Freedom From Fear - Bijoy Joseph

'My Book Will Tell The Truth'  says former ISRO scientist  Nambi  Narayanan , who was accused and  arrested of being a spy in the cryogenic engine research scandal that rocked kerala in 1994. He  was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 1998 but since lived under a cloud, being a spy. Mr Nambi Narayanan wishes to expose the people who framed him and redeem his good name, but can he get back those years that passed by . Now on the wrong side of 70, he says ' I shall not die a spy' . That much for self respect and guts. Narayanan is but one of the few who've the courage to fight against the establishment . How many are languishing outside under fear and a weak order of redressal.

When the country is today marching forward in economic growth , let us

not close our eyes on the citezen's rights to living in freedom & upholding of dignity . The quality of life  of a country which is not measured on just economic prosperity but on the social and cultural  

parametetrs should not be sidelined . Do we have the right to  freedom of thought without the  fear of being victimised, equal rights to education & employment or in invoking the constitution against corruption .  There's little meaning in prosperity when money does not ensure peace and security .  How long  will you  be living in the security and comfort of a house  surrounded by poor and oulawed citizens on the streets. This is the case in many countries of Africa & the Third World. Is there real freedom ?   

-Bijoy Joseph

Read more

Skeletons in the Closet

This thought has been lingering in the back on my mind for a long time. The people who planned the Mumbai attacks must have had help from the local underworld, maybe the local representatives of Dawood Ibrahim’s gang. It is well known that services offered by the underworld, especially money laundering services, are used by the rich and well-connected in India. If investigators are on the trail of Mr. X who provided credit cards or cash to the attackers, Mr. X might be able to call on someone high and mighty, say Mr. Y, to protect him. Mr. Y might be just a businessman with good connections who has nothing to do with terrorism. Mr. Y might or might not suspect what Mr. X is up to, but would protect him nevertheless, since Mr. X might otherwise spill the beans on him. In short, as long as India has such a vibrant parallel economy that puts the legit one in the shade, India will be vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Jawed Naqvi, the Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi, one of the smartest Indian journalists today, has written a brilliant piece on this issue.

There’s an interesting piece in the Independent which says India has not been passing on information to Interpol about the Mumbai attacks or the results of its investigation.

It makes sense for Indian investigators to want to keep their findings to themselves if sharing facts with Interpol or other foreign investigators will raise too many uncomfortable questions for India’s high and mighty, who might have had dealings with criminals and terrorists. Funnily, the Independent news report above does not say that India has been hiding its findings. Instead, it says Indian investigators have been regularly feeding the media, though not briefing Interpol.

The Indian investigation into the Mumbai attacks now seems to bear a startling similarity with the way Pakistan has been investigating the Bhutto assassination. Even though Bhutto’s own party, the PPP, is in power, the investigation into the murder has made little headway. It’s been over a year since Bhutto was assassinated, but the truth behind who was responsible, is yet to emerge. Is this because if the truth were to be found, many respectable players will have to run for cover? Is this because the guilty are being shielded by those in power who have been hand-in-glove with them in various other nefarious activities?

Corruption, black money and a parallel economy are some of the things India and Pakistan have in common. Now it seems that both countries have too many similar skeletons in their closets. 

-Vinod Joseph

Read more

Mind Your Language

One of the earliest lessons I learned is that a ‘Please’ tails a ‘Yes’ and ‘Thank you’ always follows a ‘No.’ If you want to go to the toilet, raise your hand and say ‘Excuse Me.’

The English are nothing if not polite. Even their swear words have a cultured feel to them when compared to their Indian counterparts. (I call it the Mr Bean test. When it comes to swear words, if you can picture Mr Bean saying it, don’t EVER use it.) 

A lifetime of indoctrination has still left me flailing in a cesspool of the English language. Getting my ‘whos’ and ‘whoms’ right is a matter of luck than knowledge. Should data be ‘is’ or ‘are’? Every time I use a tricky preposition I feel like I’m entering a trapdoor. And clichés; there are days when your mind is a sewage pump of clichés and you could rummage around for hours and come up with nothing else. I went through a phase where for months, whenever I searched for a plural adjective nothing but the word ‘myriad’ would come to mind. It was so severe that I developed a chronic allergy to the word. Now I avoid it like the plague. (Yet another cliché. Are they aiming for world domination?)

Perhaps the problem is that I’ve always navigated the language more by feel than by rules. It seems nonsensical to adhere to rules in a language where there are as many exceptions to rules as the rules themselves. When someone says something like ‘quantifiers are further divided into countable and uncountable nouns’ they might as well be speaking Spanish. I still have no idea what ‘interjections’ or ‘modifiers’ are.

Or perhaps the problem is that English, much like the people, is a ‘borrowing’ language. Its vocabulary is drawn from German, Dutch, Latin and Ancient Greek. As Bill Bryson put it, ‘English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin, a language with which it has precious little in common.’

And now with social media comes the merciless butchering of the language. We live in a culture obsessed with truncation. Short is the new thin.  The Bronte sisters might need their smelling salts when confronted with lols, brbs and asaps. A friend once messaged ‘Hey sup’ and my mother asked, ‘Do your friends call you sup?’

It’s not just written English that’s confounding. The ‘t’ remains silent in ‘valet’ but not in ‘Moet’?(as in the champagne) When do you ask for the bill and when for the check? Is the ‘a’ in vase pronounced as an ‘aye’ or an ‘ahh’. And don’t even get me started on hors d’oeuvres.

-Anjuly Mathai (Thanks to Manorama Online)

Read more

Six Feet is enough for all.

Six Feet is reserved for all of us on our planet. We need not buy it, we inherit it by grace
of almighty. Even, if we own a land as big as a continent, at last we may occupy only six
feet in that. But, now a days there is an intense desire in everyone to buy as much as
land in his life like Pahom the man who ran to occupy as much as land in a day till his
last breath in the story "How Much Land Does A Man Need?" of Leo Tolstoy.

The resultant is evidential as most of the cultivated land is under real estate cultivation.
The greed behind such purchase of land is that people think of it as a non risk
investment with heavy dividends. In olden days people invested in gold but now, the
trend have changed, because investing in land is considered far more profitable than in
gold. Now a day’s cities are expanding with no leaps and bounds and our rural folks are
migrating to the cosmopolitan cities by selling their cultivable land.Due to high rise in the
demand for land in these cities, we see a soaring graph with no cooling curves.

People are lost in a balance sheet oriented game of P/L (Profit and Loss) without
ever reconsidering the repercussions of their self centered acts. Due to high trading
of such cultivable land we are loosing on an area under cultivation(The area under
rice cultivation in India had declined from 45 million ha. in 2000-01 to 42.4 million
hectares in 2008-09).Let us get ready to face a situation where we would be landless for
cultivation,also to note human’s physiology is unfit for digesting earth(soil).

