office of the Xinjiang Government has projected the incident as a “severe, violent, terror incident” which has been brought under control. It has projected 15 of those killed as police officers and social workers helping the police in maintaining security.

3. In its announcement, the Information Office has given the following details of the incident: The incident happened after three community workers found several suspicious people and knives in a local house. They reported the details to their supervisor but were then restrained by suspected terrorists. When police and community workers arrived, they were ambushed by attackers inside and outside the house. The attackers, who had killed the three community workers who had been held captive, then set fire to the house. By the time police brought the situation under control, 15 people had been killed by the gang. Six gang members were shot dead at the scene, bringing the death toll to 21.

4. The “China Daily” has quoted Mutalif Wubuli, commissioner of Kashgar prefecture, as saying that eight suspects have been arrested. It has also quoted Qi Baowen, commander of the Xinjiang Armed Police, as saying that the consequences of the incident are relatively severe because there are many casualties.

5. Last month, courts in Kashgar had sentenced 19 people for their alleged involvement in organized terror activities and for spreading extreme religious information via the Internet and cellphones.

6. In March, the local Ministry of Public Security had started what was described as “Social management in communities” under which Uighurs were recruited as community workers to help the police in the maintenance of security. “It is the foundation of maintaining stability in the region,” Xiong Xuanguo, Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Xinjiang, had said in a media briefing.

7. The incident of April 23,2013, appears to have been in retaliation for the jailing of 19 Uighurs last month and to deter the local Uighurs from co-operating with the police in dealing with separatism.

8. In a commentary on the incident carried on April 25,2013, the “Global Times” of the Communist Party of China said: “The latest clashes show that Xinjiang has a long way to go in its anti-terrorism efforts. But it’s worth pointing out that this case will not pose a threat to the overall stability of Xinjiang. The public expects social harmony and prosperity…..Although Xinjiang has experienced several violent clashes in recent years, social confidence in Xinjiang and the confidence of the whole country toward the region have remained stable. The situation in Xinjiang since the July 5 riots in 2009 has improved and no violent cases have impeded that process. As the sources of violence in Xinjiang haven’t been eradicated, its occasional occurrence cannot be fully prevented. Xinjiang has learned to manage the situation despite some isolated violent cases. It has been investigating and eradicating the internal and external sources of violent terrorist attacks. We should firmly act against violent terrorists. Terrorists should not be permitted to have the misconception that they are carrying out a “holy war” or simply fighting against the regime. They must be clear that they are making enemies of all the Xinjiang people and the Chinese people.”

9. The Xinjiang authorities have not so far blamed the Pakistan-based Islamic Movement of Eastern Turkestan for the fresh violence. They are apparently worried that as the US-led Western troops thin out from Afghanistan; violence by different separatist groups could increase in Xinjiang adding to internal instability. Hence, their interest in co-operating with India in monitoring the ground situation in Afghanistan.

10. The Chinese face a two-pronged threat to their peripheral security— from the growing anger of the Tibetans in the Tibetan areas and from the Uighurs in Xinjiang. Their hopes that rapid economic development of these areas will dilute the threat have been belied so far.

11. In view of China’s insensitivity to India’s core interests and major concerns in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, it will not be in India’s interest to co-operate with China in relation to its peripheral security problems.

(The writer, Mr B .Raman, is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. Twitter @SORBONNE75)

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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/china-to-pay-huge-price-if-it-does-not-stop-skirmishes-with-neighbours/articleshow/19733227.cms

China to pay huge price if it does not stop skirmishes with neighbours

Edward Luttwak

26 Apr, 2013


Recent incursions by the Chinese army into Indian territory in the Depsang region of Ladakh neither signify anything nor prove anything. In fact, they are all contained. But the Chinese army must stay in the game on the western front because the navy and the air force of the country get all the eastern business.

However, with such an aggressive country around as neighbour, India cannot afford to be too calm and complacent when it comes to modernising its defence forces and replacing obsolescent equipment. Of course, India had responded to China's expanding military power by continuing to strengthen its own armed forces. Though with hesitation, it had offered its training facilities for Vietnam's new submarine fleet. We all know that Beijing has abandoned its "Peaceful Rise" and is increasingly quarrelling with its neighbours on the west as well as the east.

EVEN ROADS ARE BAD

However, at this juncture, India must clearly note the glacial pace of military procurement across the globe. What is highly worrisome is that even the roads built by the Border Roads Organisation behind possible frontlines are too narrow and too easily interruptible. One must think out of the box while building new, linear roads that are able to withstand attacks from across the border.

I must say that India will do well by not following China in its act of quarrelling: unlike Beijing, New Delhi should not fight with its neighbours. China is in the process of paralysing itself by picking fights with all its neighbours (such as Vietnam, India, Japan, Taiwan and so on). This is a fatal mistake. It would have been fatal for any country, including the US, if it had attempted something similar. That is why the US never bullies Canada or Mexico. If the US had gone after Canada or Mexico (by quarrelling over land, natural resources, or for regional dominance), they would have had Soviet bases there. The US doesn't even opt for "hot pursuits" - chasing down criminals once they cross the border.

BEWARE OF JAPAN

Therefore, China will pay a price. It is going to be huge if it doesn't stop and it seems that the country is in no mood to stop. This country's undoing will be a war or even a minor skirmish with Japan over the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea. China will soon, maybe in a year or two, stake a much bigger claim for these islands.

That will be the end. They can't even start a war. They will be decimated by the Japanese navy even before they start it. Any such move against Japan will be extremely disastrous for China.

I treat as a joke China's accusation that Japan and the US are being provocative by going for a joint drill. Beijing was referring to a proposed June joint drill by the US and Japan to "capture" an imaginary island. But it is the Chinese that keep sending ships, making aggressive statements, printing maps claiming 3 million square kilometres of sea. They are being provocative every day by advancing long dormant territorial and maritime claims, including most of Arunachal Pradesh.

India must resist any security relations China may try to forge with, say, a neighbour like Sri Lanka, by offering better terms, as well as it can. But first India must wake from its slumber and face reality. This is all the more important at a time when China is in the process of constantly competing with all its neighbours - its new-found aggression over land and sea in the neighbourhood is very similar to the expansionist tendencies of pre-World War II Germany.


The writer, a military strategist, is author of "The Rise of China vs the Logic of Strategy"

As told to Ullekh NP

Congress back with Communal Violence Bill

By Sandhya Jain on April 27, 2013

The Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, shelved nearly two years after an unexpected multi-party resistance in Parliament, seems likely to resurface as part of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s desperate bid to sew up minority support in the event of an unexpected election.

Should the Bill be passed, its major consequences, whether intentional or otherwise, will be a dangerous intensification of communal identities and mutual communal suspicions, besides a discriminatory application of separate laws for separate communities, which militates against the Constitutional prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion. Indeed, it surpasses the communal electorates of the British Raj and virtually creates a separate criminal law by which designated minority groups can prosecute and target a chosen majority in a State or the nation at large.

Further, the Bill clashes with the doctrine of Basic Features of the Constitution as laid down by the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati Case, 1973. If enacted, it is liable to be struck down as ultra vires of the Constitution as it drastically amends the Constitutional provision of Right to Equality before the law as granted under Article 14.

The Bill is the offspring of a partisan State hell-bent on sowing disharmony and shattering the largely peaceful coexistence among communities. As per its provisions, in the event of a communal situation in which there is death and/or injury on both sides (or three sides if we count the police as a separate party present on the spot), the individual victims will not receive succour on the basis of a uniform law in which each incident within the larger riot is investigated and prosecuted separately.

For instance, if five streets of a colony are involved in rioting, the rioters and the victims will be different on each street. Justice involves identifying the culprits and dealing with them as per the extent of their crimes. Yet, under the proposed Bill, separate laws will apply to separate community victims when the cases come to trial, though all crimes are committed as part of the same riot!

If this is not enough of a mockery of the law as we have so far known it, there is no mention of what is to be done if policemen (paramilitary, Army men) doing their duty are deliberately targetted by mobs, or fall in the line of duty. One has only to recall the public manhandling of outnumbered policemen in Mumbai in August 2012, when the Raza Academy and several Sunni Muslim groups took out a march to protest against attacks on their co-religionists in Myanmar.

The Academy later issued a public apology and blamed anti-social elements for infiltrating its rally. But the moot point is whether, had an untoward incident occurred, justice to Government servants on duty will also be meted out on the basis of religious affiliation. This is a serious issue that cannot be neglected by our law makers; it has the potential to split the nation apart.

The Bill rests on the faulty and divisive premise that India’s religious and linguistic minorities and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who together constitute a formidable 40 per cent of the population, are a focus of targetted violence at the hands of the remaining 60 per cent which has been clubbed together as the majority community despite its diversity.

Some apologists of the Bill realised that this is a staggering allegation, and offered the sop that the miniscule Hindu community in Jammu & Kashmir could benefit from its provisions. Perhaps they did not realise that the Bill does not apply to Jammu & Kashmir unless the State Assembly passes an enabling legislation. They also added that Hindus are a religious minority in Punjab, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Andaman-Nicobar, and a linguistic minority in many States – meaning States where the majority Hindu community has a regional mother tongue! Can anything be more perverse?

The Bill defines victims to mean, “3(k) any person belonging to a group as defined under this Act, who has suffered physical, mental, psychological or monetary harm or harm to his or her property as a result of the commission of any offence under this Act, and includes his or her relatives, legal guardian and legal heirs, wherever appropriate”.

Without seeking to raise communal temperatures, it is surely pertinent that one of the most serious law and order threats the nation has been facing for many years is from Jihad, the invocation of a particular religion and its alleged goals and grievances by terrorist groups affiliated to one faith. The victims were mainly from the so-called majority community, though there have also been incidents in which victims belonged to multiple communities.

Under this Bill, will the minority victims of acts of terror by aggressors affiliated to the same minority group get privileged or equal or lesser justice as opposed to the victims of the majority community? The larger questions are: Should there be any difference and where are we headed as a nation if this is the way we are being provoked to think by this Bill?

There is no reason why the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes have been clubbed with religious minorities under this Bill except to dilute its communal taint. The statute already contains the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995.

The Bill provides for a separate Authority, which is likely to overlap with the functions of the National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Minorities, and National Commission for Women. Perhaps these bodies could be merged into a single entity dealing with social crimes.

The Bill lays special emphasis upon crimes of sexual assault linked to a person’s membership of a particular religion or group. In the Gujarat 2002 riot cases transferred to Mumbai, several female victims told the court that they had not been raped during the riots and had no idea this was written in English in the affidavits they were asked to sign by a famous NGO. Yet the Bill makes no provision for punishing and penalising practitioners of such motivated, calculated, and false communal slander.

http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/27/congress-back-with-communal-violence-bill-70809.html

One giant leap for mankind: £13 billion project makes nuclear fusion breakthrough

ITER - The way to new energy (English)http://youtu.be/krqu9p1vsE0



Fusion Energy Production by Deuterium Particle Injection http://youtu.be/_-6hJ8sltdI



One giant leap for mankind: £13bn Iter project makes breakthrough in quest for nuclear fusion, a solution to climate change and an age of clean, unlimited energy

It may be the most ambitious scientific venture ever: a global collaboration to create an unlimited supply of clean, cheap energy. And this week it took a crucial step forward.

Steve Connor reports

STEVE CONNOR SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2013

An idyllic hilltop setting in the Cadarache forest of Provence in the south of France has become the site of an ambitious attempt to harness the nuclear power of the sun and stars.

It is the place where 34 nations representing more than half the world’s population have joined forces in the biggest scientific collaboration on the planet – only the International Space Station is bigger.

The international nuclear fusion project – known as Iter, meaning “the way” in Latin – is designed to demonstrate a new kind of nuclear reactor capable of producing unlimited supplies of cheap, clean, safe and sustainable electricity from atomic fusion.

If Iter demonstrates that it is possible to build commercially-viable fusion reactors then it could become the experiment that saved the world in a century threatened by climate change and an expected three-fold increase in global energy demand.

This week the project gained final approval for the design of the most technically challenging component – the fusion reactor’s “blanket” that will handle the super-heated nuclear fuel.

The building site in Cadarache has also passed the crucial stage where some 493 seismic bearings – giant concrete and rubber plinths – have been set into the reactor’s deep foundations to protect against possible earthquakes.

Peering over the edge of the huge seismic isolation pit, it is still possible to see some of these bearings before they are covered with a raft of reinforced concrete that will support the massive fusion machine at the heart of the £13bn Iter project.

Click here to see how the Iter Project could produce clean energy

Over the next few years about a million individual components of the highly complex fusion reactor will arrive at the Cadarache site from around the world. They will be assembled like a giant Lego model in a nearby building which has a volume equal to 81 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Nothing is left to chance in a project that has defied potential Babel-like misunderstandings between the collaborating nations. The design, development and construction of a machine that will attempt to emulate the nuclear fusion reactions of the Sun is proving to be a triumph of diplomacy, as well as science and engineering.

“It is the largest scientific collaboration in the world. In fact, the project is so complex we even had to invent our own currency – known as the Iter Unit of Account – to decide how each country pays its share,” says Carlos Alejaldre, Iter’s deputy director responsible for safety.

“We’ve passed from the design stage to being a construction project. We will have to show it is safe. If we cannot convince the public that this is safe, I don’t think nuclear fusion will be developed anywhere in the world,” Dr Alejaldre said.

“A Fukushima-like accident is impossible at Iter because the fusion reaction is fundamentally safe. Any disturbance from ideal conditions and the reaction will stop. A runaway nuclear reaction and a core meltdown are simply not possible,” he said.

Conventional nuclear power produces energy by atomic fission – the splitting of the heavy atoms of uranium fuel. This experimental reactor attempts to fuse together the light atoms of hydrogen isotopes and, in the process, to liberate virtually unlimited supplies of clean, safe and sustainable energy.

Nuclear fusion has been a dream since the start of the atomic age. Unlike conventional nuclear-fission power plants, fusion reactors do not produce high-level radioactive waste, cannot be used for military purposes and essentially burn non-toxic fuel derived from water.

Many energy experts believe that nuclear fusion is the only serious, environmentally-friendly way of reliably producing “base-load” electricity 24/7. It is, they argue, the only way of generating industrial-scale quantities of electricity night and day without relying on carbon-intensive fossil fuels or dangerous and dirty conventional nuclear power.

However, the daunting complexity of the Iter project is demonstrated by how long it has taken to reach this early stage of construction – and how much further it still has to go. There is at least another decade of building work and a further decade of testing before the reactor will be allowed to “go nuclear”.

“Every single stage is inspected. Even the specially-prepared concrete cannot be mixed unless a nuclear safety inspector is present. If anything goes wrong with Iter, fusion will be dead,” said a spokesperson for the project.

The roots of the Iter project go back to 1985 when Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the former Soviet Union, offered his country’s prowess in nuclear fusion as a bargaining chip in the nuclear disarmament talks with the US, which at that time was pursuing its “Stars Wars” defence system.

Gorbachev and President Reagan, with the support of Margaret Thatcher and French President François Mitterand, signed an agreement to cooperate on nuclear fusion using the Russian “tokamak” reactor. This was a revolutionary device that could hold the super-hot fusion fuel by creating a “magnetic bottle” within the reactor’s doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel.

Several experimental tokamak reactors around the world, including one at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, have shown nuclear fusion is theoretically possible, but the giant tokamak at Iter will be the first to generate more power than it needs to attain the very high temperatures required for nuclear fusion.

The Iter tokamak machine, which is twice the linear size and 10 times the volume of its nearest rival at Culham, will produce temperatures of well over 100 million C – many times hotter than the centre of the Sun.

It is the first experimental fusion reactor to receive a nuclear operating licence because of its power-generating capacity. For every 50 megawatts of electricity it uses, it should generate up to 500mw of power output in the form of heat.

Richard Pitts, a British nuclear physicist working on the project, said that even though Iter has a nuclear operator’s licence and will produce about 10 times as much power as it consumes, the Iter machine will still remain a purely experimental reactor, with no electricity generated for the French national grid. “We’re not building a demonstration industrial reactor. We’re building the first step towards one that does produce electricity for the grid. If we can show that fusion works, a demonstration reactor will be much cheaper to build than Iter,” Dr Pitts said.

A critical phase of the project will be the injection of plasma – the superhot, electrically-charged gases of the atomic fuel – into the reactor’s vacuum chamber. This plasma, a mix of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, will drive the nuclear-fusion reaction.

