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Regional Interests of Global Powers
President Zardari in a recent visit (May 2009) to Washington DC boasted that Pakistani army strength is 700,000. Pakistan has deployed 110,000 troops to counter insurgency (COIN) operations on its western border. A ratio of 7 to 10 troops per insurgent suggests that Pakistan estimates strength of Taliban and al Qaeda guided insurgent force to be in a range of 11,000 to 16,000. Another guesstimate puts it between 30,000 to 35,000 insurgents suggesting that the deployed army strength for COIN oper...
| K Bhatia |
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Global Terrorism and Pak Policies
In addition to nuclear capabilities of Pakistan the breaking news (mid-May 2009) reports demise of the Tigers in Sri Lanka and reelection of Congress party dominated coalition called UPA (United Progressive Party) headed by PM Manmohan Singh in India.Terrorism dominated parts of South Asia starting 1970s and its scale was such that it acquired global attention. Sikh Terrorists were militarily defeated in 1984 by the Indian Armed forces and Tamil LTTE forces were defeated in May 2009 by Sri Lanka...
| K Bhatia |
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Agenda after 2009 Elections
Elections are over. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was sworn in on May 22, 2009 for second time and some elected representatives are now jogging for a place in the cabinet. Personal ambitions and agendas of elected politicians are on display. However, India has to stay focused on its priorities for aam aadmi. Outlined here are details of Bharat Nirman Yojanas that potentially can make India a developed nation in about a decade....
| K Bhatia |
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Modest Swing Effects 61 Seat Bounty
It was neither a faith in the Congress, nor an out right rejection of the BJP that prompted this somewhat palatable outcome. Neither was this a vote for Manmohanomics, or an endorsement of the government handling of 26/11. It was happenstance, plain and simple. How else can you explain a modest voter swing to effect such a disproportionately large alteration in seats? It was a fluke that vaulted the Congress to a seemingly spectacular victory. I have no qualms about that for it provides us with ...
| Vivek G |
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Aravind Adiga: Intellectual bankruptcy of...
On 14th October 2008, the Booker Committee announced in London that Aravind Adiga will get the Man Booker Prize for his debut novel, The White Tiger. The writer, Aravind Adiga claims in an interview:At a time, when India is going through great changes and ,with China, is likely to inherit the world from the West, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society, he said, adding that the criticism by writers like Flaubert, Balzac & Dickens in the 19th century...
| P Saksena |
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MF Hussain & Artistic Freedom...
This article raises questions about the observations of Indian courts which have been generally liberal in preserving individual freedoms vis-à-vis the rights of the majority religion. Could the defenders of artistic freedom, have inveigled the courts into delivering ill-conceived judgements by speciously citing mischievous evidence? In the process were the courts oblivious to pertinent alternative views on the matter?There was a time when judicial pronouncements were characterized by the erudit...
| UN Das |
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Infeasibility of the G-20 Stimulus Plan
Tasks in front of the G-20 leaders were to produce a framework to solve the world economic crisis by thinking out of box. Instead they want another round of stimulus without learning any lesson from George Bush and Gordon Brown of UK, who just gave away more than $900 Billion to the Anglo-American banks and financial institutions without restructuring them and as a result money just disappeared in a black hole without creating any solution yet. Much of these stimulus plans are empty promises or ...
| D Basu |
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Is Islam in Danger
To understand the background of what is happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the attack of 9/11 by the so-called purist part of the Muslims one has to recall the battles between the Sallahdin and the Christian Kings for the control of Jerusalem, holy to the Muslims, the Christians and the Jews. Responding to Byzantine Emperor Alexeis plea for help against the Turks at the dawn of the eleventh century Pope Urban II reminded the Christians of Emperor Charlemagnes forcible conversion of Saxons...
| Kazi Masud |
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..and the struggle continues
The election results in India may reflect a fractured escapism of a long suppressed nation but does not represent true ethos of its people. They have put no trust in one single party, having been betrayed by doing so for most part of sixty years of its, so-called, freedom. They have become cynical and lethargic. The polling was low and there was no enthusiasm for voting, except for the motley crowd of people who wanted status quo, no change, cultural imperialism and continuity of privileges.The...
| Rasik S |
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Why the War Against Terror cant be won...
Over the last few days, as news continued to pour in about Talibans seemingly unstoppable march across north-west Pakistan, the question that would not go away in my mind was: Why is this not on the national agenda?Is the Indian media really clueless? is it really so naive that it does not realise the gravity of the situation? or was this simply something that could be dismissed with a Yeh to hota hi rahta hai (and/or its variant: Kuch nayee baat batao yaar) ?And yet, the happenings in Pakistan ...
| B Shant.. |
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Mr PM, Indias needs better leaders
Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thinks Indias global standing will diminish and its image as a liberal, secular democracy take a beating if Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whom the BJP has projected as next-in-line to LK Advani, ever becomes Prime Minister. Let it be clear that when he said global, the PM perhaps meant the western countries and USA and may be the oil rich Middle eastern nations and not Zimbabwe or Rwanda. It is interesting that the Prime minister did not find it against ...
| Arindam B |
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Hindu Self Shaming
Often I hear my Hindu friends express how ashamed they are about being a Hindu when they come across some media report about Hindu religious or cultural customs which may not conform to their westernized logic. Or it may be news item of a communal incident in which Hindus are reported to have participated. Western media as well as the English media in India routinely portray Hinduism in stereotyped manner and have rarely shown objectivity in such reports. My friends do not bother to check the re...
| Venkat L |
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Varadarajan at hindu: a secular liability
This is apropos of Siddharth Varadarajan Where silence prevails, justice will not [The Hindu ] The newspaper has long been known to be an impotent lapdog of degenerate commie propaganda. In a recent article, its editor N Ram was glorifying the annihilation of Tibetan culture, society and civilization by the Chinese on the pretext of saving them from serfdom while on a Chinese govt. sponsored trip to Tibet. The moral vacuity of a news editor who tomtoms obvious Chinese propaganda machinery as the...
| S Basu |
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Is terror only impediment to devel..
In politics achievement or failure of a government in the first hundred days generally catches the eyes of the people as some believe that morning shows the day. Bangladesh is no exception. Illogical though it may be some people have started counting the success/failures of the Awami League led coalescing political government.Bangladesh, unlike many countries of the world, rarely had hung parliament. The elections have been decisive and the winning party and its allies have generally been given ...
| Kazi Masud |
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Rebuttal: Taliban is already in India
This is a RESPONSE BY ARINDAM BANDYOPADHYAY TOThe Taliban is already amidst us in India, by Jyotirmaya SharmaTHEY WILL NOT COME FROM PAKISTAN, (you are right, some of them are already in India and demonstrate their talents from time to time in the serial bombings of the various cities, not to mention the ones that are frequent visitors in Kashmir for ages. Others when they come will be from a place that would be former Pakistan after the actual Talibans are done with that country) THEY ARE HERE ...
| Arindam B |
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