Gandhiji quoted” Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every
man's greed”A man having a desire to own his dream home is not a sin,but at the same
time buying excess of cultivable land and simply holding on to them as an investment
is a great sin. The statistics revealed last month is astonishing, nearly 12 lakhs houses
of NRI's are kept simply empty in Kerala alone. Some of the ministers in Tamil Nadu
own big houses in New Delhi,but they have not gone there even once in a decade.
They have bought it to showcase their purchasing power and to boast that they have
houses in India's capital. In Udagamandalam(Ooty) so many Estates and Farm houses
are owned by richest men in India. They visit their guest houses for vacation only a few
days in a year or sometimes in their life. After that,the vast guest houses are preserved
by their servants for their owners till the next vacation.

Before one decade, outskirts and some inner part of Coimbatore city was fully
agricultural land,so we got fresh tomatoes,greens and some other vegetables directly
from near farms.But,they were changed in to real estate plots and sold,so now we have
ended in buying these vegetables from the neighbouring districts.

Mostly of the real estate business is done by the ruling and the opposition political
party leaders in the state. They act like dictators and maintain their own army of
hooligans and goons to fulfil their greeds .Any refusal by the vulnerable farmers would
be dealt with tight fist of these goons. These so called “leaders” have gone to the extent
of owning a non agricultural government land(Puramboku). Not only these goons,our
own self elected government is also in pursuit of a sieze by seizing farmers lands in the
name of Special economic Zones(SEZ). Transforming cultivation lands in to Special
economic zones is like selling our own eyes to buy Picaso's pictures. Any civilization
on the planet cannot stand without cultivable land. Do we need only agricultural land
for SEZ?. In Europe,there is a special legislation named "The Metropolitan Agricultural
Preserves Act". The intent of the law is, to protect an important agricultural land in the
metropolitan area from competing land uses,protect the local agricultural economy
and allow farmers to make long term agricultural investments with an assurance
that their land can continue for an agricultural use without any interference from
urban presence.Local governments identifies such an agriculture land which is to be
preserved ,where non farm growth will not be permitted.

In Canada, there is a special law named "The Farm Debt Mediation Act".There, farmers
have special protection which is intended to prevent creditors from seizing farm land
without giving the farmer a reasonable opportunity to repay the debt.But, till now in India
there are no such legislation to preserve the agricultural land and to protect farmers.
Due to the Indian Government agricultural policy,in two decades nearly 2 lakhs farmers
have committed suicide and now we are seizing farmers land in the name of SEZ and
for expanding metropolitan cities. If we do not prevent this now then, we will be forced
to face famine(Almighty must save us from that). So, to preserve agricultural land and
farmers, it is the need of an hour to enact special legislation.

-Ibnu Mohamed

(ibnumd2020@gmail.com)

Read more

Smile Please...

Feeling good usually makes us smile, but does it work the other way around? Yes, smiling during episodes of stress can help to reduce its intensity regardless of whether a person actually feels happy or not, according to a research.

Psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman of the University of Kansas investigate the potential benefits of smiling by looking at how different types of smiling, and the awareness of smiling, affects individuals' ability to recover from episodes of stress.

'Age old adages such as 'grin and bear it' have suggested smiling to be not only an important non-verbal indicator of happiness but also wishfully promotes smiling as a panacea for life's stressful events,' says Kraft.

'We wanted to examine whether these adages had scientific merit, whether smiling could have real health-relevant benefits,' Kraft said.

Smiles are generally divided into two categories: standard smiles, which use the muscles surrounding the mouth, and genuine or Duchenne smiles, which engages the muscles surrounding both the mouth and eyes, the journal Psychological Science reports.

Previous research shows that positive emotions can help during times of stress and that smiling can affect emotions; however, the work of Kraft and Pressman is the first of its kind to experimentally manipulate the types of smiles, people make in order to examine the effects of smiling on stress, according to a Kansas statement.

The researchers recruited 169 participants from a Midwestern university. The study involved two phases: training and testing. During the training phase, participants were divided into three groups, and each group was trained to hold a different facial expression.

The results suggest that smiling may actually influence our physical state: compared to participants who held neutral facial expressions, those who were asked to smile, and in particular those with Duchenne smiles, had lower heart rate levels after recovery from the stressful activities.

These findings show that smiling during brief stressors can help to reduce the intensity of the body's stress response, regardless of whether a person actually feels happy.

'The next time you are stuck in traffic or are experiencing some other type of stress,' says Pressman, 'you might try to hold your face in a smile for a moment. Not only will it help you 'grin and bear it' psychologically, but it might actually help your heart health as well!'

Read more

On the Road

I started driving recently. Initially, I was gobsmacked by the system of anarchy that seemed to prevail on Indian roads. How does it not lead to an endless series of collisions and Big Bang part 2? I wondered. After almost a month of driving in a Tier 1 city, I’ve realized something. A well-oiled machinery like Indian traffic cannot work without rules. But, like the Constitution of the UK, many of these rules are uncodified. Miraculously, every Indian seems to be born with an inherent sense of them so that it’s not often that you see a blatant violation.

1)Always overtake – Overtaking, preferably from the left, is to an Indian driver what Bush jokes were to a stand-up comedian – a sacred principle of survival. A young ingénue is taught to overtake before he’s taught to reverse or change gears. If you see a vehicle in front of you, stepping on the accelerator must become a Pavlovian response.

2)Make minimal use of the Brake – Brakes serve the same role as the Indian President – they’re strictly for ceremonial purposes only to be used in the event of an Emergency. In contrast, ample use of the accelerator is not just advisable but mandatory.

The accelerator must especially be used in the event of such exigencies:

- If there’s more than two inches between you and the vehicle in front of you
- If a pedestrian is trying to cross the road
-If a traffic light is on the cusp of turning red

3)Make maximum use of the horn – Honking-For-No-Reason must be a habit inculcated in the driver at an early stage

4)Always expect the Expected – Namely:

- If you’re about to turn left a two-wheeler will immediately zoom past you from the left scaring the living daylights out of you

-All autorickshaw drivers, when they pass each other, must and will exchange pleasantries – the rising fuel prices, what they had for breakfast, traffic blocks in different parts of the city. They’re also immune to honking.

5)Learn to swear – As a beginner who refuses to travel above forty kilometres per hour and is genetically pre-disposed toward avoiding No Parking signs, I have only to roll down my window to be barraged by multi-lingual versions of the word ‘moron’. But the first time you feel like yelling at the incompetent nincompoop who stops at a sidewalk to speak on the cell phone (what self-respecting Indian stops at a sidewalk to speak on the cell phone?) is the first time you’re suffused with a liberating sense of belonging. The patriotism fanned by a homogenising brand of desi road rage. Long live Indian traffic.