The plasma will be heated to temperatures as high as 300 million C to force the atomic nuclei close enough together to cause them to fuse into helium, a harmless and inert waste product that could be recycled as an important industrial raw material. Giant electromagnets powerful enough to trap an aircraft carrier will contain the plasma within a spinning vortex held by the magnetic bottle of the tokamak reactor.

The original date for “first plasma” was scheduled for November 2020 but delays with the construction and commissioning phases have pushed this back to October 2022 – although some of that lost time has since been clawed back. One of the electromagnetic coils used in the giant magnets, for instance, had to be scrapped after a worker in one of the participating countries left a towel on one of the superconducting cables which then became compressed within a coil. Costly mishaps like this put the entire project behind schedule.

Rem Haange, deputy director-general of the Iter project, said that despite the delays, which are perhaps inevitable with such a huge and complex engineering project, no further problems are envisaged that could threaten the viability of the Iter project. “There are no technical issues any more that will be show-stoppers. We think we’ve overcome all the technical issues,” Dr Haange said.

Although the foundations for the main reactor building are still being laid, there has been a lot of development work off-site in the different member nations – the EU, Russia, US, China, Japan, India and South Korea. More than 90 per cent of the Iter machine’s engineering components, for instance, have now been commissioned.

These components, some the size of small houses, will be shipped by road and sea to Cadarache in the coming years, and the task of putting them together into a working machine will be formidable. Iter will have enough superconducting cabling, for instance, to wrap around the Earth 15 times.

“There are a million parts to the Iter machine and this will be the most complex and technically challenging assembly task. The tokamak reactor is 30 metres tall and consists of 18 toroidal magnetic coils weighing hundreds of tons that will each have to be positioned with a precision of less than two millimetres,” said Brain Machlin, head of Iter’s assembly operation.

As the components of the tokamak arrive in the coming years, Iter engineers will be holding their breaths to make sure the parts fit together perfectly. But even if “first plasma” happens within the next 10 years, it will still be another five years or more before they have the confidence to put radioactive tritium fuel into the vacuum vessel – and go nuclear.

Even if everything goes to plan, the first demonstration power plant using nuclear fusion will not be ready until at least the 2030s, meaning commercial reactors could not realistically be built until the second half of the century.

The long timescales mean nuclear fusion does not often get on the political agenda, unless superpower summitry is involve as it was at the height of the Cold War in 1985. But in the end, the long wait for nuclear fusion, and the experiment to save the world, may prove to be well worth the effort.

Timeline: Chain reaction

1929: Scientists use Einstein’s equation E=mc² to predict release of large amounts of energy by fusing atomic nuclei together.

1939: German-born physicist Hans Bethe, pictured, demonstrates that nuclear fusion powers stars.

1950: Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm in the USSR propose a “tokamak” fusion reactor.

1956: Tokamak programme begins in strict secrecy.

1969: Tokamak results declassified, astounding Western scientists.

1973: Design work begins on Joint European Torus (Jet), a tokamak-type reactor in Europe.

1983: Jet completed at Culham, Oxfordshire, on time and to budget.

1985: USSR proposes an international fusion-energy project.

1988: Design work begins for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, later known as simply Iter. 1992: Design phase begins for Iter.

1997: Jet produces 16 megawatts of fusion power, the current world record.

2005: Cadarache, France, chosen as Iter site.

2021-22: “First plasma” scheduled, when ionised gases will be injected into the Iter tokamak.

2027-28: Iter “goes nuclear” with injection of tritium.

2030s: First demonstration fusion reactor to produce electricity for grid.

2050s onwards: First commercial nuclear fusion power plants.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/one-giant-leap-for-mankind-13bn-iter-project-makes-breakthrough-in-quest-for-nuclear-fusion-a-solution-to-climate-change-and-an-age-of-clean-unlimited-energy-8590480.html

In order to mislead the investigation, Sudipta Sen said he started his company to help the poor. But gradually under sustained interrogation, the Saradha chief revealed that his company used to give hefty bribes to senior police officers, income tax and SEBI officials every month to avoid tax related implications.

One of the circled dramatis personae reads: Nalini Chidambaram. In over one and a half years, she took Rs. 1 crore. Her hotel and travel bills during Kolkata visits were reportedly paid by Sudipta.


Chit fund scam: Saradha chief Sudipta Sen gives his interrogators a tough time, says he was helping the poor
SOUDHRITI BHABANI | Kolkata, April 27, 2013 | 08:55

Debjani Mukherjee was an all-time companion of the Saradha Group CMD Sudipto Sen.

Soudhriti Bhabani | MAIL TODAY | Kolkata, April 27, 2013 | UPDATED 11:10 IST

Police detectives had a tough time interrogating Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen, who proved to be a hard nut to crack. In the face of sustained grilling, the scamster kept spouting his ideologies throughout on Friday.

Sen was interrogated by a number of detectives of Bidhannagar police led by deputy commissioner Arnab Ghosh. The grilling started at 10.30 am on Friday and continued till late at night in separate sessions.

Sen and his associates Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chauhan, who were arrested along with him in Jammu and Kashmir, were quizzed by several police officers separately in three different rooms of the New Town police station.

Police sources said Sen reportedly told the investigators that he considered himself as the only son of holy mother Sarada Devi, wife of Ramakrishna Paramhansa and claimed to be inspired by her ideals.


In order to mislead the investigation, Sen said he started his company to help the poor and never wanted to cheat them, police sources said. But gradually under sustained interrogation, Saradha chief Sudipta Sen revealed that his company used to give hefty bribes to senior police officers, income tax and SEBI officials every month to avoid tax related implications.

Sources said the Saradha Group used to give Rs 70 lakh to SEBI and Rs 40 lakh to Assam Police every month. Many retired IPS officers were also in the company's pay rolls. The sources said the total amount paid as bribe every month ran into more than a crore.

The trio was quizzed on cases related to economic offences, the involvement of high-profile politician, realty fraud and money market controversies among others.

Sen was arrested on Tuesday from Sonmarg in J&K along with his associates in connection with the chit fund scam that left lakhs of depositors staring at the prospect of losing their hard-earned money.

On Monday Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the setting up of a high-level inquiry commission and a Special Investigation Team to probe into the collapse of the Saradha Group. She on Friday said Rs 500 crore would be demanded from the Centre to pay back defrauded investors of Saradha Group as SEBI and RBI failed in their duty to check such companies.

The trio was brought back to Kolkata on a four-day transit remand on Wednesday night and produced in Bidhannagar court on Thursday. They were remanded in 14-day police custody. Debjani's younger sister Arpita was also called to the New Town police station for interrogation by the Bidhannagar police commissionerate in connection with the case.

Protest

Meanwhile, employees of the Saradha Group owned 24-hour TV news channel, Channel 10, filed a complaint against Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP and Saradha Group media cell chief executive officer (CEO) Kunal Ghosh and chairman Sudipta for not paying salaries and deposit contributions to the provident fund. The complaint was filed with the the Park Street police station late on Thursday.

Ghosh told a TV channel that all the charges against him were "baseless" and a "deep-rooted conspiracy" had been hatched against him as he was never responsible for disbursing the salary.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/articlePrint.jsp?aid=267958

Key words

• culture
 
• self
 
• brain
 
• independence/interdependence

 

• © The Author (2010). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Saturday , April 27 , 2013 |First lamb: Kunal offers to resign
Letter with rider follows case

OUR BUREAU

Calcutta, April 26: Trinamul MP Kunal Ghosh today offered to resign from the Rajya Sabha if investigations revealed that he was associated with the money market operations of the Saradha Group.

Ghosh, who has been saying he had no connection with the default crisis, communicated his message to Mamata Banerjee in a five-and-a-half-page letter hand-written in Bengali.

“If you instruct, I am ready to resign from the Rajya Sabha any time. Your directive is the last word for me,” Ghosh wrote in the letter, which was uploaded on the Trinamul website late tonight.

Some sources in Trinamul said a criminal case lodged against Ghosh in Park Street police station by a section of employees of Channel 10, a Saradha Group company, last night may have forced the hand of the MP.

In the letter to the chief minister, Ghosh iterated that his role was limited to the affairs of the company’s media interests and he had no role in Saradha’s deposit-mobilising activities.


Kunal Ghosh
The decision to make the letter public was significant as sources in Trinamul said it was an indication that the party was officially distancing itself from him, a move that will make it difficult for Ghosh to continue as a Rajya Sabha MP.

“The letter is written to the chief minister… she will take a decision,” said a senior minister. “But I don’t think that the party can show any leniency towards him,” he added.

The journalist-turned-MP was the executive chairman of the media house of the Saradha Group till he resigned earlier this month.

As his name got dragged into the default crisis and caused embarrassment to the ruling establishment, a section in the party was demanding his resignation.

At a Trinamul parliamentary party meeting in Delhi earlier this week, two MPs —Sisir Adhikari and Subhendu Adhikari — had openly asked him to tender his resignation as a purported letter from Sudipta Sen, the arrested Saradha chief, had levelled charges against Ghosh. Ghosh had maintained that he was only a salaried employee of Sen.

Viewed against the backdrop of the brave face Ghosh had been adopting till now, the letter is being seen as an indication that the pressure on him is mounting.

“Amake akromon-er lakkhyabastu kora hoyeche, dal ke kutshamulok bhabe jorano hochhe, (I have been made the target and the party is being maligned),” Ghosh wrote in the letter.

The charges filed against Ghosh and six other officials of the news channel — ranging from criminal breach of trust to cheating — carry a maximum punishment of seven years in jail.

Of the six charges, two are non-bailable — which means Ghosh can be granted bail only by a court and not by the police station itself. Going by the rulebook, the non-bailable sections mean an accused cannot escape arrest unless he secures anticipatory bail.

A police officer, however, said arrest was not mandatory.

But Ghosh’s party colleagues predicted political damage. “You can say that Kunal’s innings in our party is almost over. We know that the FIR has non-bailable sections and law will take its own course. The chief minister has made it clear that no one with connection to the default crisis will be spared,” said a senior Trinamul minister.

Others said if Ghosh resigned, it would only send out a signal that the party had found a scapegoat and the more powerful leaders had not been touched. It remains to be seen if a sacrificial lamb can help douse the furore triggered by the default scandal.

Police said all the persons against whom they have received complaints would be examined.

“We have started a case against Sudipta Sen, Kunal Ghosh, Somnath Dutta and five others based on the complaint lodged by Ritam Das of Channel 10 and 21 others. We will proceed according to the need of the investigation,” said Pallab Kanti Ghosh, joint commissioner (crime).

According to the complaint, Ghosh and the six officials played an “active role” in propagating the Saradha Group’s fiscal schemes using the resources meant for Channel 10.

The complaint lodged with the Park Street police station claimed the accused had been using the office premises for “storage of documents, papers, cash linked with the obscure fiscal irregularities” of the Saradha Group.

Haste worry on bill

The abrupt haste with which the Trinamul government is drafting a new bill to protect investors and penalise defaulters has raised concerns if the legislation would be vulnerable to legal challenge as was the case after the Singur land bill was pushed through.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130427/jsp/frontpage/story_16833666.jsp#.UXwyIKJTCvc

INDIA TODAY ONLINE NEW DELHI, APRIL 26, 2013 | UPDATED 15:05 IST
Satire: Facebook wall on Bengal chit fund scam




Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/facebook-wall-on-west-bengal-chit-fund-scam/1/267818.html

From: Americans for Peace & Tolerance <apt@peaceandtolerance.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 4:12 PM
Subject: Did Radical Islamic Leadership in Boston Influence Marathon Bombers?

Tariq Ramadan-Supporter Diana Eck Leads the Charge Against Fired 'Islamophobic' Professor

by Phyllis Chesler
PJ Media
January 5, 2012
The evil of small minds has triumphed over all that is good intellectually and morally at Harvard.

Professor Diana L. Eck is a supporter of smooth-talking radical Islamist Tariq Ramadan, whom she describes as "one of Europe's deepest and most articulate Muslim thinkers… one of the most powerful exponents of a reformist, self-critical, spiritual and dialogical Islam." She is also a defender of Boston's notorious Roxbury Mosque (whose former and current trustees, mullahs, and congregants have known ties to terrorism and to preaching violence). Now she has successfully led the pack against Professor Subramanian Swamy. Last year, in December, he was dismissed after twenty years at the summer school on the basis of an op-ed piece he wrote in an Indian newspaper about the obvious and growing danger of Islamic terrorism in India, including the 2008 and 2011 jihadic massacres in Mumbai.

Eck is a professor of comparative religion at Harvard's Divinity School as well as a professor of law and psychiatry. She is known for her "interfaith" work. She, other professors, and some students decided that Swamy's piece was racist, Islamophobic, nationalistic, religiously intolerant, and in favor of violence and, as such, should be treated as unprotected hate speech. Eck and the students do not believe that Harvard should be associated with anyone who holds such views.

Who is Swamy? His biography is very distinguished. In 1964, as a full scholarship student, Swamy obtained his Ph.D at Harvard. He worked with Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets, and jointly authored papers with Nobel laureate Paul. A Samuelson. He has subsequently served in the Indian parliament for five terms and was also a cabinet minister for Commerce, Law & Justice. Swamy, the president of the Janata Party, is also a linguist and is proficient in Tamil, Hindi, English and Chinese.

Swamy is the author of many acclaimed books and papers. In 1971 Swamy published Indian Economic Planning—An Alternative Approach; in 1973 he released Economic Growth in China and India 1952-1970: A Comparative Appraisal; in 1989 he published an updated Comparative Appraisal of China and India (1870-1986). In addition, he has published numerous papers, including one with Paul A. Samuelson in the American Economic Review.

In addition, Swamy is also something of a swashbuckling hero. In 1976, Swamy exposed and challenged corruption in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's "emergency authoritarian" rule in India and had to flee the country twice as a result. However, due to his campaign Gandhi allowed long overdue elections. In 1972, Swamy lost his professorship at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, due to his crusade for both academic freedom and for the union rights of non-teaching Institute employees. After twenty years of litigation, the courts reinstated Swamy with full honors.

Between 1978-1985, Swamy visited China nine times. This led to the normalization of relations between India and China. In 1982, Swamy became the first Indian political leader to make a trip to Israel. Due to his efforts, India opened embassies in both China and Israel; these countries reciprocated..

In 1987, Swamy undertook a fast unto death to demand an inquiry into the illegal killing of Muslim youth by the police in Hashimpura, Meerut. The government finally yielded to his demand for which Swamy was hailed by India's minorities. (For the record: Swamy's wife is a Parsi; he has a Jewish brother-in-law, a Christian sister-in-law, and a Muslim son-in-law. He himself is a Hindu.)

In 1994, Swamy was appointed as chairman of Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade, with a cabinet minister's rank. "This was perhaps the first time that a Opposition Party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party."

Professor Swamy is also the president of the Janata Party in India and has been for the last 20 years. This party is an anti-Left, anti-socialist party which believes in limited government and opposes authoritarianism at the top and serfdom at the bottom. It is anti-caste and anti-language-based differences which divide Hindus. The party also stands for "the elimination of gender discrimination."According to its website:

Atrocities and violence against women are on the increase throughout the country, more particularly against women (in) the weaker sections of society and the Minorities and Scheduled castes and Tribes. The instruments of the state for enforcement of law and order and giving protection to women like the police, the Judiciary and the Bureaucracy have themselves become indifferent to the cause of women.

Please note: Swamy is indeed "politically incorrect." Why? Because he believes that Muslim terrorists do not have the right to take over Hindu temples, to forcibly convert, or to genocidally exterminate Hindus. Or to exist illegally in hostile, parallel societies harboring terrorists. Like Israel, Swamy is asserting the right of self-defense and the right to a national identity. Today, such sentiments are viewed as unacceptable, prejudiced, and primitive by Western intellectuals and activists.

And now let us pause. Who is Professor Diana L. Eck? She, too, has a distinguished resume. She has published many books, including her 1982 work Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India; her 1999 work Banaras: City of Light; her 2001 A New Religious America: How a Christian Country has become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation; and at least two other works about India. She heads the Pluralism Project. Harvard suggests that press inquiries be directed to her in the following areas: gay and lesbian issues, Islam, America, multiculturalism, Hinduism, ordination of women, pluralism, Southeast and Southern Asia. She is married to the Reverend Dorothy Austin.

