"Indian leaders are like abused wives"
"they continue to believe their violent neighbour/partner will change next time", says Ramesh N. Rao, Professor of Communication, Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, USA, in his thought provocating article at rediff.com.
"General Musharraf was feted and engaged this past week by the Indian government, and many lined up to meet and greet the general in his new avatar of 'statesman.' After all, had he not left his military apparel behind and appeared in Saville Row suits? Indians fall for this kind of drama and play acting, and have been irredeemably hurt for their naiveté and their simpleton qualities of trusting without verifying, or trusting despite multiple bitter experiences of being led by the nose." [more]
"The Shade of Swords: Attrocities by the Portuguese Crusaders in India"
Excerpts from noted journalist M.J. Akbar's book 'Jihad and the conflict between Islam & Christianity: The Shade of Swords' that show how the Portuguese went on rampage ("Prisoners were paraded after their hands, ears and noses had been hacked. Their feet were tied together, their teeth broken, and they were thrown into a boat, which was set on fire")in Calicut against an innocent, civilian population whose only crime was that it was not Catholic. and the then Chruch wanted to destroy all "infidels".
Now contrast this with the current situation. Mr. Jürgen Rüttgers, a shrewd politician from Germany's conservative politicial party Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who is fighting an electroal battle and hoping to wrest power from the ruling coalition of Social-democrats and the Greens in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), has claimed in an interview that the Catholic religion is superior to all other because it has the highest respect for human beings that no other religion has and that only it has got "the right " human values ("das richtige Menschenbild"). The Green Party rubbished his populist declaration as a call for a Holy crusade. Also others criticised him for his insensitive remarks.
The same Mr. Rüttgers had, in his last election campaign, come up with a silly and populist anti-immigration "Kinder statt Inder" (rather children than Indians) slogan, which had mercifully backfired. Mr. Rüttgers or his brand of supporters may be well advised to read this article based on Akbar's book. [more]
"The silent demographic invasion "
"A slow demographic transformation is occurring in the sensitive and poverty-stricken districts that border Bangladesh. T V Rajeswar, current Uttar Pradesh Governor and former governor of West Bengal, repeatedly drew attention to the strategic implications of this area becoming predominantly Islamic and vulnerable to competing political vote banks. In a four-part series, former disinvestment minister and BJP MP Arun Shourie provides evidence of this demographic change and argues that the Indian State can ignore it only at its own peril." A 4-parts article at the Indian Express site. [more]
India's pseudo secularism: A bitter joke?
The recent death of Pope John Paul II once more exposed the hypocrisy that mars India's self-styled (pseudo) secularism. The more-loyal-than-the-king government of a secular (!) state declared a three days state mourning for a religious head. It sent Vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat with a large delegation to attend the funeral of the deceased Pope and issued highly exaggerated statements praising the pontiff's alleged love for India and her culture.
All this drama took place despite the fact that no Indian govt. ever bothered to show such an honour to any head of an Indian religion. Worse, never did the Vatican care to declare any state mourning for an Indian religious head or for that matter for an Indian head of the state or head of the government that died in office, for instance Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
This is the sad story of Indian pseudo "secularism". The article is also available in Hindi, as a PDF file. [more]