Extracted from Manorama Online (Anjuly Mathai, Story Dated June 27 2012)

Read more

Knot before 18

Fear seemed to emit through all the pores of her body. Her hands were icy and she looked like she had just woken up from a nightmare. Children around her were trying to befriend her, but she did not respond. Ratnamma Dasar, 10, a child bride from Karadigudda, north Karnataka, was just rescued by the police, hours before her marriage. The police were tipped off about the marriage and they warned her parents, but they were undeterred.
Hanumesh Edri, 14, from Bankapura, was supposed to be married along with Ratnamma. As the Unicef team paid a visit to inquire about the proposed marriage, his parents hid Hanumesh and showed another child! Later, the police intervened and the children were rescued amid protests from villagers. Almost in tears, Hanumesh was too frightened to speak to us.

Unicef's The State Of The World's Children 2011 report says one in four marriages in India involves child brides. Forty per cent of the world's child marriages occur in India, says Unicef. Child marriage is more or less the norm in many places in Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh; 82 per cent of females in Rajasthan are married before 18, says Unicef.
As per The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, any marriage involving a girl below 18 years of age or/and a boy below 21 years is a child marriage. Despite the Act, 15 per cent of girls in rural areas are married before 13. “People have their own means to bypass rules,” said a social worker from Koppal, north Karnataka. “Sometimes they forge age certificates. Doctors in government hospitals here used to accept bribes and issue age certificates to minor girls.”
Social workers say child marriages are entwined with religion, in many cases. For example, in some places, attending a grandchild's wedding is a shortcut to heaven. Shilpa Muthappa Naganur, 16, from Tumkur, was married last year to her first cousin. Her grandmother Ningamma had become very weak and her last wish was to see Shilpa married. Interestingly, Ningamma is still alive.
In other places, parents are forced to marry their children out of poverty. An example is Bihar, which has the lowest per capita income in the country. “I thought marriage would provide a better future for my daughter. But it did not,” said a sobbing Bihari mother who married her 13-year-old daughter last year. “I had no choice. Both of us are working and there was nobody to take care of her at home.” Some parents marry siblings, including a minor, together to save on expenses. Natural calamities also make the children more vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers, and many are pushed into marriages.
Last year, a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Shivaraj V. Patil submitted its report on prevention of child marriages in Karnataka. “I feel a two-pronged strategy is necessary to stop child marriages in our society,” Patil said. “Creating awareness of this social evil and its deleterious effects on our society and the persons involved, particularly in the rural areas, will go a long way.... Secondly, a strong legal framework that includes a thorough investigation, effective prosecution and speedy trial leading to punishment of the guilty would act as an effective deterrence.”
“A concerted effort from a vigilant civil society, dedicated NGOs, honest and committed law enforcement agencies, proactive judiciary and an alert media will [also] be needed.... Additionally, it is necessary to adopt [the] law emotionally and not merely literally for effective enforcement.”
But, last month, the Delhi High Court surprisingly ruled that a Muslim girl can marry “as per her choice at the age of 15 years if she has attained puberty.” Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and S.P. Garg said that as the “Mohammedan Law” permits a girl to marry without the consent of her parents once she attains puberty, she has the right to reside with her husband even if she is below the age of 18. The court also allowed a 16-year-old girl to stay in her matrimonial house, holding her marriage to be valid.
What does marriage mean to a child? “From their classmates who got married at a younger age, they know it is something bitter,” said Rafia Nausheen, area manager of Mahita, a Hyderabad-based NGO. “They know they would have to stay away from their parents and may not be allowed to play or go to school. They are not old enough to understand the legal complications or possible health problems.”
But in most cases, knowledge does not help the child much, because the child's consent is not sought. Some do plead with their parents, in vain. Gavisidhamma, 13, from Ojanahalli, Karnataka, was very anxious when her marriage was fixed with her mama (mother's brother) Virupaksha, 22. “My father beat me when I told him that I did not want to get married at such a young age, and that, too, to my mama,” she said. “My mother was against the marriage, but she could not say a word.” Gavisidhamma was married on January 31, 2011, and wears a thali to school.
The marriage was held at Virupaksha's house, which is close to hers, and around 100 people were invited, said Gavisidhamma. She said she wore a sari and exchanged garlands with Virupaksha in the presence of a pujari. After marriage, she stayed at her husband's place for three days, and will permanently move in with him in another three years.
Despite all the grudges she has against her father, Gavisidhamma loves him with a childlike innocence. But her feelings towards Virupaksha have not changed. “I do not like him at all,” she said, with all the bitterness of a woman who has been in an unhappy marriage for many years.
Child marriage is a custom in many places in north Karnataka like Koppal, Raichur and Bellary. “You have no choice but to follow the custom,” said Yellamma, 60, Virupaksha's grandmother, who got married at five. “But back then children used to be healthier,” she claimed. Another granddaughter of hers, Mala, 17, a lab technician, has evaded marriage so far. But many of their neighbours and Mala's classmates were married at mass marriages organised by mining barons and temples. Perhaps, education saved Mala.
As we drove past sunflower fields, leafless trees, huts made of twigs and a lane of houses with cowsheds next to the bedroom, I kept thinking whether Gavisidhamma would be able to fulfil her dream of becoming a teacher. Children who are married at a young age often find it very difficult to continue their education. Some stop going to school because classmates tease them. Some buckle under the pressure of running a home; others are sent to work by their in-laws.
Child marriage is a serious violation of human rights, say sociologists. Children who get into early marriages lose their childhood as adulthood is moved up. Unable to negotiate their freedom, they are at a higher risk of domestic violence also. “The victims undergo physical and mental abuse and sexual exploitation,” said Nausheen. “Most of them do not get proper medical care when they fall ill. Being isolated from their friends and relatives, they may not even be able to share their problems with anybody.”
Child marriage victims take long to recover from the trauma, even after separation. Yellamma Balappa, 16, from Hyati has made up her mind never to marry again. Last Ugadi, she was married to Hanumesh, a sheep rearer, out of poverty. She said: “I stayed in my husband's house for one and a half months during which I was made to do all the work in the house, including washing clothes of the whole family, doing the dishes, cooking and daubing the floor with cow dung. I used to get up at 5 a.m. every day and was treated almost like an adult. I used to wear a sari, too.”
But Yellamma soon realised that her in-laws were hard to please. When the marriage took a turbulent course, she talked to her parents and they asked her in-laws to send the her back. The child was sent back, but they refused to return the dowry of 0 18,000, 15gm of gold, and vessels worth 035,000.
Experts say that prevalence of child marriage is one of the important reasons of high maternal mortality in India. Recent studies indicate that 45 out of every 1,000 births in India are by girls aged 15-19 years. “A teen mother has increased chances of losing her life during labour,” said Dr Vinita Singh, consultant, Shradhdha Clinic, Patna. “In girls under 18 years, the reproductive organs and pelvic bone may not be fully developed. So, in early pregnancies there will be more chances of eclampsia, pre-eclampsia, hypertension, post-partum haemorrhage, Caesarean section and higher rate of mortality.”
Sexual relationship at an early age exposes the children to many health problems. “Children are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases due to biological reasons,” Singh said. “Poor hygiene and not using contraceptives make them more prone to infections. It may increase the chances of cervical cancer also.”
Emotional wounds can be equally devastating for the child marriage victims. Shobha Ramesh, 14, from Balageri has already been separated; she has stopped wearing her thali. Shobha was married to her uncle when she was little. “Three years back he got into another relationship,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
If the marriage fails, parents refuse to accept the children. “Many of them turn to prostitution to make a living,” said Shivaram M., who works with the District Child Protection Programme in Koppal.
Shobha, however, had some luck. Mahila Samakhya, an NGO, has offered her accommodation and financial assistance to continue her studies. She has sought refuge in art, in a conscious effort to overcome the trauma. Dance relaxes her mind and helps her forget her sorrows. “I enjoy drawing too,'' she said, showing us a picture she sketched—Kannada film star Darshan beating up his wife.
Shobha's husband was in his early twenties. But in child marriages, girls are married to men twice or thrice their age, too. Lakshmi, 17, from Shiraguppi, belongs to the Kuruba community and had a narrow escape from a marriage when she was 13. The groom was almost as old as her father and had married thrice before. Though her mother insisted on getting her married, her father stood by her decision not to.
Later, she fell in love with Sangmesh. Her mother thwarted the romance by marrying her to Basavaraj, 30, an agricultural worker, last year. After a week with Basavaraj, she came back home and refused to go back. “My mother, Manjavva, forced me to go back to Basavaraj's house and beat me,” Lakshmi said. “Unable to bear with the torture, I eloped with Sangmesh to Chickmagalur. I would never have done that, but for the forced marriage.”
Lakshmi is now staying at Nemmadi Short Stay Home in Bhagyanagar, and is counting the days until she is 18. “My mother has filed cases against 10 members of Sangmesh's family. I can also file a case against her for child marriage. But I will never do that,” said Lakshmi, busy knitting a sweater. She knows well that weaving a life without parental support could be hard. But she is determined to face destiny on her own terms.