However, unlike Swamy, Eck has not risked danger or death by going against the "popular" or politically correct view. She represents, perfectly, the "mindset" of the intellectual Ivy League elite in terms of Islam. Here are her own words on the Roxbury Mosque (also known as the Islamic Cultural Center of Boston):

At the heart of Boston in Roxbury Crossing stands the magnificent shell of what will eventually be the Islamic Society of Boston's landmark mosque, as yet incomplete. Progress is swamped by the well-publicized accusations of the David Project, a Jewish advocacy group, about the mosque's funding and leadership and the ensuing litigation against the David Project by the Islamic Society of Boston. (The David Project won this litigation). Meanwhile, Jewish-Muslim relations in Boston have become tense, undermining honest and difficult dialogue at the very time we need it most. Last month, as I stood under the great dome of the mosque at Roxbury Crossing, I prayed, as a Christian, for its speedy completion… Boston is part of the Islamic world. Looking to the future, the vision of an Islamic Center dedicated to interfaith outreach and education at the crossroads of Boston is worth the commitment of Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Swamy is trying to deal with the real but still incredible history of the Muslim genocidal persecution of Hindus. Eighty million Hindus were slaughtered over a five century period and many were forcibly converted to Islam. Eck has probably never focused on Islam's long and ugly history of imperialism, racism, colonialism, forced conversion, slavery, and gender and religious apartheid. Swamy and his people lived through it and now see that a new and barbarous jihad is upon them again. Thus, Swamy identifies the ongoing Muslim terrorism in India as well as the illegal Muslim immigration which has meant increased criminal activity, including the kidnapping, raping, and forcible marriage of Hindu girls by Muslim men.

Eck is apparently not concerned with any of this. Rather, she is trying to teach Americans to be "sensitive" and "tolerant," which to her now means we must understand that not all Muslims are terrorists. Swamy would agree with this and has not only said so — he wrote as much in the very op-ed piece which became grounds for his dismissal. He wrote:

We need a collective mindset as Hindus to stand against the Islamic terrorist. The Muslims of India can join us if they genuinely feel for the Hindu. That they do I will not believe unless they acknowledge with pride that though they may be Muslims, their ancestors were Hindus.

Strong words — yes. But not anti-Muslim words. He is calling upon Muslims in India to support their Hindu brethren. He is not calling for their extermination or their exile.

Also, Swamy clearly states that "Islamic terrorism is India's number one national security problem….and already the successor to Osama bin Laden as the al-Qaeda leader has declared that India is the priority target for that terrorist organization and not the USA." Do Eck and her followers expect Swamy to pretend that this is not the case?

In addition, Swamy is dealing with the continuous Islamic terrorist attacks on Hindu temples. Historically, literally thousands of Hindu temples were destroyed to build mosques or Muslims used the material as foot stones for new mosques. As they have done all over the formerly Pagan, Jewish, and Christian Middle East and central Asia, Muslim kings built Masjids (places of prayer) right in the holiest of Hindu temples. Swamy has not called for the destruction of mosques but for the restoration of temples — where now Masjids stand.

Islam has not historically been "tolerant." Muslims have expected others to "tolerate" their views and their ways but they have not been and still are not reciprocal. Even as Muslims make demands on America and Europe for mosques — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan do not allow churches; Hindu, Buddhist or Bahai temples; or synagogues; in fact, Muslims are murdering Christians in these countries merely because they are Christians. The Arab and Muslim world is almost entirely "judenrein" except for Jewish Israel which Muslims obviously cannot abide.

Nevertheless, Eck wants Americans to understand that Islam is essentially "peaceful." If Eck is at Harvard and is doing politically correct "interfaith" work then she wants such work to succeed. Unfortunately, she may be talking to all the wrong people. Eck should be talking to truly moderate and religious Muslims. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, Dr. Bassam Tibi, Zainab Al-Suwaij, Zeyno Baran all come to mind but there are many others. She is not. Or, Eck should be talking to secular and former Muslims, like Ibn Warraq, Nonie Darwish, or Wafa Sultan, who stand against Islamism and for western democratic values, including tolerance and women's rights.

Alas, like so many Americans, including those who work for the American government, Eck is misidentifying the Muslim Islamists/terrorists/jihadists as "moderates." And turning her back on the genuinely moderate and anti-Islamist Muslims.

I interviewed Swamy about this shameful scandal. Here is our discussion.

PJM: What do you think of this turn of events?

Swamy: The turn of events is shocking for me since I have been a part of Harvard for over fifty years since 1962, first as a student and then as faculty. Last summer after the op-ed had appeared, the Harvard president issued a statement stating that "free speech is sacred for Harvard." But now four months later it turns out to be "subject to majority opinion" of the faculty. I was judged behind my back and by deliberate distortion of what I wrote and without an opportunity to rebut the absurd and false charges. To me it seems like Harvard is now following the 21st century version Spanish inquisition or the procedures used in dealing with Galileo.

PJM: What effect does this have upon you?

Swamy: It has no effect on me personally since I live in India as a political leader. Just one week after the Harvard inquisition, I was nominated by a leading TV channel, CNN- IBN, as "Indian of the Year for Public Service." In the last two weeks I have been the cover story for my crusades against corruption in leading magazines.

PJM: What does it say about Harvard and about the forces that threaten to undermine democratic and tolerant values?

Swamy: In 1976, when Harvard invited me to teach after I escaped Mrs Indira Gandhi's authoritarian rule and had begun an aggressive campaign against it, Gandhi had sent the Indian ambassador to Dean/ Professor Henry Rosovsky to protest against me for what I was writing in the Indian underground media and to seek my sacking. The dean was dismissive. He told the emissary that Harvard only cares about my academic contribution and not about my campaigns outside the campus which are peaceful. The decline in free speech standards in Harvard today from then is truly sad.

Harvard may have fallen prey to narrow interest groups. The rise of appeasement of unacceptable Islamic militant interests in return for endowments in U.S. academia is quite alarming. It borders on the Stockholm Syndrome. I also believe that Harvard is looking for an endowment for its South Asian center from Ms. Sonia Gandhi, an Italian born former beneficiary of KGB funds and with long term association with the Habash Palestinian militants. She was also a recipient of slush funds from Saddam Hussein in the oil for food scam. Currently, I am trying through courts to send her to prison on corruption charges. I am given to believe that she took active interest in this sordid Harvard episode.

PJM: Did you ever have any personal dealings with Profesor Diana L. Eck? Or with any of the students who launched this petition against you?

Swamy: I do not know Eck. I remember her name from the sixties when someone asked me about her work on Hindu religion. Nor do I know any of the petitioners except that they are a part of the Leftwing Loonies crowd.

PJM: Did any of your students complain to you or about you?

Swamy: The Dept of Economics supported my continued teaching. They informed the faculty at the meeting that no student in his or her evaluation had complained about this op-ed. Only one student referred to it and (he) was favorable. I had six Muslim students in a class of 40, including two Pakistanis. None protested to me or in confidence in the course evaluation.

PJM: What would you like to see happen?

Swamy: One day Harvard will apologise to me for this. I shall await that day.

http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/1060/diana-eck-subramanian-swamy

Why the CBI’s Coalgate affidavit could be a watershed
by RK Raghavan Apr 27, 2013

Both the Union Law Minister and the CBI Director are in a soup. This is of their own making. They seem to have underestimated the prowess of the Supreme Court and the alertness of the news media.

A scoop by the latter told the rest of the world that the Minister and the CBI Chief had conferred in preparing a status report to the Court in the so-called Coalgate case monitored by the latter.

Even in a normal case that is not under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court such a meeting of minds would have been improper. This is because, at least on paper, an investigating agency does its work on its own. Its master is the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) and no one else. In a situation where, because of the gravity of the matter into which a probe under the Code had begun, the apex court feels it should ensure that all that is done by the investigator is strictly in accordance with the law and there is no deviance because the accused persons are those in high places of authority, the need for independence is all the greater.

In this scenario, there is no scope for the CBI to get into a conference with others, however innocuous the occasion might be. This is where both the Minister and the civil servant seem to have erred. This is unfortunate because both are distinguished personalities, chosen to hold their respective offices on merit. Incidentally, Ranjit Sinha, the DCBI, is the senior-most IPS officer in the country and had no reason to feel obliged to the government.

Will the CBI director’s admission before the apex court bring about much needed changes? Image courtesy: Ibnlive

Ranjit Sinha’s affidavit, one demanded by the Court, says it all. The alleged meeting between him and the Law Minister was no fiction. It did take place. A status report in the Coalgate case was in fact shared by the Director “as desired” by the Minister. This was sacrilege because the Court had been led to believe that there was no such sharing. The other player is said to be an official of the PMO, who also had a peek at the CBI’s report in question. There are several points in debate, the most important of which is whether the Law Minister made any significant alterations to the draft report shown to him by the CBI.

There is one laughable and speculative claim that the Minister had made only cosmetic changes in language. This has been seized upon by some in the Opposition who quip that the CBI’s felicity with the English language was not all that mean to require a Minister’s deft hand to make it comprehensible to the Honourable Court.

This is no light matter where an obviously weak affidavit by the principal investigative agency could be accepted without demur by the Supreme Court. There is one joke doing the rounds, that the affidavit suppresses more than what it reveals. This may not be fair to the CBI considering the fact that whatever it says by way of truth is likely to offend the higher echelons of government.

The issue is aggravated by the alleged presence at the infamous meeting held by the Law Minister of two principal Law Officers of the Government of India. At least one of them was said to have been present in Court when the matter came up before the relevant Bench. His omission to tell the Court that the code of conduct expected of all those under scrutiny had already been breached is also highlighted by some as sacrilege.

This is the backdrop against which the Supreme Court will take up the issue once more on the 30 April. It is anybody’s guess what the Court will do on that day. It may not exactly be amused by the CBI’s admission, however honest it may be. I expect it to go beyond the alleged tampering of a document that was meant only for the eyes of the highest court of the land, and lay down ground rules for the future.

From this perspective the whole episode should be a blessing in disguise for the much-harassed CBI. Having filed an affidavit which is described to be an affront to the government’s overlordship, I expect the organization to scrupulously ward off in future the government’s efforts to dictate how it should conduct its affairs in matters of investigation.

This would be a great gain from which the CBI’s image is bound to improve over years. No CBI Chief may hereafter need to bend or crawl before the South or North Block. Of course some in authority could be mean by denying the organization support in terms of infrastructure. But such pettiness can be sorted out with the help of an enlightened Prime Minister. I concede that in order to gain the trust of the courts and the nation the CBI on its part will have to strive to hone its professional skills. That would come if the CBI has good leadership and it starts believing that its operational autonomy will never be breached on narrow political considerations.

(The writer is a former CBI Director.)

http://www.firstpost.com/india/why-the-cbis-coalgate-affidavit-could-be-a-watershed-734041.html

April 26, 2013.
Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of India,
South Block,
New Delhi.

Dear Prime Minister:

I am enclosing an internet down-load which reveals that Mr. S.G. Pitroda, (US citizen?) is “Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation”. He owns a series of companies in the United States including one in Mexico by name Scientika dedicated to commercial purposes the very same issues for which he is Adviser and it appears to me that this is a case of conflict of interests as well as breach of national security. Mr. Pitroda is also head of a company that is commercially involved in mobile technology. This too would be a conflict of interest.

I would appreciate a reply whether you would consider this as a conflict of interests that deserves Mr. Pitroda to be dropped from the official position that he presently holds in the Government of India. I may also say that he is a Director in an Indian company named Young Indian. Before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Patiala House proceedings are pending where the company and its Directors have been accused of fraud, breach of trust and cheating. These proceedings are in a preliminary stage, but I shall keep you posted of further developments as and when these take place.
Best Regards,
Yours sincerely,

( SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY )

Development

 

1. Scientika
As chairman of Scientika, Fostering Innovation through Knowledge Based in Mexico City, Scientika was founded in 2009 by Sam Pitroda along with Javier Jileta Scientika is dedicated to promote knowledge economy related activities such as sustainability, scientific, technological, educational, cultural researches and development. Scientika’s team is integrated by a group of Voung professionals with pasion for knowledge as the best tool for development and growth of a country. Knowledge as an intangible and abundant resource brings a constant renova­tion and always offers a positive outcome for society. In Scientika we believe that foster creation of "knowledge cities" as a space for network public and private sectors, academia and society to solve social problems trough innovation and knowledge. In scientika we believe that knowledge spread is as relevant as it's creation that's why we work with civil society, government, academia and private sector to create broad vision based on equality and honesty values
2. The Pitroda Group
The Pitroda Group works as a consulting team directely guide by Sam Pitroda, who owns offices in India, Japan, United States, Mexico and China Pitroda offers consulting in subjects related to knowledge economies (like information access and information) and how to insert them in the new paradigm He works with the public and private sector in order to make new sinergies and build new knowl­edge clusters.
3. Global Knowledge Initiative
With developing countries as a priority, we broker knowledge partnerships -partnerships between two or more people or institutions that generate new knowledge or transfer knowledge from where it is to where it is needed Our approach is systemic in that we work across the entire ecosystem of ac­tors that enable innovation, including academia, private sector, and the public sector. We prioritize local development goals and demand-led processes for priority setting

http://www.sampitroda.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=135&lang=en

A Upenn professor debates left liberals over Narendra Modi

By Saswati Sarkar on April 27, 2013

A month back, on March 26 to be specific, a University of Pennsylvania student forum for debating government and politics (GPA) invited me to participate in a discourse on Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Engagement of students in analysis of contemporary issues is fairly commonplace in premier Universities, and the world’s largest democracy that India is, its vibrant politics will presumably induce enthusiasm abroad. But, this particular discourse had been precipitated by the infamous disinvite that a conference under the aegis of University of Pennsylvania extended to Modi and the subsequent international opprobrium that the University invited on itself. My colleague from medical school, Aseem Shukla and I had censured the move at venues such as Niti Central, NYtimes, Daily Pennsylvanian (Upenn newspaper) etc. I had also spoken at a protest organised by an association called ‘Americans for Free Speech’ on the day of the conference.

On the other hand, the disinvite was initiated by a concerted campaign launched by A Loomba, T Ghose and S Kaul. The convenors of the debate sought to constitute a representative panel by inviting all the above stakeholders. Shukla and I readily acquiesced to participate as we anticipated an ideal forum to deliberate on the affair and the academic lessons learned therein. Loomba, Ghose and Kaul however procrastinated on the acceptance of the invitation for more than a week. It was only after GPA resolved to go ahead with the panel without their participation and accordingly invited us, that Loomba and subsequently Ghose consented to debate Narendra Modi at Upenn.

The scope of the debate comprised of (i) the invitation and the subsequent rescission and (ii) Modi’s governance of Gujarat. While I had definitive persuasions as to the first, I apprised myself more on the latter in preparation. I reconciled to focusing on two specific issues in which I could meaningfully con-tribute, that of women’s empowerment and the pursuance of energy security through alternate energy generation – the latter constitutes my recent research interest as well. On request, the Chief Minister’s office directed me to extensive online resources with due professional alacrity – a pleasant surprise I must concede given my institutional affiliation. The debate would inevitably dwell on the unfortunate riots of 2002; I accordingly delved into the online news archives around the time, some synopses of history of riots in India and deciphered parts of the investigative report authored by the task force instituted by the supreme court of India (SIT).

I had the pleasure of being introduced to Loomba and Ghose on the evening of the debate, April 16, only to discover that Loomba could at best manage a curt nod. Ghose was however genial enough to extend the customary courtesy with which colleagues greet each other. Shukla initiated the debate with an outstanding and well-received address that derided the capitulation of the University on the virtues of plurality of discourse.

It was Loomba’s turn next. To start with, she equated the political choice of supporting Modi to the agenda of Hindu supremacy. Subsequently, she circulated a leaflet which prominently displayed a snapshot taken of me during my speech at the Wharton protest followed by excerpts from an agenda, which some would call puerile, for constituting a pro-Hindu Government in India. The agenda, it seems, was articulated by an organiser of the protest in a blog he authored. The leaflet was evidently conceived with the intent to cast aspersions on my credibility through innuendos. Loomba, the intellectual fountainhead of a premier university, also resorted to justifying the indefensible censorship she advocated, through a prominent display of certain inane protest placards conceived by those who do not stake any claim to furthering the frontiers of human knowledge. I was outraged by the design, but in hindsight, have been excruciatingly naive to not have anticipated such a move.