Extracted from The Week (Cover Story by Mini.P.Thomas)

Read more

LESSONS FOR INDIAN JIHADISTS IN ARAB SPRING

Victories of reform based Islamic democratic political parties like Ennahda  of Tunisia,justice and development party of Morocco and freedom & justice  party of Egypt in the recent elections herald good news to the pro democratic Islamic parties in India and also show a precedent to Indian jihadists to abjure arms struggle by joining mainstream. 
If people from the Muslim majority countries itself could attain their rights and power through democratic political struggle even  against a military junta as in Egypt,then why cannot minorities in India, “The largest democratic country in the world ?”

            Osama Bin Laden’s ideology and his struggle for 3 decades did not bring any social change in the world except his military victory over Russia in Afghanistan but the raise of reform based Islamic democratic  movements and their struggle through political ways have brought a great social change in the middle east and African continent which we are now witnessing.

            Arms conflict has no support from the people. Even in Syria and Egypt initially when they followed arms conflict, it was a big failure. The armed conflict in Syria against the regime of Hafez al Assad in 1982 which cost lives of more than 20,000 people was failed. In history, in the name of war held against jihad,the despotism strengthened its hand against their people and democracy as in syria and egypt.

            Chairman of International Muslim intellectual council dr Sheik Yusuf al Qardawi recommends Muslims to adapt democratic political ways to attain their rights and shares in power.

            Karl Popper states" democracy is the best form of government because it facilitates for the critical examination and correction of governments and their policies, therefore it isthe most possible way to correct previous policy mistakes and more effectively addresses the social political and economic problems what a given society encounters than any other form of government".

            In a democratic country we have so many ways to demonstrate our grievance, to demand our rights and to attain our shares in power. Then why should we  bear throes ourselves by violence.

            At the same time we have to analyze when and why the call for Islamic jihad was raised in India?. After India’s partition there were riots for 3 decades all over india in the name of religion. The data released by the Home Ministry of India reveals that 80% victims in the riots were minorities.

            Even though the victims were mostly minorities ,there was no call for jihad until the Babur Masjid was demolished in 1992.After that only some of the Muslim youths and leaders lost their hope in secular structure of India. Then Central and State governments not only failed to save the Holy Mosque but also the secular structure of our Indian constitution.

            If we deeply analyze that in India, jihad is not in a formal arms conflict or well organized guerilla warfare as maoists. Homemade jihadist in India till now mostly confine themselves only in revenge activities against riots which took place in Gujarat,Mumbai and Coimbatore except Kashmir. The violence is the tendency to show their anger and injustice done to them but not against Indian democracy as Maoists. There is a good news that we can reform and deviate them from violence by ensuring them justice and rehabilitation.

            while advising them to abjure violence we have some responsibilities. After 10 years still Gujarat riot victims are struggling for justice. State and Central governments should speed up legal process and ensure minorities for  the true justice. Government should implement justice Sachar and Misra commissions without any delay and improve socio economic and educational status of minorities. The government may consider announcing some political package for homemade jihadists who are willing to join  mainstream as north east militants.

        Finally, Indian ruling powers and political parties should welcome neophyte Islamic democratic political parties. We should know the difference between being an*Islamist* and *Extremist*. I think it would be better to quote the lines of Wadah Khanfar (ex-director of al Jazeera) which was published in “THE HINDU”on (nov- 29 2011)

"First we must define our term Islamist. It is used to describe Muslims who participated in the public sphere using Islam as a basis. It is understood that this participation is not at odds with democracy"

            But like West,Indian ruling governments and parties are treating neo Islamic democratic parties as anti secular parties. But they are the one who has truly confined themselves in democracy and secularism of India . They have no hidden agendas like Hindu rastra of hindutuva political  parties. Neo Islamic democratic parties are facing enormous pressures and barricades and there is a plot to expose them as extremist parties. It is not fair for Indian democracy.

By welcoming them we can strengthen the hands of indian democracy and also encourage jihadis to abjure violence and to join main stream.

Now a days majority people of minorities are gathering under these parties.now indian muslims realise and believe that the democracy is the only option to bring stability,justice and power to minorities. If the jihadis miss this golden chance to reform themselves then they will worry as middle east jihadis who are worrying now.


-Ibnu Mohamed
 (ibnumd2020@gmail.com)

Read more

Why Should You Volunteer For a Charitable Organization?

Do you find it hard to motivate yourself to get involved with a charity? Do you intellectually know it would be good to volunteer your time but still can’t tear yourself away from the TV? Lets take a look at some of the qualities and things you receive from volunteering and see if these can motivate you.


Why Do People Volunteer?

The general conception is that people volunteer to charities for truly altruistic reasons. These are noble reasons but you can also benefit personally by doing philanthropy. Time spent working for charities comes back in multiple ways.