Has it not been a long-standing ploy of the leftist ideology which Loomba is closely associated with to counter content through campaign of calumny? Liberty to dissent is a concept non grata, till date, in communist nations and voices thereof are brutally silenced by the state machinery. Back home, one of the champions of Nehruvian socialism, a Cambridge-educated Mani Shankar Aiyar habitually lavishes encomiums, such as mass murderer, demon and other endearments that may not be reproduced in print, on a democratically elected Chief Minister of his country, without a shred of substantiation. Worse, he is liberally granted airtime in national television channels like NDTV, and CNN-IBN to perpetuate his uncivilised tirade and occasionally abuse his fellow debaters, some of whom happen to be women.

The left-leaning print media is not far behind either. One such outlet, Tehelka, recently published an article authored by Rana Ayuub, alleging incentivised blogging and anonymous tweeting by organised groups in support of the politics of Modi. The same article cited one of my tweets in this context oblivious to the easily veritable detail that I am hardly anonymous in social media, and incognisant of another trivia that I have not been compensated directly or indirectly for any of my contributions. It is worthy of note that I am relatively inconsequential in the world of political commentary, which suggests that attempts to denigrate more regular contributors constitutes a norm. Digressing little more, several left-leaning journalists routinely bemoan unparliamentary censure they are subjected to in social media. Ironically, one of the torch-bearers in this domain, an erstwhile Rhodes scholar, Sagarika Ghose, recently used the same medium to ascribe the virtues of a ‘guttersnipe’ to a young editor of a blogging site.

In defence of my innocence, none of the above violators happen to be academics anywhere let alone at an Ivy league institution. But, then in the words of an eminent advocate of free speech, Professor Kors at the history department of Upenn, didn’t the likes of Loomba and Ghose betray their profession, their students and their moral obligations by demanding censorship of a speech that the students intended to learn from? Their presumption of a moral crusade against a political ideology they perceive to be fascism would naturally sanctify the denigration of a colleague who has, in their home turf, challenged the inviolability of the censorship they enacted. Thus, started the debate.

The inauspicious commencement confronted me with a Hobson’s choice. I could seek to impeach the credibility of Loomba through guilt by association that she sought to invoke against me. While I was accused of once sharing a stage with so-called Hindu supremacists, she had a long-standing academic collaboration with Angana Chatterji and had signed a petition opposing the denial of entry of her partner to India. Chatterji has prominently participated in several conferences organised by Gulam Nabi Fai, who was arrested by the FBI for concealing the transfer of a whopping $3.5 million from Pakistani secret services, ISI, which he used for lobbying on Kashmir in US. He has pleaded guilty of conspiracy and tax evasion. Chatterjee’s academic position has now been suspended on grounds of misappropriation of funds, which perhaps explains why she did not sign the petition advocating the disinvite to Modi, despite earlier leading the campaign that lead to the denial of his US visa. I however chose to steer clear of denigrating Loomba so as not to reduce the debate to a Loomba-Sarkar forum and further vitiate the atmosphere through continued mud-slinging. But, lest the credibility crisis she instigated overshadows my participation, I rebutted the vilification relying on the views that I expressed in my protest speech as also my articles.

That the ambience of the discourse undermined the intellectual content is an understatement as the video footage will reveal. The distinguished debaters sought to argue why the debate itself was illegitimate. They made a compelling case by branding Modi and his supporters as fascists, right wing nuts, collaborators and the students who invited Modi as incompetent at best and Hindu supremacists at worst. They furnished a letter from a Muslim who was apparently intimidated by the very presence of the supporters of Modi. And, the distinguished academicians were aghast that some Wharton protesters appealed that their positions be discontinued all because they signed a petition. The tale of Gujarat riots and development deficiencies they narrated were as expected replete with subterfuges, misrepresentations and half-truths. Given the limited time at our disposal, some distortions were refuted, while the rest remained unchallenged; our rebuttals were distorted and the saga continued. Yet, I remain disappointed that the decimation of the web of falsehoods the cottage industry of riot activism seeks to foster day in and day out ensured an abbreviation of our commentary of the decade long success story of Gujarat. But, perhaps the truth of progress would have more conclusively countered the shrill voices that howl accusations without awaiting systemic determination? I remain unsure given the hostile discourse.

The sublime of academic discourse was scaled when Loomba sought to silence a student who was impertinent enough to seek a specific answer. She continued her verbal duel with those who posed inconvenient queries during the succeeding question and answer session. One of the admonished pupils alleged that she was as much in violation of the principles of free speech as the Wharton protesters who demanded sanction on her. Due to severe constraints on time, we could not seek her views on the closely related discontinuation of a summer course in economics that Subramanium Swamy offered every year at Harvard on the ground that he penned an opinion piece which has no bearing whatsoever on the course or the discipline.

My eminent colleagues liberally speculated on whether the industrialist Adani’s sponsorship of the Wharton India Economic Forum was contingent on the plenary invitation extended to Modi. The association was apparently substantiated by the withdrawal of the sponsorship after the rescission of the invitation; it was inconsequential that most of the other sponsors withdrew after the unsavory incident as well. It was also surmised that the disinvite was extended because Modi refused an interactive session after his speech. They confirmed this hypothesis with the irrefutable evidence that he walked out several years back of the Devil’s Advocate show conducted by Karan Thapar on CNN IBN. It was of no import that neither the Wharton school or its student body is yet to affirm their contention. The theatre of the absurd continued as they transferred the burden of ruling out their conjecture on us – it didn’t suffice that neither the students nor the Wharton Dean alluded to such a possibility in the correspondences we had.

One of the students detected a logical inconsistency in Ghose’s address. He argued that religious minorities vote for Modi out of apprehension of violence, and also that 70 per cent in this group do not exercise their democratic mandate in favour of Modi. Yet large scale violence has not been reported in Gujarat in more than a decade after 2002. Ghose’s response did not seem to further enlighten the audience on this topic. Loomba directed the moderator to allow the queries of some (likely) acquaintances. One of the chosen individuals observed that it was immoral to count the dead — true, nonetheless necessary to counter the factual distortions that my colleagues sought to disseminate on the same topic. The daughter of Ehsan Jafri, a riot victim, enquired about the housing discrimination against the Muslims in Gujarat, a question which Shukla fielded. He clarified that such unfortunate discrimination was not limited to Muslims and the nature of the discrimination depend on the sub-area in question, eg: only Jains are encouraged to reside in Paldi in Ahmedabad.

Another attendee commented that the denial of US visa establishes Modi’s complicity in the riots. Not many were privy to the information that one Nelson Mandela would be responsible of abetting terrorism based on the same rationale – he continued to be on a watch list for terrorists, since the African National Congress was designated a terrorist organisation in 1980s, and until as late as 2008, a decade and a half after he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Eventually, the moderator called for closing statements. Shukla started his, at which point Loomba and Ghose decided to call it a day, unilaterally. We remain confounded as to why the commendable equianimity they displayed thus far deserted them towards the fag end. The debate thus concluded just as it began, with hostility. In the end, Indian political enthusiasts will justifiably be disappointed at the paucity of new information that emerged from this academic debate. Yet truth was told at least in part to the Philadelphia audience.

(The writer is a Professor at the Electrical and Systems Engineering Department at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Views expressed here are personal.)


http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/27/a-upenn-professor-debates-left-liberals-over-narendra-modi-71230.html

Slice of Bengal reborn in Jharkhand - 50,000 fertile acres lost as river shifts and state sleeps

JAYANTA BASU AND CHANDRIMA S. BHATTACHARYA Sunday , April 28 , 2013 |

A new char (island) on the Ganga. The river keeps eroding villages on its banks in Malda, which re-emerge as chars that Jharkhand now claims on the premise that the river forms the inter-state border. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta Panchanandapur (Malda), April 27: The Bengal government has lost about 50,000 fertile acres to Jharkhand but, despite land being a sensitive issue in the state, doesn’t seem to mind it. The people living there do, though many of them now say it’s better to live in Jharkhand than in a state that doesn’t care about them. Constitutional experts say the area — chars (river islands) on the Ganga in Malda — belongs to Bengal. “I was a Bengali once,” says Mushtaq Sheikh, an elderly char settler. He still speaks in Bengali and possesses land documents issued by the Bengal government but holds a voter ID card issued by the Jharkhand administration. Mushtaq’s family lived in Banutola village in Malda before the Ganga gobbled up most of it in 1958. When the eroded land re-emerged as a char in the ’90s, the family and many others returned to live there. The settlers call the char “Banutola”. It belongs to “Palashgachhi” mouza, which Jharkhand shows as part of the state’s Rajmahal Assembly constituency. The original Palashgachhi mouza, which included the original Banutola village, was part of Kaliachak II block of Malda before it disappeared into the Ganga in the late ’50s. “We are from Bengal, we speak Bengali and would like to go back to Bengal. But no Bengal government wanted us back,” says Momjad Sheikh, Mushtaq’s neighbour. The families have been living here for about two decades. Although most of their original land documents bear a Bengal government seal, they have to go to the sub-divisional court at Rajmahal, Jharkhand, for matters relating to their resettlement. A settlement on Banutola char, named after Malda’s Banutola village that was gobbled up by the Ganga in the late 1950s,Kedar Mandal. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta River shift The reason Mushtaq, Momjad and tens of thousands others have “moved” to Jharkhand is that the Ganga has shifted its course 10km eastwards in Malda since the ’50s, eroding its banks. “The river was chosen as the boundary between Bengal and Jharkhand (erstwhile south Bihar) in 1947,” says river expert Kalyan Rudra. “During the past few decades, its course has shifted eastwards causing erosion of land measuring around 200sqkm (50,000 acres) from 67 mouzas in Manikchak and Kaliachak I, II and III blocks of Malda, much of which has re-emerged as chars. These areas should be considered part of Bengal but, for all practical purposes, are now in Jharkhand.” Many of the lost mouzas of Malda have been officially included in the 2011 mouza list prepared by Ranchi. Local people say that around 25 new chars — “diyaras” in the local language — have surfaced in the past five decades. Some 18 of them are now home to 1.5 lakh people, most of whom were once Malda residents. Those born here after the 1950s never saw a school in their childhood. Nor did the Bengal government renew any of their official documents since the 1970s. “Our old ration cards were cancelled in 1971 by the Malda administration,” a settler said. The Left Front government had an additional reason to be indifferent —the area was the turf of late Congress stalwart Ghani Khan Chowdhury. Environmentalist Biswajit Mukherjee, former chief law officer with the Bengal pollution control board, recently filed a public interest litigation in Calcutta High Court on behalf of the Ganga Bhangan Protirodh Action Nagarik Committee. Mukherjee has demanded “specific demarcation” of the interstate border “taking into consideration the constitutional provision” as well as immediate extension of “all rights and facilities enjoyed by the citizens of India to these unfortunate people”. On April 18, the high court directed the authorities to consider the petition but also observed that the Supreme Court might be the better place to resolve the issue as it involves two states. Ranchi steps in If Bengal dumped the settlers, Jharkhand wooed them after a period of almost “no administration” in the char areas till the 1990s. A semblance of governance returned after Jharkhand was carved out of south Bihar in 2000 and the new state turned its attention to potential vote banks. Ranchi has provided some of the settlers with voter ID cards, ration cards and a police station (at Udhua on the Jharkhand mainland), set up a few schools on the chars, and now occasionally runs the first polio programmes seen in the area. But the schools often remain shut without notice or because the headmaster is ill -— as was one of the two schools in Banutola when The Telegraph recently visited the chars. The other one was housing livestock. All the women still give birth at home, and no birth certificates are issued without a bribe. Many allege that Jharkhand is trying to take over the fertile land by providing some administrative and infrastructure support but hardly bothers about the settlers’ quality of life. “There are a few dispensaries but no proper hospital, no proper schools,” says Kedar Mandal, a resident of Panchanandapur in Malda who is part of the movement to win the settlers their rights. “A few lampposts have been installed on some chars but power is hardly supplied for more than four or five hours a day.” As some villagers gather under a straw shed on a burning April day, the char looks like a desert except for a few mud houses or huts with corrugated sheets and the two schoolhouses. A meeting is on in the village with its “panchayat” member, a BJP man Banutola elected during the 2011 Jharkhand panchayat polls. A cellphone rings. Mobiles here bear Jharkhand numbers and you need to make STD calls to them from Malda. In some ways, Malda is farther out of reach than Mumbai. The men — who till the fertile, silt-heavy land that grows paddy, wheat, corn, onions, garlic and mustard — make short but frequent trips to Mumbai to work as construction labourers or in the fruit trade. The Jharkhand administration tacitly admits its presence in what should be Bengal’s land. “We have carried out several development projects in the char areas,” agrees A.S. Mutthukumer, deputy commissioner of Sahebgunj district to which the chars have been attached. Asked how one state can take over a part of another, he avoids a direct answer, saying: “There has been a longstanding border dispute in the char areas.” Another Jharkhand official claims his government took over the administrative and political control of the chars “by default” as successive Bengal governments washed their hands of the areas. Finger at Farakka River expert Rudra blames the Ganga’s waywardness mainly on the Farakka Barrage, whose construction began in 1961, as do many char residents. He feels the barrage’s design has been faulty and has arrested the waters in such a way that they flow back and turn destructive. “There was erosion earlier too but large-scale erosion on the Malda banks began only after the installation of the barrage,” says Kedar Mandal. Several official documents corroborate the claim. In 2002, P.K. Parua, a former superintending engineer at Farakka, complained: “The construction of the barrage has disturbed the river’s apparent equilibrium and (the) river started to adjust this huge human interference by aggradation (silt accumulation) and degradation of its bed and channel pattern by erosion and siltation.” The 2004 report of the 13th legislative assembly committee of Bengal noted: “It is accepted at all levels that the construction of the Farakka Barrage is solely responsible behind the erosion of (the) river Ganges in Malda district.” Boat and auto A motor-propelled boat ride from Panchanandapur, the village on the right extremity of thechar land where Jharkhand now unofficially “ends”, to Piyarpur on the islands’ left extremity where it officially should, takes four hours. The river is serene and beautiful under a hot April sun. Gangshaliks, kingfishers andshamuk-khoals are the only signs of life for vast stretches. The new chars are barren as they are just sand; people watch for the kash flowers to come up on them. These flowers are the sign that the river has layered the char with silt and that crops can grow now. The boat stops at Palashgachhi at a bank that marks the end of the mouza. It looks as deserted as any other char. But the scene changes as one explores the area on foot. The first vehicle — an auto-rickshaw — is sighted after a few hours. A road too appears, ifkuccha. The auto negotiates the undulating, dusty and narrow road from inside the village to emerge onto a narrow but pucca road. The houses on either side, some of mud and some of concrete, are plastered with signs put up by the Jharkhand government. Every few metres a house has a poem painted in rough Hindi, a paean to the state’s toilet-building capacity. Left in the lurch S.K. Chaki, additional district magistrate (land reforms) in Malda, refuses comment on thechars’ administrative status. Retired high court judge and constitutional expert Bhagabati Prasad Banerjee stresses that the char areas should be part of Bengal. “According to the Constitution, the borders between the states are fixed and a change in a river’s course cannot change a border. The state (Bengal) should claim its legitimate land,” he says. Few political parties or leaders from Bengal have shown any interest in the chars or the settlers so far. Almost a decade ago, Left Front minister and Malda heavyweight Sailen Sarkar had written to Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and Pranab Mukherjee, both central ministers then, about the “boundary dispute” and the “change” in the inter-state border. Nothing happened. Mausam Noor, the current Congress MP from Malda, promises: “I will soon raise the issue in Parliament and write to both state governments to settle the issue. The chars should remain with Bengal,” she said. State tourism minister and local Trinamul leader Krishnendu Chowdhury has promised to take the issue up with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Some settlers have worked out one consolation. Even if the river displaces them again, they cannot be exiled from their village because they carry it in their head. This is the third “Banutola” that Mushtaq and many of his neighbours have lived in. “After most of the original Banutola vanished in 1958, some of those displaced shifted to nearby Chatiantala in 1960 and called their settlement ‘Banutola’,” says Nurshed Ali. “When Chatiantala too collapsed into the Ganga, we moved to our current Banutola on thechar,” says Nurshed Ali.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130428/jsp/frontpage/story_16836950.jsp#.UXx_daJTCvc

The Cat Women of Gir Forest: Modi's pride of women guards is working wonders in the Asiatic lion's last abode

DEVIKA CHATURVEDI  | April 19, 2013 | 17:40

Cat women of Gir forest Raseela Vadher knows no fear. Unafraid, she ventures into Gir forest peering intently through the bush looking for signs of trouble. It is not the presence of wild animals that bothers her. She is on the lookout for poachers, illegal gangs felling prized teak trees, or local tribesmen lighting fires that could set the jungle ablaze.  Remember the young woman forest guard Narendra Modi so proudly described to FICCI'S women entrepreneurs in Delhi on April 8? "More than lions, visitors are amazed at the sight of this gutsy girl who fearlessly walks amid a pride of wild lions," he said. Just 26 years old and already a veteran of the Gujarat government's extraordinary initiative to protect the only natural abode of the Asiatic lion, Vadher is that young woman. From a poor family of Junagadh's Bhanduri village, she signed up as a forest guard in August 2008 and has by now been out on over a thousand successful missions, including about 350 to rescue lions in distress. She loves the forest and this is her dream job.  Like trophies from battle, she happily wears 15 deep scars from a nearfatal lion attack in the summer of 2012. And she is not alone: There are 40 other women van raksha sahayaks, equally driven and zealously watching over the Gir's precious bounty.  Chief Minister Narendra Modi's inspirational move in 2007 to employ women to guard the reserve forest may well have taken a cue from Gir's lionesses, who relentlessly hunt down the plentiful chinkara, nilgai or spotted deer to feed their pride, and turn fiercely protective when their cubs are threatened. Junagadh's women are proving equally enthusiastic in protecting the sanctuary.  An Asiatic lion at Gir At last count (April 2010 census), there were 411 lions in the 1,412 sq km of reserve forest-52 more than the last count in 2005. There's been more good news since Vadher and her colleagues joined. In November 2010, GPS monitoring of the big cats showed that as many as 50 adult lionesses were pregnant. Though surviving cubs from the births in early 2011 will only be counted in the next census in 2015, wildlife officials are confident "the pride will have grown significantly". The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) at Gir, Sandeep Kumar, acknowledges the impact of the women guards. "The numbers are rising because they (the women guards) have been successful in creating a new awareness amidst women and children in villages near the forest," he says. Assuming a more gently persuasive approach than their male counterparts who worked this beat before, Vadher and her colleagues, like Jayshree Patat, 26, and Shabnam Rinbaloch, 24, have worked hard to win cooperation not just from local villagers but also from maaldharis, the semi-nomadic tribal herdsmen who live in the sanctuary. Rinbaloch says her job in the sanctuary has been a hugely empowering experience. Belonging to a tribal Muslim community that did not let its womenfolk seek work outside home, she became the trailblazer for other young women in her village of Jamanvada. In 2009, three others joined what they proudly refer to as the 'women's brigade', each bringing home Rs 5,200 a month to add significantly to their meagre family incomes. Thrilled with the overwhelming success of the initial recruitments, Aradhana Sahu, deputy conservator of forests at Junagadh, and DFO Kumar, are preparing to hire 100 more, to buffer preservation and protection initiatives in the Gir forest. Kumar says 1,200 young women have applied to join training as forest guards this year. Before Modi had his brainwave of recruiting women guards in 2007, the Gujarat Forests Department was a decidedly male bastion with just two women, both Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers, amid its ranks. "It was fascinating to watch them at work," says wildlife enthusiast Madhavendra Singh, who came to see the lions up close in Gir. But quite like what Modi spoke about at the FICCI gathering, the 27-year-old from Bhopal says he was completely stumped by the way the wild beasts appeared almost tame in the presence of the women guards. Tourists and animal lovers are returning to Gir in a flood; many, like Pune's Revati Krishnan, 40, inspired by Amitabh Bachchan's captivating 2011 campaign for Gujarat Tourism Department. In just two years, tourist footfall has doubled to 302,428 in 2012-13. But for Gir's 'women's brigade', it is more than about getting visitors a decent photo opportunity with the big cats. "Preserving the forest is serious business," says 25-year-old Manisha Vaghela, who singlehandedly tracked down and apprehended a gang of nine motorcycle-borne poachers trying to hunt chinkara antelopes in 2011.  Armed with double-barrelled shotguns and walkie-talkie radios, the vigilant women fan out into the bush, unmindful of the danger-venomous snakes, crocodiles lurking around watering holes, a hungry leopard or angry lionesses protecting their cubs. On an average day, each of the women's patrols negotiates over 25 km of forest, even during peak summer months when temperatures inside the sanctuary top 45ºC. Vilas Antana, 24, graduated in Sanskrit from a college in Amreli and knew nothing of wild animals till the day she signed up to work as a guard in Gir. As with many of her colleagues, the job has diluted her marital prospects, with few young men of her community willing to marry a woman who wears khaki and wields a shotgun. She is not overly bothered, though, happy instead with the independence her job provides. "I can now tell you scientific names of all the birds and animals in this forest," she says.

 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/cat-women-gir-forest-narendra-modi-women-guards-asiatic-lion/1/266623.html

Sri Lankan Reflections on Siva: A Response To Hoole
April 25, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH

By Romesh Jayaratnam -

As a Sri Lankan, I reflect on Siva, the Lord Most High. I enumerate several of his names, allude to His grace and describe his ancient shrine in Trincomalee, East Sri Lanka. The intent is to celebrate His place in the Sri Lankan Tamil inheritance. Siva presides over our destiny amidst our turbulent history.

The Names of Siva

Siva, God almighty, has many names in the Hindu tradition. The 9th century Tamil text, the Tiruvachakam, uses several to designate him. Amongst others, Siva is called the First (Munnon), the Great One (Periyon), the Ancient One (Pazhaiyon), the Precious One (Ariyon) and the Wonderful (Athpudan). He is termed the Sage (Ayyan), the Helper (Tunai Aalane), the Giver of Every Grace (Karunai Aalane) and the Only Ruler (Aal-udai Oruva). He is referred to as the Teacher (Tesane), the Guardian (Kaakum En Kaavalan), the Great Light (Per Oli), the Only Wise (Arivane) and the Lord of the Southern Pandya Land (Ten Paandya Naataane). He is named the Warrior Strong (Por Ere) and the One (Oruvan). These names illustrate the supremacy and benevolence of Siva. He is the Infinite, Almighty Lord (Alavilaap Pemaane) who is The First and Last (Muthal Antham Aayinaan). He is infinitely kind and compassionate.

The Grace of Siva

His grace is manifold. One prayer in the Tiru-vachakam is the Tiru-chatakam or ‘the one hundred verses’. This song of triumph narrates the spiritual journey of the Tamil saint Manikka vachakar and describes Siva’s benevolence. Manikka vachakar speaks figuratively of ‘being alone’, ‘tossed by the turbulent waves’, ‘troubled by a storm mid-sea’ and ‘caught in the jaws of a monster’. In desperation, he ‘seized Siva’s raft’ and was in turn ‘shown the boundless, fertile shore’. Siva provided him ‘a royal seat’ and ‘revealed things not shown before’. The Lord caused him to ‘hear things not heard before’ and ‘dispelled his fear’. Here was a metaphor of Siva’s grace in the unsteady journey of life.

The Tiru-chatakam teaches us that a devotee has none to fear. He is no longer any one’s vassal. Siva will ‘lift him high’ and ‘take him for His own’ despite the imperfections and failings. As Manikka vachakar narrates, Siva is the remover of all ills ‘even if it be through hell’s abyss or house and home on fire’. He is the sole refuge and ‘in mercy teaches the devotee all’. He causes one ‘to know the higher path’. Siva is the ‘giver of every grace’ and is the Only Light (Tani chudare).
Its important to add that Hinduism is not a monotheistic faith. It has never been and will never be one! In Hinduism, truth is one, the paths are many. The religion upholds the unity of all being, not just the divine.

Sacred Trincomalee

There are numerous centers of old Hindu worship that dot the Sri Lankan landscape. The ancient temple in Trincomalee is one. The word Trincomalee is derived from the Tamil ‘Tiru-kona-malai’ which translates as ‘the sacred hill of the Lord’. Megalithic urn burials were excavated in Nilaveli a few kilometers away from this site. The archeological findings included black and red ware pottery and iron tools dated to the 3rd century BCE. Remarkable parallels exist between these urn burials and those excavated in Tamil Nadu. Both regions had evidently shared the same early iron age culture.

The Siva temple in Trincomalee is located in a region of considerable antiquity. Chapter 35 verses 40 and 41 of the Pali chronicle, the Mahavamsa indicates that King Maha Sena had destroyed three Deva temples, one of which was in Gokarna, another name for Trincomalee. He built a Buddhist vihara on the site of the earlier Deva temple in the 4th century CE. Trincomalee was called Gokarna in Sanskrit and Gokanna in Pali. Gokarna in Sanskrit translates as cow’s ear and signifies a place of Saivite Hindu worship.

The new Buddhist Vihara evidently did not last long if one were to accept the tradition of the Vayu Purana also dated to the 4th century CE where Chapter 48 verses 20 to 30 refers to a hallowed Siva temple on Tri-kuta hill on the Eastern seaboard of Lanka. Tri-kuta refers to Trincomalee. The Tamil Saivite saint, Tiru-Gnana-sambandar sang of the glories of this Siva temple in the 7th century. The Nilaveli inscription in the 10th century refers to a land grant of 1,710 acre equivalent donated for the upkeep of this same shrine.

Kachi-appar Siva-acharyar, author of the Kanda-puranam, compared the sanctity of this temple in Trincomalee with that of Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. Aruna-girinathar visited this shrine in the 15th century. An unverified tradition has it that Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, of the 2nd century BCE was born in Gokarna ‘situated to the South East of India’. This uncorroborated tradition was reiterated by Tiru-mular in his 10th century Tiru-manthiram. The Yoga Sutras is the cornerstone of Yoga, a school of Hindu philosophy intended at the development of one’s mind through discipline. If this tradition is indeed correct, it would place Trincomalee in the pan-Indic intellectual arena, much as Anuradhapura already is given the latter’s role in the development of Theravada Buddhism and the Pali language.

Portuguese travelers in the 17th century described this Siva Temple of ‘a Thousand Columns’. They referred to Trincomalee as the ‘Rome of the Pagans’. In April 1622, the Portuguese General Constantino de Sa Noronha razed the temple to the ground and used its materials to build a fort. The Sinhalese king Rajasinghe II of Kandy took immediate steps to construct a successor Siva temple in Tampalakamam 24 kilometers to the west of Trincomalee. Tampalakamam was then part of the Kandyan kingdom. This was an act of Hindu piety by a Buddhist king. The main temple was rebuilt in its original location, albeit on a smaller scale, three hundred and forty one years later in March 1963. In September 2008, the Chief Priest of the Temple – Sivasri Kuharaja Kurukkal was killed in an event not unrelated to the conflict. The shrine has had a volatile history.

Conclusion

Its time to repose our trust in the God of our forefathers who stood by us in the past, will stand by us in the present and will protect us in the days to come. The verses of the 7th century Tiru-Naavuk-arasa Naayanar assume a salience here.
We are subject to no one;
We do not fear death.
We will not be deterred by hell’s tortures, we do not tremble.
We shall exult, we do not know disease, we will not submit.
Eternal joy is our lot;
Sorrow is not for us.
We are the irredeemable slaves of Siva.

http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankan-reflections-on-siva-a-response-to-hoole/

31 Responses to Sri Lankan Reflections on Siva: A Response To Hoole
It is very funny to see that comparatively powerless humans are trying to safeguard their gods and religions which they claim having ultimate power.If there is a god and it have all the powers then it should be safe itself and safeguard the followers,not the other way.


Newton - April 25, 2013
4:37 am
Reply

Oi, Doubting Thomas- God… a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man’s power to conceive. Get that into your head.


ONE - April 26, 2013
4:58 pm
Reply

Nice, informative article. Very illustrative. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed the read.


Raja - April 25, 2013
7:26 am
Reply

Prof.Hoole’s contention that Hindu temples were once Jain and Buddhist temples cannot be accepted. Hinduism was in existence before Jainism & Buddhism. Prior to the Kalabra’s rule in Tamilakam (combination of Tamil Nadu and present Kerala it is Saivaism was the predominant religion. Moreover Saivaism was also a predominant religion in Gujarat, Kashmir and Nepal. Buddhism, Jainsim, Sakthism, etc are all offshoots of Hinduism. Even in the Rig Veda, Lord Shiva is described as Rudra. Moreover, the language during Indus Valley civilization was Sanskrit. Mount Kailash is the abode of Lord Shiva. The words ‘Kailash’, ‘Himalaya’, ‘Saraswathi’, etc are Sanskrit words. The worship of Lord Shiva was not only prevalent in Sri Lanka, but also in the lost continent of Lemuria known as Kumari Kandam. When continent of Lemuria was submerged in sea on account of natural disasters, it is believed that Sri Lanka was part of the continent of Lost Lemuria. There are references that Ravana worshipped Lord Shiva at Trincomalee which are all a matter of considerable debate. I think Romesh Jayaratnam has given some correct version of Lord Shiva from the Hindu scriptures.
However, there is a misconception among the people that Lord Shiva is a fierce deity. The manner in which Lord Shiva is portrayed with adoring skulls and snakes together with a trident in his hand tends one to think that he is the God of Destruction. Upon a close examination, the clarification of Lord Shiva demolishes the concept of the God of Destruction. Lord Shiva is infinite and eternal.

Shiva means auspicious and perfection. There are various factors that establish that Lord Shiva is a merciful and loving God to his devotees. First, the realization of God will lead to the discovery of his supreme potence and glorious qualities. Second, even the great Devas worship Lord to receive boons. There are various instances in Ramayana, Maha Bharatha and Puranas where devotees worship Lord Shiva ro receive boons to achieve their objectives., all of which establish the fact that Lord Shiva is one with pleasing characters and always merciful. Thirdly, the worship of Lord Shiva is not out of fear, but through love and affection towards the Lord. The devotees experience the glorious qualities of Lord Shiva. It is the love, knowledge and experience which pave way for the spiritual success through the worship of Lord Shiva. Fear just wades away. This is the speciality of the worship of Lord Shiva. In short, Lord Shiva is not a God of Destruction, but is the Supreme Being who is instrumental for the five activities of Creation, Protection, Destruction, Concealing and Blessing. Moreover, Lord Shiva is also described as a deity popular among the Dravidians, but he belongs to all of humanity.Lord Shiva is impartial and hates nobody and shows no discrimination whatsoever even to those who have demonic characters, if they worship him with love and reverence. Ravana of Lanka is a case in point. .

Lord Shiva is considered as the Supreme Ascetic and portrayed in deep meditation in his usual abode in Mount Kailash in the Himalayas. As such Lord Shiva remains as the God of Yogis and ascetics. The manner of performing Yoga on the slopes of Mount Kailash demonstrates the glory of the Supreme Being – as possessed of all knowledge, all power and all renunciation. He is the embodiment of serenity, renunciation and indifference to the world. He is also depicted with a long matted hair in a topknot, in which the Crescent Moon is positioned, and from which the sacred river Ganga flows. The third eye is in the centre of forehead, symbolizing his superior wisdom and insight. His neck is shown as dark blue, resulting fromthe scars caused by a deadly poison which he drank to save from protection. The encircling of his neck by the snakes symbolizes that all dangerous evils or elements are under his control. Moreover, his body is covered with ashes. Holy ash symbolizes that as Lord Shiva appeared as a Supreme Flame, ash becomes the symbol that indicates the association with that Supreme Flame. His weapon Trident, which is also shown beside him, stands for air, life force and aspects of time (past, present and future). The central dent represents life force (known as Prana), while the dents on both sides represent air movng from from the right and left nostrils to the lungs and back.
Apparently Lord Shiva is not only depicted as an ascetic, but also as a householder.


Citizen - April 25, 2013
8:17 am
Reply

This precis on a distinctive Tamil Hinduism in a Sri Lankan island context is most valuable. Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists would be uncomfortable with the literary and archeological evidence provided that situates the strategic port town of Trincomalee in a Tamil Hindu religious context, one that had antecedents for at least 1,500 years. It is clear that Sri Lanka has had plural identities from the start of its history, one that a unidimensional mono-ethnic nationalist discourse epitomized by the JHU and BBS would find irritating.