Some people come from the notion that a volunteer should not get anything for their service. It is almost like saying that the act of charity should be done while feeling terrible. Not sure where they pick this notion up, because here are some reasons why volunteering benefits the giver as well as the receiver.

Career Reasons – you get experience in different areas. This experience can be gained rapidly compared to opportunities at work. You get to develop new skills and make new career contacts unwatched by the boss and having to study new manuals during the weekend!

Social Reasons – to do your part improving the community. Maybe you get to spend time with seniors, or feeding the poor, improvements to community come in small steps.

Health Reasons - Volunteering opens your eyes to how good you have it. Sometimes the ability to shift your mental focus off of your problems helps break the cycle your thoughts were in trying to figure a way out of the problem. The sheer distraction from that downward spiral is one of the best reasons I can think of to volunteer.

Helper High – Many people report that when they have finished helping others or working for the greater good there is a general uplifting feeling they experience. The feeling is referred to as a “helpers high.” 

Esteem – To feel like one is making a difference. There’s nothing wrong with feeling like your effort is needed and you are making a contribution.

Spiritual Reasons - Consider that most people find themselves in need in one point in their lives. You can think of it as Karma/Gratitude/Restitution for gifts given but for some volunteering is being spiritually thankful.

About Author

Jolian Grant is owner and operator of http://www.justfundraising.com.He has over 16 years experience helping schools,churches and youth groups acheive their fundraising goals. To date Jolian has helped raise over 45 million dollars for charitable causes. Check out the justfundraising/charity blog at fundraisingideas.com/blog/

Read more

Happy Birthday Twitter

On the 21st of March 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the first public tweet into the world (“just setting up my twttr”). Can you believe that was 6 years ago yesterday?

Dorsey was evidently one of the key people in the early days of Twitter, and today he still serves as the company’s executive chairman and product lead, combining the job with his role as CEO of Square (another company he co-founded).

His ‘twttr’ tweet was the first of several billions, and counting.

Fun facts: it took Twitter 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to reach the first billion tweets, and it took about 18 months for the first 500,000 users to sign up.

Twitter-the-company has obviously come a long way since Dorsey published the first tweet on ‘Twttr’, as it was known back then, and today some estimate that 500 million people use its real-time information and social networking service today. I’m skeptical about those estimates but they shouldn’t be too far off the real number.

Last time Twitter itself shared the number of registered users for the service was in April 2011, when they announced that more than 200 million people had signed up.

Twitter says ‘more than’ 100 million users were active in 2011. That number is most certainly higher today, but it’s been a while since Twitter has provided updated numbers. Here’s to hoping their 6th birthday will be an excuse for doing just that.

Last October, Twitter did say they were seeing 250 million tweets per day, a number that’s likely also higher presently.

The service still sees massive spikes from big ‘watercooler’ events like the Super Bowl,the Grammys and Super Tuesday.

Over the years, Twitter has matured and made an impact in the areas of politics, sports, media, and more. But what about, you know, making money from it?

According to eMarketer, Twitter’s advertising revenue is to triple by 2014, hitting over $540 million (up from an estimated $260 million this year).

Recently, the company has been paying close attention to the different ways it canderive revenues from all those tweeters. Twitter has also recently added more languages and acquired blogging software maker Posterous.

However, with rising headcount costs (over 900 employees today, up from about 400 last year) and costly infrastructure and operations, the company is still reportedly losing a ton of money after its first 6 years in business.

We’ll be watching closely what happens next. But today, we raise our glasses to Twitter and wish them a very happy birthday, and many years to come.

Read more

Probability Events & Positive Thinking

Human life has so many twists and U turns. We face so many unexpected events in our

life. Sometimes it may bring Positive and sometimes Negative. We have no power on these

events. We can neither predict nor prevent as It occurs spontaneously.Last week I went

to see my friend's mother who was admitted in a hospital for cancer treatment. During our

conversation she frequently asked " why me? ". We have to face these type of questions

frequently in our daily life ,but what is the answer ?

When the events are positive, we enjoy and boast to take the sole responsibility for it,

But when they are negative we ask "Why me?". We frown and feel ourselves a weak one,

Some even take the cowardice decision of suicide to escape from the negative impact of

it.(A report of world health organisation WHO indicates that India has one of the highest

suicide rates in world wide)

Why are these events happening in human life? can we predict or prevent them

Science mentions these Events as "PROBABILITIES". For example,Take some coffee

seeds in a glass and drop them in a floor. The seeds will scatter anomalous. In this action

you can't assume or predict that, how will the seeds scatter? Every seeds scatter in a

different way. Even if you repeat this action, every time the seeds will scatter in a different

way from the previous action. This is "probability".

In science, there are probability theories and maths to assume probability events but they

are not accurate and also you can do probability maths only in the actions which you are

going to do but not on unexpected events.

Actually, In our life we face events unexpectedly. THE birth or death, a profit or loss, friend

or foe, good or bad etc... we don't know, assume, predict or prevent them.

For example, you play volley ball and hit the ball. After your hit, your action will come to an

end. you can't predict accurately that how will the opposite team react? They may block ,

hit forcefully or fail to tackle. That's the main reason, why the games are so interesting!

As in game, in our life also the fate ball may fall in our right side,left side,front or back.

we should always be ready to face it. If you fail because of your fault then try to correct

yourself. If you miss the victory after your excellent performance don't worry that's the

probability. Try to accept the things as it is. Live the life as a game.

If you do not have interest in probability theories of science and you are a spiritual

worm ,then in spiritual view also we have positive attitude. Science only talks about

probability, but it doesn't explain why it is happening in the universe. Science simply

narrates that the man and the universe are the results of an accident, big bang.

All the religions have the faith that, these probability events are pre planned by the

almighty. They believe that, Almighty makes birth and death to trail mankind to show

the world which are good in deeds. So every faith advises human to be patient in the

unexpected events. That's why they are praying "oh God!grant me the serenity to accept

the things which I can't change. Grant me the courage to change the things I can .Grant

me the wisdom to know the difference".

We may accept science or spiritual but be positive always.

-Ibnu Mohamed 

Read more

Food Security: If bill becomes law!

UPA II brought a legislature on the food security, fulfilling an election manifesto
promise, a gesture seen rarely in democratic India. But key questions are raised
almost on every provision of the bill, be it the out sized amount of finances involved,
its serious fiscal implications, population identification or distribution mechanisms
and its large scale food grain procurement except on its noble intentions and utmost
necessity. Let’s try to understand the legislation and find answers to draw a clear
picture.

NFSB (National Food Security Bill): The bill aims to cover close to 64% of our total
population. It proposes an imaginary division of population in general and priority
households, covering nearly 75% of rural and 50% of urban population under its
ambit with at least 46% in rural and 28% in urban areas under priority households
and promises them the right to 7kg of food grains per person per month at subsidized
rates. General category would get at least 3 kg of grains at a rate not exceeding 50 per
cent of the minimum support price. What are these unheard divisions? The division
will be based on findings of socio-economic caste census carried out by the respective
State Government with the financial and technical support of the Government of
India, which will be used to separate out priority household from the general. Doing
as promised will require 61 million tons of food grains thus an escalation in food
procurement, translating into total food subsidies to Rs.1 Lakh crore. It also gives
Central government usurps all powers to decide the number of people belonging
to priority households and imposes a substantial level of expenditure on the State
governments. In words the bill sounds simple, doesn't it? Then why has the bill
triggered slurry of criticisms? Let’s answer to the questions floating in the criticisms
and see which part of the chain of food security are missing i.e. the production of
food, its distribution and its absorption by the poor and hungry.

Where will the food come from? - Current average food grain procurement is 52
million tons which has peaked in the last 3 years owing to good rainfall. But if we
see back, we were producing much less thus average procurement was much lower
between 2002-2008. Since Indian agriculture is largely dependent on monsoons we
may have years of bad monsoon and the average production will is less, then the
remaining food grain to meet the legally mandated demand will have to be imported
which could climb the global prices up. The way out is to make India self-sufficient
for its requirement for which we need to invest in agricultural growth, scientific
irrigation, in rural roads that provide vital physical linkage to markets, in scientific
storage and efficient transport logistics, in developing as close a link as possible
between the farmer and the first stage of food processing, in short we need second
green revolution or a evergreen revolution sooner. Ideally, we need to have all the
agro reforms in place before embarking on such an exercise or else the scheme will be
a non-starter or a simple failure.
How the food will be distributed? - The distribution mechanism is centralized
and raises question whether such massive exercise can be handled by FCI(food
corporation of India), and can this system deliver? The food ministry earlier revealed
that it costs Rs.134 per quintal to procure wheat while it costs them Rs.289 to
distribute it. These enormous costs are the result of our failure to move towards a
decentralized system. The way towards an efficient and financially viable distribution
mechanism calls for localized innovations in productivity, to procure food at
panchayat levels and involve these institutions where delivery can be ensured and
fastened, which will also give way to new economic activities. The only logical way
to tackle hunger is to try different methods and see which one works best and extend
the model nationally. This is how the mid-day meal scheme introduced in Tamil Nadu
in was adopted nationally in 2001.
Who will be given the food? - The bill proposes to give food to priority and general
households but no clear division mechanism and is the biggest downside of the
legislation which will not only divide people within same community, the criteria
used will leave out many deserving households and this division of household is
counter reproductive to the inclusive PDS approach in states like TN and AP. Only
feasible exit is to either give everyone the same entitlement or the entitlements above
poverty line be completely vanished and poorest households can continue to get
special support. This bill is not India’s first crack at hunger. In the past we have had
the food-for-work programme (a variant of NREGA), the Antyodaya scheme (targeted
at the ultra-poor), the mid-day meal scheme for children, and the anganwadi schemes
for mother and child. Above it all, we have public distribution system (PDS) which
works well in some states
What are the fiscal implications? - Even though the bill will burden the state
exchequer a large amount it is unlikely that bill come into force in the entire country
in one go and the subsidy will materialize right away. What is at stake, therefore, is
not an immediate financial blow, but the ability of the Indian economy and public
finances to accommodate this Bill over a period of time. We definitely need food
security and the amount involved cannot be the reason for not doing it.

Is it another ‘common-man’ stunt? - Since the economic growth model is not
inclusive, rising inflation and chronic global economic fluctuations are bound to make
India’s war on poverty difficult. So the fact is that the country’s poor need subsidized
food to be able to spend their earning on their important needs, like health care and
children’s education. The government, on the other hand, by its very nature, has to
balance contradictions in society and hence has an obligation to providing the poor
with a minimum sense of existence. Based on this thought, the Food Security Bill
should be welcomed. Hence, the administration of food security is a challenge beyond
budgetary numbers, which seems to have caught everyone’s attention!

The truth is that food security comes from ensuring three things: creating jobs and
income, ensuring higher food output by raising productivity, and creating a safety net
to feed those who can’t do so themselves in distress situations. The proposed subsidies
can help the efforts but it cannot eliminate the problem. And the food security bill is
just one approach to the problem and is certainly a flawed one!

Written by

Ashish Gupta

Read more

How not to play people's politics

The issue of Lokpal has once again taken centrestage. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meeting with UPA allies on Wednesday was a success but the all-party meeting yielded little on the three contentious aspects of the Lokpal Bill — the inclusion of the Prime Minister, the lower bureaucracy and a citizens’ charter in the proposed anti-graft law. This is to be expected in the initial stages. Even if consensus is not reached with the Opposition, possibly there will be agreement with some of the parties. The fiasco for the government we saw on the FDI issue is avoidable.

Team Anna has taken a very aggressive attitude on the issue and remains rigid. Anna Hazare has signalled his intention to resume his fast from December 27, this time in Mumbai.

The battle lines are drawn and in these situations events overtake decisions. Even while the entire political fraternity and the self-appointed leaders of civil society battle for their own version of the Lokpal Bill we saw three crucial bills — Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, Whistleblowers’ Protection Bill and Citizens’ Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill — cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday. Team Anna wanted these three subjects brought under the Lokpal. This move was clearly a part of the UPA government’s strategy to steal much of the thunder of its political opponents. On the other side of the battle line the strategies of the BJP and the Janata Dal (United), along with the Akali Dal, go beyond the Lokpal issue and are aimed at electoral success in Uttarakhand and Punjab and an improved showing in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign by Team Anna against the Congress will help these parties, and there is nothing wrong with such quasi-electoral forays.

Politics is full of twists and turns but total agreement, as envisaged by Team Anna, looks rather difficult unless they evolve a give and take on the matter. The stands being taken from time to time by the Congress and its allies on the one hand, and Team Anna, along with the BJP and the JD(U) as well as certain NDA allies on the other, indicate that both sides have made calculated moves. There is politics involved at every step and no one at this stage is quite clear about the likely impact of Mr Hazare on the battles ahead. Team Anna can say what they want, but to achieve their ends they will have to take a political route. It would be good if Mr Hazare and Baba Ramdev, or anyone else for that matter, entered the poll arena.

The five Assembly elections — in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur — are less than three months away and it’s time to shift into electoral mode. The decision of Team Anna to oppose the Congress would mean that Mr Hazare would be supporting the Opposition parties. Technically, Mr Hazare would be supporting the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP-Akali Dal combine in Punjab. In Uttarakhand the party in power is the BJP, so the state might not see adversarial campaign by Mr Hazare. The Congress will no doubt see the negligible impact of Team Anna on the NCP in the civic polls in Maharashtra. Individual members of Team Anna, with their probity track record coming under a cloud, have provided adequate ammunition to the Congress, and the media is unlikely to take sides in the electoral battle.