This explains why the Sri Lankan administration had destroyed the Murukan temple in Ilankaiturai in nearby Sampur, renamed Ilankaiturai as Lankapatuna, built a Buddhist Vihara in the Hindu sacred site of Kanniyai, placed Buddhist statuary within the Koneswaram temple precincts, financed the building of a stand-alone Buddhist vihara next to Fort Frederick, built another Vihara on the otherside of Fort Fredereick and has successively refused to declare Fort Frederick a Hindu sacred area. This refusal that led to the collapse of the United National Party- Federal Party (read Sinhalese Tamil) coalition in 1969 which ushered in the hard-line Sirimavo administration. The rest is history. Sri Lanka is still a divided fractured island and the Tamil issue has once again become internationalized. When will people ever learn!

Thank you, Romesh for this thought provoking editorial.


Raman - April 25, 2013
9:11 am
Reply

The ‘ Dance of Siva’ in its essence represents the dance of the subatomic particles. It thus represents energy , a fundamental in this universe. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but it can manifest in many firms. It is in the living and in the non-living. It is in light, sound and electricity. It is in the thunder and lightening. It is in the heavens, on earth and within earth. By extension it is the dance of the universe. The genius of our ancestors who could depict this principle in sculpture, has to be indeed marvelled. In honour of this genius a newly discovered subatomic particle is also called God’s particle , although officially named Hobb’s particle. A huge statue of the Dance of Siva has been placed in the lawn of the European atomic research centre on the Franco- Swiss border and casts a beautiful shadow over the building at sunset . This honours the Science behind the concept of Siva.

I always think that it is unfortunate that a great scientific concept in our religion and philosophy which probably had origins even before the Harappa and Mohenjadaro civilisations, has not been yet understood by most modern humans, who call themselves Hindus.

Dr.Rajasingham Narendran


Dr.Rajasingham Narendran - April 25, 2013
11:57 am
Reply

It can also create, preserve and destroy.

Dr.RN


Dr.Rajasingham Narendran - April 25, 2013
2:40 pm
Reply

Dr. Narendran,

I think you are referring to the Higgs-Boson.
FYI, the popular usage of the term ‘God’s particle’ for the Higgs-Boson was really intended as a joke from the beginning, and the media knows it was a joke. Many people mistakenly assume it was intended as a fact.

Peter Higgs himself was very much an atheist.

Dance of Siva is used more as a metaphor and art, not as any valid science. It was fashionable for Western scientists in the 1960′s and 70′s to talk about Hinduism. It was a time when all manner of Swamis from India arrived in the West to capitalize on the insecurities and capitalist guilt of wealthy people. And Westerners went to India to seek enlightenment.

But after several decades of such interaction, there has been no finding of any significance. Maybe more people in the West discovered Yoga and meditation, but these are practiced as a way of handling stress (Nothing wrong with that, but there are often exaggerated claims about the benefits), not as anything to do with God.


Agnos - April 26, 2013
6:41 am
Reply

Agnos,
Thanks. Please read the book, ‘ The Tao of Physics’ by Fridjof Capra, described as an exploration of the parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism. He is a well known high-energy physicist and author. Although, the book precedes the identification and recent confirmation of the God’s particle (Higg’s particle) by decades , he refers to the Dancinf Siva as following words in his preface;

” Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand, rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also that the Earth’s atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of ‘cosmic rays’, particles of high energy undergoingg multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams a d mathematical theories. As I sat on that breach my former experiences came to life; I ‘saw’ cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I ‘saw’ the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I ‘heard’ its sound, and at that moment I knew that his was the Dance of Siva, the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus.”

Dr.Rajssingham Narendran


Dr.Rajasingham Narendran - April 26, 2013
1:21 pm
Reply

Correction:
–refers to the Dancing Siva in the following words in his preface:

Dr.RN


Dr.Rajasingham Narendran - April 26, 2013
3:30 pm
Reply

Dr. Narendran,

Capra wrote that in 1975. He was precisely the kind that found Hinduism fashionable at that time.

He himself said that was using psychedelics, and the kind of experiences you quote above are precisely those induced by such drugs. It is really easy for me to dismiss his hallucinations. I have no doubt about it.

His work has been roundly criticized by serious physicists for his use of outdated physics theory, even for his time.

The real scientists behind such particles who are still alive–such as Peter Higgs and Leon Lederman ( a Nobel laureate)– are atheists. Actually it is said that the latter in a book wanted to call the particle ‘Goddamn’ particle, as it was difficult to find, but his publisher wanted to change it to ‘God particle’ for fun.


Agnos - April 27, 2013
6:54 am
Reply

Agnos,

You have presented the scientific perspective. However, there is a point at which science and mysticism find confluence, without either acknowledging it. I think Capra was far ahead of his genre in understanding this. I do not take drugs of any sort and am not prone to hallucinations, however, from the little I have learned of modern, non-physical , intangible physics and Hindu mysticism , I can also perceive the Dance of Siva, as a Cosmic Dance in words described by Capra.

Further, why should the Nataraja (Dancing Siva) statue have been placed in the lawn of CERN where the Hadron Colllider which confirmed the presence of the Gods Particle is located? I think it affirms the acknowledgement of the science behind Hindu mysticism. I have also seen photographs of Oppenheimer’s ( The father of the atom bomb) office, where a large statue of the ‘Dancing Siva’was placed as a backdrop to his desk. I surmise this was also a recognition of what this symbolism represented.

Leon Lederman, whom you refer to, in fact says as follows in his book of 1993, ” This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive, that I have given it a nick name the God Particle? Two reasons: One, the publisher wouldn’t let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing and two, there is a connection of sorts , to another book, a much older one– “.

What he is referring to is the book of Genesis and its theme of man not obeying God’s guidelines, over and over again, which makes God send Abraham and Noah to put mankind back on track. The word ‘Goddamn’ is used in the context of the trouble and exasperation mankind was/is causing God, according to Christian beliefs.

I once again believe that Lederman, chose the right nickname, without intending to do so, for something so elusive, intangible, but yet proven to exist rather indirectly. This is definiition of Siva for the Hindus.

As an aside, I remember sitting with a great modern day Saivite mystic from Jaffna as a teenager, to try to convert the distance between the earth and the moon mentioned in the Andakola Padalam of the Kanthapuranam in classical Tamil units of measurement, into the equivalent of modern measures. It was quite illuminating to learn that the Kanthapuranic figures were no different from modern scientific estimates!

Dr.RN


Dr.Rajasingham Narendran - April 27, 2013
4:28 pm
Not sure why you are invoking Hoole ?

It seems that you are paying your obedience to lord Shiva.Not sure if Hoole objects too that. You are also state that you do so as a “Sri Lankan” . You may want to check with BBS if that is permissible.

Don’t think Prof.Hoole would have any issue with your relationship with Lord Shiva. Except for the fact that is one of the most scholarly post I have read in the Colombo Telegraph – of some one doing a Puja.


Kiri Yakka - April 25, 2013
4:47 pm
Reply

Dear Dr. Narendran,

Over ten centuries ago, Rishi Tirumular praised God Siva’s never-ending dance with loving eloquence: “In all worlds He is, the Holy Lord. In darkness He is, light He is. In sun He is, in moon He is. Everywhere He is. The Lord is in all creation. None knows His coming and going. He is distant. He is near. Multiple He is. One He is. Water, earth, sky, fire and wind, the spark within the body–all these He is. He is the walking jiva here below. Deathless He is”.


Tamil Woman - April 25, 2013
6:15 pm
Reply

Tamil woman,
I think the never ending dance of Lord Shiva has to be analyzed in the context of science. Dr.R.N. has explained has correctly pointed out the movement of subatomic particles originating from energy – a fundamental in this Universe. The dance of Lord Shiva is, in fact, referred to as the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva. It deals with the creation of the Universe. Some scientists believe that the Cosmos came from nothing or that everything began with nothing. If this is the case, then from where does the cosmic egg of creation come from which the Big Bang Theory suggested. Big Bang Theory fails to answer this issue otherwise its explanations of how the Universe was created from the Big Bang of the cosmic egg to the present day state is immaculate. Multiple universes suggest that there are many universes and that there are multiple dimensions in space. Is it possible the the earth came from such multi-dimensional universe and through an invisible dimension which is unknown to humanity. Many physicists now believe in multi-dimensional world. Even Albert Einstein proposed his theory of relativity based on four dimensions of space that is three dimensions as well as time.
Every religion states that the Universe was created by God. However, the definition of God is a controversial subject. God is a conceptual phenomenon which is unique to our universe and our existence.
There is also a misconception that God is only a fiction (a propaganda carried by atheists) on account of the vast advancement of science and technology. The ancient sages of Hinduism (including Buddhism and Jainism) have seen both religion and science as parts of the great search for truth and enlightenment through their inspiration. Hence according to Hinduism, both religion and science are not viewed as opposing factors. Both religion and science are seen as parts of the great search for truth and enlightenment that inspired the sages of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Actually time, space and causation are not separate entities outside, they all exist in God., i.e in God’s mind. Science is the finding of unity and after finding unity, it would stop from further progress. But in religion, especially in Hinduism, the finding becomes perfect when the Soul unionize with the Supreme Soul, which is responsible for the changing world.

Though Science is considered as an expanding base of knowledge, it cannot find out an ultimate answer about the concept of existence. Knowledge may increase, but the mystery of existence will always remain undiscovered. It is very difficult to provide sufficient evidence that will satisfy the requirements of Science relating to the origin of the Universe and the origin of the life. (The origin of the Universe and the origin of life cannot be manipulated in a way to provide convincing scientific evidence.) Any experiments and observations relating to the origins of the Universe and Life can only lead to speculations. It is at this juncture that Hinduism in its true perspective, found out and provide the suitable answer for the creation of the Universe and Life Spirituality, which can only be felt through experience of deep meditation. Accordingly, in Hinduism God is not only transcendent, but also immanent in all his creations. God is part and parcel of the Universe and dwells in the human beings as much as God is in the phenomenal world outside. Briefly it can be said that God is all pervading. (Isavasyam Idam Sarvam).
According to Hindu theory of creation, Time is a manifestation of God. Creation begins when God activates his energies and creation ends when God withdraws all his energies into a state of inactivity. God is timeless because time is relative and ceases to exist in the Absolute. The past, the present and the future co-exist in God simultaneously.
It is the ancient sages or Rishis with their super-sensuous truth discovered the nature of the Supreme Being, the God. According to Hinduism, God is omni potent, omni scient and omni present. The Hindu theory of creation stipulates that Time is a manifestation of God. Creation begins when God activates his energies. Similarly when God withdraws his energies and remain in a state of inactivity, destruction begins. God is timeless because time is relative and ceases to exist in the Absolute. As God performs creation, preservation and destruction, it is evident that the past, the present and the future co-exist in God simultaneously. According to Hinduism, God and the Universe are essentially the same. God manifest himself as the Universe at the time of creation.


Citizen - April 25, 2013
8:07 pm
Reply

Tamil Woman

Was Rishi Tirumular aware of VP’s incarnation as the sun god?


Native Vedda - April 26, 2013
3:23 am
Reply

Native Vedda,
Incarnation is the appearance of a God in a new form, mostly but not necessarily as a human. The usage of the word ‘rebirth’ is meant for common men and women. The doctrine of re-incarnation concerns the re-birth of the soul in a series of physical or pre-natural embodiment which is customarily human or animal in nature, but are in some instances divine, angelic or demonic.
The Law of Karma covers a very wide field from the principle of ‘he who sows will have to reap it’. This occurs in everyone’s life. Accordingly, a person’s course of life is determined by his conducts in his previous birth. For instance, if a person had done meritorious acts in his past life, he is likely to continue the same path in the next life. Similarly, each Soul born in this world has a purpose in its life. According to the doctrine of Karma, the ability to make choices remains with the individual. An individual is subject to the doctrine of Karma just as our physical behaviours on earth are subject to the law of gravitation.

Souls are regarded as emanations of the Divine Spirit. Each Soul passes from one body to another in a continuous cycle of births and deaths, their condition in each existence being determined by their actions in previous births. Transmigration is closely interwoven with the concept of Karma, which involves the inevitable working out, for good or evil, of all actions in a future existence. The whole experience of life, whether happiness or sorrow, is a just reward for deals (good or bad) done in earlier existence. The cycle of Karma and transmigration may extend through innumerable lives; the ultimate goal is the re-absorption of the Soul and occurs when the individual realizes the truth about the Soul and the Absolute (Brahman) and the Soul becomes one with Brahman.

So in stead of verifying Rishi Tirumular about the soul of VP, you can have your own judgment as to what he will be in the next birth.


Citizen - April 28, 2013
1:33 am
Reply

In Sri Lanka, we associate the Sinhala people with Buddhism. Yet there were Sinhala kings, very few in number, who were Saivite Hindus. Rajasinha of Sitawake comes to mind, a fervent devotee of Siva.

He was a heroic king who laid seige to the Portuguese held Kotte twice i.e. in 1563 and 1564. Kotte fell to the forces of Sitawake, a defeat that the Portuguese had until then not encountered in the Straits of Hormuz, South Asia, Malacca, Macao or East Timor. The Portuguese after all had only arrived in South Asia in 1505!

Rajasinha then laid seige for one year to Colombo in 1579 but failed. He later attacked Kandy in 1582 and annexed it. All of Sri Lanka except the north and Colombo was at that point under his rule. Rajasinha of Sitawake returned to lay seige in Colombo in 1587. But the Portuguese, who were encircled with Colombo reduced to severe food scarcity and plague, then cultivated Don John, alias Konappu Bandara, alias Vimala Dharma Suriya, ‘defender of Buddhism’, to launch a revolt in Kandy.

This led to Rajasinha of Sitawake fighting a two pronged battle. This saved Colombo for the Portuguese. With his death in 1593, the Portuguese were able to recapture Kotte, Sitawake, Bentota, Galle and Hambantota in quick succession. Jaffna fell in 1621.

Rajasinha is largely ignored in Sri Lankan text books, as are last four kings of Kandy. The Culavamsa account of Rajasinha of being a parricide and persecuting those Buddhist monks who had collaborated with the Portuguese needs to be complemented with Portuguese accounts of his military prowess and fierce determination to know the historical role that he, a Sinhalese Saivite Hindu, had played in the resistance against European colonialism.


Tamil Woman - April 25, 2013
6:17 pm
Reply

Yes, you are correct. These Rajasinghes had their roots from Nayakka dynasty in Madurai. The Sinhalese and the Tamils were in good relations and used to marry Pandya Princess. Rajasinghe was not against Buddhism, but against people who collaborated with the Portuguese. There were trade between the Sinhalese of the South and the Tamils of the North. After the invasion of the Cholas there two Siva temples built in Polonnaruwa. It is the Hindu sculptors who were brought from Tamil Nadu (then Tamilakam) for costruction of Buddhist temples which has Hindu influence. An old Buddhist temple at Kadugannawa is a case in point, where even Lord Shiva was given prminence. Moreover, the script were in Tamil which could be seen in treaties between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Similarly the Sinhalese kings also built temples in Jaffna. It is reported that a Sinhalese king had contributed a major role in the construction of Vallipura Alvar temple (Vishnu temple).


Citizen - April 25, 2013
8:00 pm
Reply

Was not the temple at Dondra now taken to have a Vishnu Kovil, originally a Shiva Temple?


MedalankaradeChoppe - April 26, 2013
12:37 am
Reply

Dear Citizen

You make a valid point. Successive Sinhalese Buddhist kings had imported Tamil Hindu artisans, craftsmen and stone masons to build their shrines. This pattern is visible in the Polonnaruwa, Dambadeniya, Gampola and Kandy periods. Even independent Ceylon did the same. Kelaniya temple was rebuilt by the Wijewardene family using South Indian stone masons and craftsmen. The annex to the famed Temple of the Tooth in Kandy was built using South Indian stone masons in the 1920s. Independence Square in Colombo 7 was built by Don Stephen Senanayake also using South Indian stone masons and craftsmen. The very construction of the modern Sinhalese Buddhist identity owes much to Tamil Hindu elements. This includes the celebration of the traditional new year in April, the draping of a Kandyan bride with her atikal and padakkam, the ceremony of the Aluth Sahal Mangalya which is akin to Thai Pongal, the wearing of the Arya Sinhala which is a version of the Tamil vetti and the architecture of modern buildings such as Independence Square. It is odd therefore when the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists then proceed to dismiss the Tamil Hindu as an intruder into their sacred space!

The Natha devale in Kandy, next to the Temple of the Tooth, may be dedicated to Siva although latter day Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists now claim it as dedicated to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteswara venerated in Tibet and China.

The 10th century Bronze iconography posted in this article was excavated in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. There is a huge inheritance of Tamil Hindu sculpture that is indigenous to Sri Lanka.


Raja - April 26, 2013
8:31 am
Reply

There is NOTHING in Sri Lanka without the Indian connection. Even Sigiriya was built by King KASYAPA 470-488 AD – son of King Dhatusena by a TAMIL Pallava woman using the South Indian labor. The hunchbacked, misshapen, top-heavy women of Sigiriya, about which so many misplaced raves have been written, but copies unworthy of the prototypes of the cave paintings of Ajanta, Elora, Pappadakkal, and Sittannavasal in Tamil Nadu, South India and from which they were drawn. The Sithannavasal cave contains earliest frescoes in South India. The paintings in Siththannavasal are of Pallava style of Tamil Nadu.

The earliest paintings of Sri Lanka are found in a cave atop the massive Sigiriya rock. The 5th century paintings, in their graceful lines and deeply thoughtful expressions, carry forward the traditions of art born at Ajanta. It is wonderful to see the close similarity of these with the contemporaneous Ajanta paintings. It appears as if the same hands could have made them.
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2124/stories/20041203000106500.htm

On closer inspection the frescoes, executed in tempera on the rock face, were adjudged to date from around the time of Kasyapa. Exquisitely painted in brilliant colours, they are strongly reminiscent of contemporaneous Gupta cave paintings at Ajanta near Bombay.
http://www.cpamedia.com/history/sigiriya_cloud_maiden/


Ravi - April 27, 2013
10:04 am
Reply

This why recently said that Sri Lanka is more Indian than India!

Dr.RN


Dr.Rajasingham Narendran - April 27, 2013
6:01 pm
Reply

Totally agreed. I have visited all these places in connection with the printing of new stamps. There was cordial relationship between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. But it is sad that some mushroom politicians of extreme nature had taken measures to erase evidences of Hindu influence. Even the Archelogical Department couldn’t escape from the sight of these politicians.


Citizen - April 26, 2013
4:53 pm
Reply

To the urbane and the learned Ananda Coomaraswamy, steeped in that exciting intellectual era of his times in Boston/New England, where intellectual giants of men and women were placing the cultures and religions of the world under microscopic scrutiny – that ancient Dance of Shiva and studies in Lord Shiva, brought in a new focus and respect for the religious reality of the Indian Sub-Continent. That speaks volumes of the validity of the subject Shri Romesh Jayaratnam describes in such great elegance and profundity.

Senguttuvan


Senguttuvan - April 26, 2013
8:48 pm
Reply

Some interesting facts – please correct if otherwise

1. Pre-Buddhist Vedic religion did not consider Siva a major deity. In fact he was an ‘outsider’ as a native God
2. However after the Buddhist and Jain critiques of certain Vedic practices and reforms within Indian philosophical thought we find Siva making a spectacular return as a major God in the Hindu Trinity – not just as a God but as the greatest God or Mahadev.
3. He is the destroyer of evil just as much as Buddha overcame all defilements to attain enlightenment
4. As yogiraja he is the lord of all ascetics

Understanding how Buddhism and Hinduism influenced each other in the second half of the first millenium BC is a fascinating story.

In some ways Buddha embodies the concept that is Siva and Siva is the perfect conceptualization of enlightenment. Together they make a formidable pair. Siva is not worshipped as such because he is within you. Siva has to be experienced and realized in meditation


blind man - April 26, 2013
11:34 pm
Reply

From the caption, I thought this article was going to give a point-by-point rebuttal to Hoole’s article. But I don’t see anything like that.


Agnos - April 27, 2013
7:14 am
Reply

Dear Blind man,
Lord Shiva was not considered as an outsider. Though Rig Veda do not mention about Lord Shiva, there are references about Rudra. However, Yajur Veda (being one of the four Vedas) mentions about Mahadeva which is identified with Lord Shiva. It is not clear whether Lord Ganapathi was described as the son of Lord Rudra or Lord Mahadeva. But references of Lord Shiva being worshipped in the great epics Ramayana and Maha Bharatha, shows that Lord Ganapathi as the son of Lord Shiva. Perhaps since Rig Veda mentions ‘the Truth is One, but the wise call it by many names’, Rig Veda would have avoided the possibility of showing the relationship of Lord Rudra or Lord Mahadeva with Lord Ganapathi, in order to maintain that there is only one God (the Supreme Being), while others are manifestations of the Supreme Being.
Rig Veda was the original Hindu scripture during the period of the Indus Valley civilization. It is during the Vedic period that the great epic Ramayana was composed. In the Ramayana there is reference to King Ravana worshipping Lord Shiva. Similarly there is also reference to Rama, Sita & Laksmana worshipping Lord Shiva at Rameswaram, before crossing to Sri Lanka. Likewise in the great epic Maha Bharath there are numerous references of the worship of Lord Shiva.
Moreover, the predominant language during the Vedic period was Sanskrit. The words Himalaya, Kailasa, Saraswathi, Ganesha etc are of Sanskrit origin. The usage of these names continued to exist for the past 12,500 years or more, the worship of Lord Shiva was in practice for the last 12,500 years. Lord Shiva is considered as the Supreme Ascetic and portrayed in deep meditation in his usual abode in Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. As such Lord Shiva remains as the God of Yogis and ascetics. Lord Shiva is the embodiment of serenity, renunciation and indifference to the world.
According to Hinduism, Yoga is considered as part and parcel of the religion. Yoga is a means through which a person can experience God. Yoga refers to the integration of a person’s own consciousness with the Supreme Reality. Yoga is a way to achieve this objective. The concept of Yoga began to surface with the excavation of stone seals from the archeological findings of the Indus Valley civilization and the Mohenjadero-Harappa civilization. In fact, Lord Shiva was mentioned as Harappan God in an ascetic position.
Lord Buddha was a Hindu prince, who began to meditate the truth after finding the sufferings of man. I think he chose a middle path, but proceeded on the lines of Lord Shiva.


Citizen - April 27, 2013
9:00 am
Reply

The said Yoga Swami of Jaffna said ‘we do not know’
The subject is so complex, arguments are many ‘who knows the truth?’
My limited knowledge of Vedanta and other Hindu/Sivaite teaching is that the so called God is ‘That thing’ that with no shape or form.

One tend to believe that religion is the opium of the masses.
In the name of this shapeless, formless ‘Thing’humas have argued, manipulated and killed.


Janakan Srikhanta - April 27, 2013
2:41 pm
Reply

Janakan Srikhanta,
Vedanta is a very wide topic. According to Vedanta the individual Soul is the focus of the infinite Brahman. Hinduism asserts that God created the universe. Before the creation of the Universe, no one knows the nature of the Universe or its energy. All what Hinduism says Lord Brahma created the Universe and the beings. Hindu scriptures assert that Universe precedes humanity. Hinduism arose from discoveries through revelations by way of deep meditation ascetic practices. But Science had not discovered the creation of Universe, but relied on theories which are still not conclusive. Hinduism relies on the concept of ‘Brahman’ as to the existence of the Universe. Brahman represents the Ultimate Reality. Further, as the language during Verdic period was Sanskrit, the word Brahman derived from Sanskrit root ‘brh’ leading to expansion., perhaps followed by an explosion. Brahman is described as impersonal absolute of pure timeless existence. Hence in the words of Swami Vivekananda Creation is beginnningless cycles of manifestation and non-manifestation of Brahman. Vedanta always describes Creation as the out-breathing and in-breathing of Brahman.

According to Hinduism God created the universe. Before the creation of the Universe, no one knows the nature of the Universe or its energy. All what Hinduism says Lord Brahma created the Universe and the beings. Hindu scriptures assert that Universe precedes humanity. Hinduism arose from discoveries through revelations by way of deep meditation ascetic practices. But Science had not discovered the creation of Universe, but relied on theories which are still not conclusive. Hinduism relies on the concept of ‘Brahman’ as to the existence of the Universe. Brahman represents the Ultimate Reality. Further, as the language during Verdic period was Sanskrit, the word Brahman derived from Sanskrit root ‘brh’ leading to expansion, perhaps followed by an explosion. Brahman is described as impersonal absolute of pure timeless existence.

The Vedanta teaches five principles of Hinduism.
Existence of one God. Manifestations of many forms apart from Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma.
God dwells in every being. Hence all human beings are divine.
Religious harmony. It accommodates the principles of all religions.
Asserts Unity of existence through love and compassion.
Bhagavad Gita is a central text of Hinduism for Knowledge and Gayatri (sacred mantra)


Citizen - April 28, 2013
1:06 am
Reply

This article mixes up historical evidence with popular beliefs(yarns). It avoids reference to what the celebrated Portuguese chronicler, Queyroz, recorded in the 17th century that the three ‘pagodes’ on the Trincomalee rock were owned by Ma[h]aterunnanse (Chief Prelate) of Arakan and was administered by a [local] Therunnanase and the Ganzes (white robed members of Sanagha (Gana)of the Sect of Budum.which is the most followed in Ceylon and that Francis Xavier came there and converted the Therunnanse and some Ganzes.(Queyroz: Bk 2,pp.236-237). The information is repeated in Bk2 ,p256-257 where Q confirms that “the state of Trincomalee belonged to the Ganzes and the surrounding of the pagodas partly to the Vanea who received the holy faith. (Bk 2 p245. (See Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon, New Series, Vol LII)- Trincomalee-Arakan connection.

He refers to the temples as ‘pagodes’ without any Hindu identifiers such as he uses for Ramancior,(Rama nagar or Mussesarm)near Chilaw, and Jaganath in Orissa whose Hindu connection cannot be missed. But he is keen to mention that the Trincomalee pagodes were under the Materunnanse/ Ganzes of the Sect of Budum.

All Tamil commentators, including that in the Wikepedia enterd recently, however,have avoided this important observation by Queyroz which he has repeated. Why has this important historical evidence been suppressed?
They only quote that Trincomalee pagodes were “the Rome ofthe Gentiles of the Orient, and more frequented …. ” It is following that Q says the place was frequented by many Ganzes of the Sect of Budum.
There is clearly no reference to Brahamins, Yogis or Hindus.

K Indrapala,the Tamil historian, writes in his new book, “Evolution of an Ethnic Identity…” that there are no ancient temples even in Jaffna peninsula except perhaps Nakulesvaram. But even this temple appears to be an ancient Yakkha temple dedicated to the Yakkha Jambala (Kuvera)whose emblem was a mongoose (Nakuala).The Mongoose- faced rhisi who was cured by the waters of the Kirimalai Pond, is certainly a later popular yarn, like the Buddha’s visit to the island among the Buddhists. The reference in Hindu texts are usually brought up and have no historical value. The only earliest valuable historical record is Mahavamsa which referes to King Mahasena destroying ‘Devalayas’. The se need not be Siva Devalayas. They could be Yakkha temples like later Nakuleswaram.Even Mirisa- wetiya Dagoba semms to have been built on the site of an ancient Yakkha temple, dedicated to Yakkha Marichi. The yarn of the King Dutugemunu buildng it because he had forgotten to offer a parcel of Capsicums (Miris) is a big yarn like the one concocted about Trincomaleeby Tamils.

An inscription nearby is quoted (Gunasingham)of a donation to a temple of Macchesvara which is but taken as reference to a Vishnu temple.But the nomenclature Macchesvara was used in Tibet to refer to Avalokitesvara.The entire belt north of Trincomalee including Tiriyaya and Kuchchiveli, and the interior was the Mahayana belt of Sri Lanka.So, it is probably, Avalokitesvara who was the Bodhisatva of sea farers who was worshipped at Trincomalee till the Portuguese destroyed the place.

Whether there is any evidence of syncreticism can be suggested using the evidence of forms of worship at Trincomalee as present in south East Asia, has not been studied so far.

How does one know if the Gokkana where Devalayas were the same spot as where the pagodas destiryed by the Portuguese Captains were? King Rajasimha II built a Hindu temple at Tampalagama. That seems to be the one recorded in Dutch accounts. the evidence in Mahavamsa Tika (11th /12th century) is sometims brought up to show that Mahasena destroyed siva temples. But the account does not say where such Siva temples were.Besides, the Tika was compiled after the trauma of Chola invasion in 10th/11th centuries.So it is not surprising that he refers to the destruction of Siva lingas.
Like at Kataragama, Devinuwara, Munnesaram, Turuketisvaram and other places,both Buddhist and Hindu places could have existed side by side.
The evidence has to be examined judiciously and not to perpetuate yarns

Hoole's article of March 30, 2013 is at http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/arumuka-navalar-fake-images-and-histories/

Sarabjit Singh, and the spies we left out in the cold

by Praveen Swami Apr 28, 2013

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Last summer, an ageing Sikh man with the full grey beard of the pious came across the Wagah border, at the end of thirty years and six months in a maximum-security Pakistani prison. In December 1981, Surjeet Singh had left his home in the village of Fidda, telling his wife he’d soon be back. In photographs taken not long before then, Singh had a neatly-trimmed moustache, a smart tie,  a well-fitted jacket – and the intense look of young men with energy and ambition. He came home to a country that chooses, even today, not to recognise him.

“I had gone to spy,” Singh told journalists gathered to document his return—shocking many. They shouldn’t have been.

Now, as Indians watch Kot Lakhpat prisoner Sarabjit Singh’s battle for survival following a lethal jail-house attack, it is more important than ever for us to understand how dozens of men like him ended up in jail in the first place.

It is hard to be certain whether Sarabjit Singh is, as Pakistani courts have found, an Indian secret agent responsible for terrorist bombings which claimed 14 lives—or, as his family and advocates insist, a victim of mistaken identity. We do, however, know this: Sarabjit Singh’s story is linked to the untold, and mostly unknown, story of India’s secret war with Pakistan.

“The water,” Pakistan’s military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq told his spymaster, General Akhtar Malik, in December 1979, “must boil at the right temperature.” Even as General Malik’s proxy armies of jihadists battled the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Pakistan feared pushing the superpower to the point where it might retaliate. Key to Pakistan’s fears was India. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, General Zia believed, might be pushed by the Soviet Union into unleashing a war on its behalf. His chosen counter-strategy was to try to tie down India in a bruising internal conflict in Punjab.

From the early 1980s, Khalistan terrorists began receiving weapons and arms from the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, sparking off a war that would claim over 20,000 livesbefore it was done.

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ordered retaliation. The Research and Analysis Wing set up two covert groups, known only as Counter Intelligence Team-X and Counter Intelligence Team-J, the first targeting Pakistan in general and the second directed in particular at Khalistani groups. Each Khalistan terror attack targeting India’s cities was met with retaliatory attacks in Lahore, Multan and Karachi through CIT-X. “The role of our covert action capability in putting an end to the ISI’s interference in Punjab,” the former RAW officer B Raman wrote in 2002, “by making such interference prohibitively costly is little known”.

Men like Surjeet Singh were the soldiers in this secret war. For decades, both India and Pakistan had relied on trans-border operators to spy on each other’s militaries. There were some who agreed to do so in return for the right to smuggle alcohol, gold, electronics and heroin. There were others, too, who volunteered, driven by patriotism. Some of the men received training in the tradecraft of the secret agent—avoiding detection; building cover-identities; secret writing using aspirin tablets dissolved in alcohol, to be mailed to RAW outposts in Iran; more lethal skills, like building bombs.

“I did 85 trips to Pakistan,” Surjeet Singh told the BBC’s Geeta Pandey. “I would visit Pakistan and bring back documents for the army. I always returned the next day. I had never had any trouble.” His last trip ended as a spies’ career often does—with betrayal. Singh was sentenced to death, but in 1985 his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

For reasons that are still unclear, CIT-X and CIT-J were shut down by Prime Minister IK Gujral in 1997. Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao is believed to have earlier terminated RAW’s eastern operations as part of his efforts to build bridges with China and Myanmar.

The secret soldiers were, mostly, forgotten. “I felt like a used napkin,” said Karamat Rohi, who says he served RAW until his arrest inside Pakistan in 1988, where he remained imprisoned, disowned by India, until 2005. “I felt I was doing a great service to the nation. I did not expect some great reward, but being abandoned is humiliating.”

Stories like these are common. Gurdaspur resident Gopal Dass was sent home after spending 27 years in a Pakistani jail. In 2011, the Supreme Court shot down Dass’ claim for compensation from the government. The court said Dass had no evidence he ever worked for RAW—though a field court martial at Sialkot Cantonment in Pakistan awarded him a life sentence on 27 December 1986.