The upcoming UP elections continue to draw attention and I still see the BSP ahead of the others with the Congress in second position. If I may take into account the Ajit Singh factor, 12-15 seats will push the Congress-RLD alliance ahead of the Samajwadi Party (SP), which clearly looks under a great deal of pressure. With Rashid Masood and Salim Sherwani, both former Union ministers, set to help its prospects in Saharanpur and Badaun respectively, the Congress is posing a serious challenge. In the coming months votes will consolidate for both the frontrunners unless the SP recovers its lost ground. The People’s Party has run into problems in its candidate selection and if it starts losing ground, the SP will gain.

As I write this article we have had a rather weak debate on the black money issue, on the millions and trillions lying in foreign banks. I wonder if there is any difference between videshi and swadeshi black money. The BJP’s adjournment motion on black money was defeated last Wednesday and I do not understand why we are so hypocritical about this issue as all senior politicians, more than anyone else, are involved in fund collections. Can anyone certify whether the funds generated through coupon sales or cash donations are black, white, purple or red?

The five Assembly elections, with close to 600-plus seats, could cost the political parties anything between Rs 3,000 crores and Rs 4,000 crores. If one were to examine the books of accounts of all the political parties — the Left parties are an exception — one can draw one’s own conclusions. A single Assembly seat costs a crore in electoral expenses for a political party. In Punjab this escalates to `2-3 crores. No party will be short of funds! Every leader is aware of this and less than one per cent of our MPs and MLAs will have the personal resources to fund their election.

The issue is further complicated by a handful of individuals who act beyond the line of duty and accumulate assets. They tend to hold the leadership to ransom, as we have seen in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Jharkhand. Transparency in party funds, in my opinion, will enable the majority of leaders not to succumb to vested interests in the discharge of their duties.

Read more

Manmohan Singh, the reformer, is back

The government's decision to allow 51 percent foreign investment in multi-brand retail outlets, and cent percent in the single brand ones, may prove to be as much of a game changer as the nuclear deal.
If the deal was a momentous development because of the international community's unprecedented acceptance of India as a nuclear power, although it hasn't signed the non-proliferation treaty, the opening up of the retail sector marks the start of the long-awaited second generation reforms, which can give a fresh boost to the economy.
Key facts on India's retail sector

Politically, too, it will reflect creditably on the ruling Congress for its boldness in taking a step despite the vehement opposition not only from the left to the right of the political spectrum - from the communists to the 'communalists' - but also from two of the Congress's own allies and even from sections within the party.

But, just as the nuclear deal saw the government reject the Nehruvian paradigm of non-alignment by moving close to US, similarly, the latest step in economic reforms heralds an unmistakable departure from another Nehruvian shibboleth - establishing a socialistic pattern of society, as enunciated by the Congress in 1955.

It is noteworthy that both these definitive breaks with the party's own past is the handiwork of Manmohan Singh, an unassuming prime minister who, as Amartya Sen once noted, is incapable of raising his voice. Yet, few will deny that this architect of India's economic buoyancy has raised India's profile in the international arena, where an Indian passport holder today is treated with respect in foreign airports.

In contrast to the courage shown by the prime minister and the party in charting a new course, the opposition has again exposed itself as comprising opportunistic curmudgeons with a blinkered outlook who are unable to come to terms with a changing world.

The world has been defying financial gravity for too long: Satyajit Das

What is strange is that while the Left's dogmatic obduracy can explain its rejection of both the nuclear deal and foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) unwritten alliance with the comrades on both the issues is inexplicable. That the BJP's leftward slide has nothing to do with ideology was evident from leader L.K. Advani's assurance to US diplomats, as revealed by Wikileaks, that the party would accept the nuclear deal if it came to power.

It was obviously unadulterated opportunism which guided the BJP then as it is doing now. In following this cynical path, the party is apparently willing to alienate its own middle class base again, as it did on the nuclear issue. But, it neither has the broadness of vision to see that both these measures open up immense potentials for the country, nor the generosity of mind to support the Congress. Instead, it has chosen to make unremitting cussedness the cornerstone of its outlook.

If some of the other parties, including the Congress's allies like the Trinamool Congress and DMK, have displayed similar purblind stubbornness, the reason is their limited vision, which is confined to the political compulsions of their respective states, and an inability to comprehend the economic implications of a step which will take several years to make an impact.

The Trinamool Congress's fear is that the Communists, its main opponents in West Bengal, will accuse it of meekly acquiescing in the centre's 'anti-people' and pro-capitalist policies while the scam-tainted DMK, under an aging patriarch and his squabbling sons, does not seem to have either the energy or an adequate intellectual grasp of the subject to define either its objections or its support.

There is also probably a socialistic streak in its outlook, which is a common feature of most Indian parties because they have been reared in an atmosphere of anti-British and anti-American imperialism and a Gandhian preference for swadeshi or nationalism.

Father Time catches up with India's traditional bazaars

It is this mindset which has made the crusader against corruption Anna Hazare, who has been described by well-known political scientist Ashis Nandy, as a well-meaning, 'if slightly dumb', neighbourhood elder, to evoke the machinations of the East India Company of the 17th century to take over India via trade.

Then, there are others like Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, who has described the giant multinational retailers as the foreign 'friends' of Rahul Gandhi to draw attention to the Congress heir-apparent's foreignness and thereby undercut his electoral challenge, evidently because she is more wary of him than of any other opponent during the forthcoming state assembly elections.

It is these unthinking, knee-jerk responses of the opposition parties which explain why, at the end of the day, the Congress almost invariably comes out on top. While the others adhere to hackneyed, outdated ideas with an eye on immediate gains, the Congress, despite the charges of corruption and vote-bank expediency, does have the broad picture of national advancement in mind. And if anyone deserves to be congratulated on this account, it is Manmohan Singh, the reformer. After a period in the political badlands, he is back.

-Amulya Ganguli

Read more

Pakistan: Life after Mohmand

When 9/11 happened, the Americans were livid and they descended on Islamabad, Rambo style, threatening General Musharraf with the famous "either you are with us or against us" threat.

Musharraf quickly acquiesced at that time, but played the game for the long haul.

Soon he had beguiled the Americans to airlift stranded Pakistani soldiers and ISI personnel in different parts of Afghanistan but chiefly from Kunduz, Northern Afghanistan. These Pakistanis were assisting the Taliban in final assault on Ahmed Shah Massoud's Tajik fighters of the Northern Alliance.

Musharraf's Pakistan became America's stalwart ally and a major non-NATO ally. The Americans poured in money and goodies for their newfound friend. But soon enough, the friendship began to sour. The U.S., unable to get a hold of Osama Bin Laden, also got diverted to Iraq and the Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre went backstage.

Over time, when the Americans returned, matters only became worse. Pakistan had consolidated with the Taliban in its quest for strategic depth in Afghanistan.

It was apparent to all that Pakistan remained duplicitous, although the U.S. went through its customary denial as it followed a policy of public approbation of the ally while there might have been private reprimand.