India’s less-than-enthusiastic covert warfare efforts were, perhaps, shaped by circumstance. In 1947, as imperial Britain left India, its covert services were stripped bare. The senior-most British Indian Police officer in the Intelligence Bureau, Qurban Ali Khan, chose Pakistani citizenship—and left for his new homeland with what few sensitive files departing British officials neglected to destroy. The Intelligence Bureau, Lieutenant-General LP Singh has recorded, was reduced to a “tragi-comic state of helplessness,” possessing nothing but “empty racks and cupboards”.

The Military Intelligence Directorate in New Delhi didn’t even have a map of Jammu and Kashmir to make sense of the first radio intercepts signalling the beginning of the war of 1947-1948.

For Pakistan, covert warfare was a tool of survival: faced with a larger and infinitely better-resourced neighbour, it knew it could not compete in conventional military terms. Khan is credited with early doctrinal efforts on Pakistan’s behalf, positing that covert warfare could open up crippling ethnic-religious faultlines in India.

Thus, Pakistan initiated covert warfare in Jammu and Kashmir soon after its failed military effort in 1947-48, backing groups that bombed government buildings and bridges. From the 1960s, it backed a succession of proto-jihadist networks. Major-General Akbar Khan, who commanded the Pakistani forces during that first India-Pakistan war, has also recorded in his memoirs that his country’s covert forces supplied weapons to Islamist irregulars in Hyderabad. Pakistan’s covert services operated similarly in the east, training Naga groups in the Chittagong Hill tracts.

India’s covert capabilities also began to develop significantly in the wake of the 1962 war with China. Aided by the United States, the newly-founded RAW developed sophisticated signals intelligence and photo-reconnaissance capabilities. Central Intelligence Agency instructors also trained Establishment 22, a covert organisation raised from among Tibetan refugees in India, to execute deep-penetration terror operations in China. Establishment 22, operating under the command of Major-General Surjit Singh Uban, carried out deep-penetration strikes against Pakistani forces under the RAW umbrella prior to the onset of the war.

Following the war, RAW’s attentions now turned elsewhere. Establishment 22 personnel played a key role in Sikkim’s accession to the Union of India; helped train Tamil terrorists operating against Sri Lanka; provided military assistance to groups hostile to the pro-China regime in Myanmar, such as the Kachin Independence Army. Pakistan, it seemed to some, had been taught a lesson in 1971—and was no longer a threat to India.

Time hasn’t proved that assumption well-founded—reopening debate on whether Prime Minister Gujral’s decision to shut down the covert war needs to be reviewed. Secure behind its nuclear umbrella, Pakistan has pursued covert war whenever it has deemed it in its best interests. Fearful of the potentially awful consequences of all-out war, Delhi has chosen to weather out the crisis rather than retaliate. India’s political leadership believes aggressive covert means of the kind unleashed in the 1980s would only escalate the spiral of violence.

In the wake of the Kargil war, key intelligence officers including a former Intelligence Bureau director, attempted to persuade Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to issue the necessary authorisations for renewed offensive covert operations against Pakistan. “Vajpayee didn’t say a word,” recalls one official present at the meeting. “He didn’t say no; he didn’t say yes.”

Following the carnage of 26/11, some in India’s intelligence establishment again pushed to develop the resources needed to target jihadist leaders in Pakistan. The project, intelligence sources say, was also denied clearance.

Ever since 1987, governments have used secret channels to try to temper the intensity of the covert war. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi despatched RAW chief AK Verma to meet with his counterpart, Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul, through then-Jordanian Crown Prince Hasan bin-Talal. Little came of this effort. Later, RAW chief CD Sahay and ISI chief Lieutenant-General Ehsan-ul-Haq discussed cross-border infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir, as part of a ceasefire deal on the Line of Control.

Each time, little tangible has emerged: there’s no evidence Pakistan wishes to give up the covert tools in its arsenal, any more than it is willing to give up its nuclear weapons.

Likelier than not, then, the covert war will continue. In the meanwhile, the men who fought in the 1980s have become unwelcome reminders of an embarrassing past that India no longer wishes to acknowledges.

George Orwell never said, frequent attribution notwithstanding, that “we sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

The fact that he didn’t say it, though, doesn’t mean the statement is wrong.

India owes its secret soldiers a debt—and Sarabjit Singh’s battle for his life is as good a time as any for us to begin to acknowledge it.

http://www.firstpost.com/world/sarabjit-singh-and-the-spies-we-left-out-in-the-cold-734703.html

Full text of the report

http://www.scribd.com/doc/138309259/Money-Laundering-Report-Final

Money Laundering Report - Final

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 26, 2013 U.S. Senate Report: Tackle Money Laundering to Curtail Drug Trafficking Bipartisan Study Features GFI Research, Endorses Eliminating Phantom Firms Senate Drug Caucus Report Quotes GFI’s Heather Lowe, Highlight’s GFI’s Estimates on Trade-Based Money Laundering WASHINGTON, DC / LONDON – A bipartisan Congressional report published Thursday by the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control (Senate Drug Caucus) emphasizes cracking down on money laundering as key to curtailing the illicit drug trade.  Quoting heavily from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) experts and research, the studyendorses eliminating anonymous U.S. shell companies through the passage of the bipartisan Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act, bolstering enforcement of existing anti-money laundering (AML) policies, and strengthening anti-money laundering laws through passage of the bipartisan Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Counterfeiting Act. “You simply cannot curtail the drug trade without curtailing drug money,” said GFI Director Raymond Baker, a longtime authority on financial crime.  “The UN estimates that worldwide, over 40 percent of cocaine is seized somewhere between production and consumption.  However, less than half of one percent of laundered criminal money is interdicted globally.  We’ve put the cart before the horse, and the Senate Drug Caucus clearly recognizes that.” Eliminating Anonymous U.S. Shell Companies Co-chaired by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the panel endorsed banning the anonymous incorporation of U.S. companies through adoption of the bipartisan Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act.  The recommendation followed statements Wednesday from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, who all endorsed the elimination of phantom firms in letters to the European Union—adding to global momentum against anonymous shell companies worldwide. “Anonymous shell companies are the most widely used method for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion,” noted Mr. Baker. “It has unfortunately become routine for law enforcement investigations into violent drug traffickers to be stymied by anonymous U.S. companies.  The United States is the easiest place in the world next to Kenya to open an anonymous shell company.  Roughly two million companies are formed in the U.S. each year and almost none of them are required to disclose the true, human owner of those firms.  We’re basically inviting crime into our financial system.” Lax AML Enforcement Fueling Crime Titled “The Buck Stops Here: Improving U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Practices,” the report also recommended stronger enforcement of anti-money laundering laws by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  The DOJ came under heavy criticism in recent months for failing to indict HSBC—or even a single one of its employees—despite the bank’s own admission that it failed to apply anti-money laundering controls to $200 trillion in wire transfers between 2006-2009, $881 million of which was known drug cartel money. “As recent events illustrate, large American banks are failing to comply with anti-money laundering rules,” said Heather Lowe, GFI’s Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs, who’s quoted repeatedly throughout the report.  “From HSBC to Wachovia, we have repeatedly seen large financial institutions failing to implement the legally required controls.  It’s happening time and again, and not one bank—not even one banker—has been indicted.  This failure to fully enforce our laws sends the signal that the U.S. banking system is open to business for criminals looking to launder their money.” “Money laundering is taking the proceeds of crime (“illegitimate” money) and bringing it into the legitimate financial system so that the criminals can use that money without being tied to those terrible crimes – crimes like manufacturing and distributing drugs, selling people into the sex trade, trafficking in illegal weapons, and selling knock-off, unsafe products like toys with high levels of lead paint into the marketplace,” wrote Ms. Lowe in a January op-ed for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Ms. Lowe adds, “Criminals cannot operate without being able to launder their money.  In failing to enforce our anti-money laundering laws, we all become accomplices to the heinous crimes committed by these drug cartels, and it is our families and our communities that suffer the consequences.” Further Recommendations Prepared as U.S. financial regulators are conducting a thorough review of the nation’s anti-money laundering policies and enforcement, the Drug Caucus study further recommends: Making pre-paid cards (known as stored value) subject to cross-border reporting requirements; Closing a loophole that makes armored cash carriers exempt from reporting requirements; Passage of the bipartisan Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Counterfeiting Act to close gaps in anti-money laundering laws; and Full enactment of the 2007 National Money Laundering Strategy, including the requirement that all money service businesses register with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. GFI’s Mexico Report Cited The Senate report additionally cites GFI’s research on illicit financial flows from Mexico, noting the heavy toll that trade-based money laundering has on the Mexican economy.  Authored by GFI Lead Economist Dev Kar, a former senior economist at the IMF, GFI’s report found that trade mispricing was the dominate method to illegally move money out of Mexico, facilitating the illicit outflow of $642.9 billion from 1970-2010. ### Notes to Editors: Click here to read the joint press release from Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), co-chairs of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, announcing the new report. Click here (PDF) to download the full Senate report, “The Buck Stops Here: Improving U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Practices.” The Senate report was endorsed by Senate Drug Caucus members Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), James E. Risch (R-ID), and John Cornyn (R-TX). Click here to read a July 2012 op-ed by GFI Director Raymond Baker and former Guatemalan Vice President Rafael Espada, titled “Time to tackle the money behind drug cartels,” published in the San Antonio Express-News. Click here to learn more about the bipartisan Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act, which is yet to be introduced into the current Congressional session. Click here for more on the UK, Germany, and France calling for an end anonymous shell companies on Wednesday. Click here to read Heather Lowe’s January 2013 op-ed, “Money Laundering and HSBC - How it affects you,” published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Click here to read Heather Lowe’s June 2012 speech, “Players: The Role of Facilitators and Super-Fixers,” discussing the Wachovia money laundering case, delivered at the National Defense University. Click here to read a joint statement from November 2012 by GFI, Global Witness, and the FACT Coalition welcoming the U.S. government’s on-going anti-money laundering review. Click here to read more about GFI’s January 2012 research on illicit financial flows from Mexico. Journalist Contact: Clark Gascoigne cgascoigne@gfintegrity.org +1 202-293-0740 ext.222 Apr 25 2013 Feinstein, Grassley Report on Strengthening Anti-Money Laundering Practices Washington—U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), co-chairs of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, today released a bipartisan report entitled The Buck Stops Here: Improving U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Practices that provides recommendations for Congress and the Obama Administration to strengthen anti-money laundering laws and regulations in the United States. “Drug traffickers are motivated by one thing: money. The illicit proceeds from their crimes are blood money, and blood money has no place in our financial system.” said Senator Feinstein. “Money laundering—very often through U.S. businesses and financial institutions—must be stopped if we are to make real progress in curtailing the drug trade. Improving our anti-money laundering laws will help better combat transnational organized crime and return revenue to the U.S. Treasury.” “Our report has common-sense recommendations to curb key shortcomings in anti-money laundering statutes and enforcement practices.” said Senator Grassley. “By cutting off financing, we can get at the criminals who misuse legitimate institutions to fuel their illegal activities. Congress and the Obama Administration should take a close look at these recommendations.” The report recommends: Stronger enforcement of anti-money laundering laws by the Justice Department, particularly in cases where banks are accused of improperly monitoring billions of dollars in illicit proceeds; Making pre-paid cards (known as stored value) subject to cross-border reporting requirements; Closing a loophole that makes armored cash carriers exempt from reporting requirements; Passage of the Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act to make it more difficult for criminal organizations to hide behind shell companies; Passage of the Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Counterfeiting Act to close gaps in anti-money laundering laws; and Enforcement of the 2007 National Money Laundering Strategy, including the requirement that all money service businesses register with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The report is endorsed by Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control members Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), James E. Risch (R-Idaho) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). The entire report can be found here. ### Permalink: http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2013/4/feinstein-grassley-report-outlines-strategies-to-strengthen-u-s-anti-money-laundering-practices

Jiang group in Chinese army behind incursions

Senior officers loyal to erstwhile President Jiang Zemin do not want India-China relations normalised.

MADHAV NALAPAT NEW DELHI | 27th Apr 2013

Jiang Zemin

Generals still loyal to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin are believed to be behind the recent 19-kilometre incursion into territory that has been in the control of India since 1947. This is a barren strip of land near the Burtse army post in Ladakh, which is south of Depsang and the Daulat Beg Oldi airstrip, which was brought back to operational readiness in 2008 and at nearly 17,000 feet is the highest military airstrip on the globe. Information reaching Delhi indicates that "a Major-General based in Chengdu Military District" is responsible for the Chinese side launching a repeat of Jawaharlal Nehru's 1960-62 "forward policy" (i.e. of small armed pickets moving into territory controlled by the other side and setting up makeshift bases there). Since early April, PLA units reporting to senior officers loyal to the Jiang Zemin Group within the Chinese Communist Party have set up three tents, in which at present three dozen soldiers are sheltering. These are being monitored by Chinese helicopters and long-range satellite surveillance system, and are designed to provoke an armed border clash for the first time since the 1986 Sumdurong Chu incursion by China, which too was masterminded by elements hostile to Deng Xiaoping's reconciliatory policy towards India.

Jiang Zemin has considerable influence within that section of the military leadership that is known to have substantial funds abroad, as evidenced by family staying or studying in (NATO-bloc) countries. Although former President Hu Jintao sought to cleanse the PLA of such corrupt elements, "the power of the Jiang group meant that he had only very limited success during the decade (2002-2012) that he was in power". Hu's successor Xi Jinping is known to be similarly opposed to the culture of greed and graft spawned under the Jiang years (1991-2001) and is also facing resistance to his clean-up efforts from those unwilling to give up their extra-legal privileges.

Both President Xi as well as Premier Li Keqiang have made a close strategic relationship with India a priority. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the second foreign leader (out of two) personally called by Premier Li on the first day of his assumption of office, and planning is on to make India the new Chinese PM's first international port of call in the third week of next month. Following on the success of Huawei in the telecoms market and Chinese power companies in energy plants, Chinese companies are looking to India to sell infrastructure equipment and projects. "Should tensions grow, Huawei may be once again barred from the Indian market, while Chinese companies would be barred from energy, finance and infrastructure sectors," a senior official worried at PLA activism pointed out, adding that "already China has lost more than $120 billion of (additional) Japanese investment and may lose an equal amount in the India market" should the Jiang group have its way in racheting up tensions along China's periphery. "The Jiang Group wants to sabotage Li's India visit, which is why they have got friendly elements in the PLA to launch a Chinese version of the Forward Policy just weeks before Li's scheduled arrival," claim sources tracking developments in China. They add that "the effort to insert troops into territory that has always been in Indian control follows the continued refusal by Jiang-era hardliners in Beijing to agree to a transparency-generating mechanism about its four Brahmaputra dam projects". These sources point out that "both the Pakistan as well as the US lobbies within the PLA are eager to sabotage cooperation with India", and that Xi Jinping's open call for military to military cooperation between Beijing and Delhi has been followed by efforts at a coordinated hard line towards the Taliban in Afghanistan. Such moves have alarmed the Pakistan and US lobbies within China, who are both working through their agents to sabotage the Xi Jinping reset in relations with Delhi, these sources claim.

Trackers of Chinese developments point out that "several so-called ultra-nationalist elements are in fact secretly working at the behest of countries hostile to China, and use ultra-patriotic rhetoric only as camouflage". Several blog posts by "super-patriotic elements in China use language that is racist and xenophobic, thereby presenting a negative picture of Chinese society to foreign observers". India is not the only theatre where pro-Jiang elements are using their friends in the PLA to ensure that Beijing deviates from the Peaceful Rise policy of Deng Xiaoping and Hu Jintao, these sources point out. Such military activism has led to tensions across the eastern and southern periphery of China, from Japan to the Philippines to Vietnam and now India. "Xi Jinping has the potential to be as great a harbinger of economic growth and social and international stability as Deng. However, he is being sabotaged from within by self-proclaimed ultra-nationalists with big foreign bank accounts," said a source familiar with the inner dynamics of Chinese politics. However, the majority view is that "with backing from Premier Li, very soon President Xi will rein in the hotheads," thereby allowing Delhi and Beijing to resume the path towards normalisation first mapped out by Deng Xiaoping and Rajiv Gandhi in 1988. Their expectation is that the present sabotage of a Sino-Indian reset via a new forward policy in Ladakh will subside within the first week of next month, thereby creating conditions for a successful visit by Premier Li, who is being "awaited with warmth" in Delhi by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/jiang-group-in-chinese-army-behind-incursions