The strategic interests of the two countries were totally divergent and it was going to be a matter of time before the rupture became fairly open.

On the one hand, Pakistan saw U.S. engagement in the region as being guided by its 'selfish' interests of Afghanistan and terrorism, and suspected that the Americans have been chasing Pakistan's nuclear 'assets'.

On the other hand, Pakistan was equally selfish when it saw this engagement as an opportunity once again, for tackling only its primary enemy, India.

The last decade was symptomatic of a mutually suspicious, exasperating and hostile relationship where Pakistan consistently double-crossed its benefactor, the United States, and maintained a duality in its relations with the various terrorist factions on its soil and in Afghanistan.

Relations nose dived on May 2 this year after the heli-borne U.S. Navy Seals attacked Osama bin Laden's well protected hideout in Abbottabad, close to Pakistan's premier military training academy, Kakul. Osama was killed in the attack and quickly buried at sea, hundreds of miles away.

The attack left the Pakistan Army, which was barely recovering from the vicious and violent onslaught of the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan in the heartland of the Punjab, looking silly and helpless. There was anger that the U.S. had cheated Pakistan by not trusting Pakistan about this attack on its soil. There was double embarrassment that Pakistan was caught out hiding the world's most wanted terrorist with red faces at the GHQ in Rawalpindi that the much vaunted Pakistan Army had been caught napping.

A frustrated and angry Pakistan Army reacted by arresting the doctor who was suspected of having given the information about Osama to the Americans, the TTP fundamentalists reacted by attacking the PNS Mehran Naval base and destroying two of the navy's PC-3 Orion aircraft.

The mutual bickering continued and many Americans were convinced after the OBL incident that Pakistan was consistently double crossing them.

Perhaps at this stage, sometime after May 2011, a decision was taken that the U.S. was on its own and that Pakistan was not a reliable partner.

The extent of duplicity is measured by the fact that Pakistan was using American money to arm terrorists and target US/NATO positions through the Haqqani Networks and sheltering the Afghan Shura, while allowing the use of Pakistan territory at the Shamsi air base to target terrorists - but only those that Pakistan thought were expendable.

The attack, about a mile inside the Mohmand Agency on Pakistan Army positions on November 26 that killed 28 Pak army soldiers, was partly a result of this exasperation in Washington D.C.

There were reports and complaints that in the past six months, Pakistan military positions had been shelling Afghan positions from Mohmand, Dir and Chitral. The targets were in Khost, Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, and according to reports, the shelling between May and August had killed 42 Afghans and wounded 48 others.

Afghan officials also claimed in mid-October that between September 1 and October 17, there were eight cross border incidents from Mohmand into Kunar.

Besides, the NATO/US dependence on Pakistani territory for logistic supplies to their forces in Afghanistan, has reduced over the last few months. Estimated to be down to about 30 percent, the calculation might have been that the possible reaction by Pakistan of closing the crossings from Khyber and Chaman, was a manageable risk.

The reaction from Pakistan has been predictable. The killing of OBL, the attack on the Mehran naval base, and now the attack in Mohmand has grossly undermined the image of the armed forces. There was anger in the rank and file of the Army, causing some concern to General Kayani, who had barely succeeded in restoring morale after the incidents in NWFP and Punjab.

The anger on the street probably forced Islamabad to ask the U.S. to vacate the Shamsi air base in Balochistan, close the border for NATO supplies, approach the UNSC and decided to stay away from the forthcoming Bonn conference on Afghanistan.

The other anger was among the Islamic extremists and, there have been reports of an attempted assassination last Tuesday of a very senior ISI official close to its headquarters in Aabpara, Islamabad.

Official angry responses at the violation of Pakistan sovereignty sits strangely on an administration that has violated these principles on both its neighbours for decades. The excessive display of response is partly for domestic consumption, to cover its own acts in the past and at being caught out as somewhat incompetent to defend the country.

The Muslim world is far too involved at this moment with its own problems to pay much attention to events in Pakistan.

Similarly, Europe is embroiled in an economic crisis and wants to vacate Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Apart from a proforma show of support from China, there would also be concern in Beijing about the growing instability in Pakistan while deteriorating U.S.-Pakistan relations would increase Pakistani dependence on China and the eventual thinning down of US presence in the region would leave a vacuum in South Asia. Given these future changes, China may eventually face a more difficult decision regarding how best to manage relations with Pakistan in order to ensure domestic and regional stability. The question is how.

In America, a survey conducted one day after the Mohmand attack, showed that 55 percent of those polled considered Pakistan as the enemy, and only seven percent considered it a friend. More Republicans (70 percent ) as compared to Democrats (47 percent) considered Pakistan is the enemy.

No wonder Pakistan watcher Bruce Riedel called his book on Pakistan the "Deadly Embrace"; this explains the idiom of the US-Pakistan relationship.

We ourselves are far too involved in our domestic crises to pay any great attention to Pakistan and, the danger for us is, a reaction by thinking out of the box in an absent minded sort of way. It must be lonely out there in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, but histrionics and bravado apart, there is not very much Pakistan can do for its economic survival today without U.S. benevolence.

It is difficult to believe that the NATO attack was an error or that NATO was misled by conniving Afghanis to settle old scores with the Pakistanis. Given the background of repeated attacks into Afghanistan after the May 2 killing of OBL, this was more likely to have been a punitive raid.

It is also likely that this will be ultimately shown as a mistake to provide a fig leaf for restoration of relations. Pakistan now wants a written agreement with guarantees about further co-operation with leaked suggestions that without this Pakistan would pull out of the war on terror, implying also pulling back troops from the western border.

Ultimately, a solution will have to be found and most likely, it will be blood money, a la Raymond Davis, although it will be couched in grand diplomatese. Latest statements from the Pentagon say that this was not a deliberate attack without indicating how the attack took place.

In the immediate short term, India will have to decide its role at the Bonn conference that Pakistan plans to boycott despite pleas from the U.S., Afghanistan and Germany.

It is true that without Pakistan, the Bonn conference will be stultified; at the same time, Pakistan would be reluctant to let India have a field day in Bonn.

Most probably, the West, anxious to have an early settlement and exit, would not still want India to run away with an agenda that does not suit them or Pakistan.

The U.S. wants a higher strategic relationship with India, which does not include agreeing with Indian views on Pakistan.

Our participation in the Bonn conference should bear this in mind.

Whatever happens on Pakistan's western front, nothing is expected to change for India on our border with Pakistan.

The estimated 2500 terrorists that Indian intelligence agencies say are waiting to cross over to India is an indication of the 'war preparedness' in Pakistan.

India is yet to receive voice samples of those who carried out Mumbai 26/11 three years ago.

The attitude of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, more than the speeches of politicians and diplomats, along with the protective attitude of the regime towards these groups, are true barometers of the attitude of the powerful Pakistan Army toward India.

-Vikram Sood

Read more