Amarnath row: 'Govt looking for give and take formula'

As Jammu and Kashmir continues to be on the boil over the Amarnath land row, Home Minister Shivraj Patil has said the government was seeking a give and take formula that would satisfy both the regions of the state.

I guess coming from this government it would mean jammu gives, kasmir takes

Are we a selfish nation?

The news headlines read

Gurgaon-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet Ltd announced on Thursday that freestyle wrestling champion Sushil Kumar, who won a bronze at the Beijing Olympics, can travel free on the airlines all his life.

The Haryana government on Wednesday announced a cash reward of Rs 2.5 million for Beijing Olympic wrestling bronze medalist Sushil Kumar.

It is a great achievement by Sushil. He is the new icon for Delhi and I will give him a cash award of Rs 5 million. His coach Satpal will also get promotion,"

Proud nation cheered the Olympic hero with Cash awards to the tune of Rs.1.65 crores with many more to come.

But the question is - where was the nation when they required it the most? The founder and head coach of Guru Captain Chandrup Akhara Captain Chandrup uses his Army pension and farmland resources to maintain the place. The akhara houses 150 pehelwans, who have to share the small hacks — 13 to a room. In fact, wrestlers at this akhara are lucky as it is part of a stadium and uses equipment supplied by the Sports Authority of India. Still, the wrestlers do not have proper access to weight-training facilities!

The situation gets more outrageous considering the fact that Kumar had to grapple with absence of a masseur as survived bout after bout to win India's second medal in Beijing Olympics.

Sushil reveales...

"Going into my fourth bout of the day, I was really tired and there was hardly any time to relax in between. I badly needed the rubbing and massaging. We did not have a dedicated masseur. I asked a masseur 'Do you have time to attend me?' and he said no. "So team manager Kartar Singh had to do the job. We did not have any idea about the doctors either, who had been attached with the contingent,. .

By the way, it may be be a minor fact that Sushil Kumar hails from the same neighbourhood as that of Virender Sehwag, the crowned Nawab of Najafgarh.

Have we become a nation who celebrates only success? Is there no support for people who are striving for success?

Go Vijender Go... Get to the top of medal podium

People who say don't worry about Demographic Changes should look no further than South Korea

Korea was a Buddhist country 120 years ago, with only a few thousand Christians, mostly Catholics, who faced intense persecution. By the 1960s, Korea had about a million Christians, but their numbers exploded in the decades that followed. Today, Christianity has grown overtaking Buddhism as the dominant religion in South Korea. About 30 per cent of South Korea's 49 million people are Christians, compared to 22 per cent for Buddhists.

With President Lee Myung-Bak who is a devout Christian assuming power issues have boiled over. Conflict between Buddhists and the Lee Myung-bak government has escalated with Buddhists openly denouncing what they call a series of discriminative measures against the religion.

Tensions grew late last month after police stopped a car carrying Reverend Jigwan, the Buddhist order of Jogye's respected head monk, outside Jogye-sa temple and searched the car.

The 1,200-year-old order has around eight million followers, making it South Korea's largest religious sect.

Reverend Hyegyeong, head of the Jogye order's administrative office says

"President Lee's favouritism of Christianity has led to the government's unequal treatment of different religions"

Buddists also cite several issues like temple information being unavailable in GPS navigational systems in cars. In June, it was found that a transportation information service provided by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs did not include locations of temples across the nation. Days later, it was also found that information maps for the Cheonggye Stream, which is Lee's most symbolic achievement during his Seoul mayorship, omitted temples.

Almost at the same period, police chief Eo appeared on a poster promoting a Christian event for police, aggravating the Buddhist backlash against the government's ``pro-Christian'' attitude.

Even before these incident, a feud between Lee and Buddhist leaders had been brewing after he appointed fellow churchgoers to key government posts. Opponents accused Lee of installing several of his church friends, including Lee Kyung-sook, a former chief of the now-defunct presidential transition team.

Former presidential secretary Choo Bu-ghil stepped down after making a contentious speech in a Christian prayer ceremony in which he called anti-U.S. beef candlelight protesters "satanic."

In May, President Lee's staff failed to send cards delivering his congratulatory message to Buddhist monks nationwide on Buddha's Birthday, breaking an annual tradition.

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A protest in contrast

Protest in Jammu

Protests in Jammu

During Idgah march.

Protests in Kashmir

Protests in kashmir



But Congress feels the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti and the Hurriyat are two sides of the same coin.

Abu Bashar's house becomes centre of attraction for secualr forces

From a teacher at a madarassa to an alleged mastermind of the horrific serial blasts that rocked the nation, the prime accused in the Ahmedabad blasts case Abu Bashar's house has become the centre of activity for "secular parties"

After strong vocal support from Laloo, UP's former chief minister and Congressman Ram Naresh Yadav went calling on Abu Bashar's family. However, he had to beat a hasty retreat when people shouted slogans against the administration.

HOW MUCH MORE LOW CONGRESS CAN STOOP?

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Olympic Controversies: Sweet 16? Really?

After the Chinese women’s gymnastics team won its first Olympic gold medal, Martha Karolyi, the U.S. national team coordinator, continued to question the ages of some of China’s gymnasts. Concerns over eligibility on the team surfaced before the Olympics and have continued all week.

“One of the girls has a missing tooth,” Karolyi said, suggesting that the gymnast was so young that she lost a baby tooth.

The grin of Deng Linlin, a Chinese gymnast who is listed as 16, indeed revealed a wide gap. To be eligible for the Olympics, gymnasts must turn 16 this year.

Olympic controversies: Spanish photo sparks controversy

Players on Spain’s Olympic basketball team defended a photo in an ad showing the players using their fingers to apparently make their eyes look more Chinese.

The photo, which has been running as a newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture.

I personally think it was really insensitive and distasteful picture amounting to racial insult.

Did “Space-Age” swimsuit help Michael Phelps reach his 8-medal dream?

Eight records in swimming have ben broken by improbable margins in Beijing Olympics. In the men's 4x100m relay, the record was smashed by an astounding four seconds. All these record-breaking swimmers had one thing in common. They were wearing Speedo's new swimsuit, the "Fastskin" LZR Racer.

The LZR Racer breathes high tech. Speedo designed the suit with input from NASA, ran tests on more than 100 different fabrics, and conducted body scans of world-class swimmers. The ultra-thin suit material repels water, reduces muscle oscillations, and lowers hydrodynamic drag by up to 10%. The individual panels are ultrasonically welded together, rather than stitched. Speedo even claims it increases a swimmer's oxygen efficiency. It can take 30 minutes for a swimmer to struggle into it and, once on, shoehorns the body into a more aerodynamic shape.

Ad of the space age swimsuit -

'Indian democracy unfair to Muslims' : Shabana Azmi

Shabana Azmi in an interview has said that Indian politics has been unfair to Muslims and despite secularism Muslims are discriminated against.

Wipro Owner Aziz Premji who is one of the richest Indian is a Muslim. Muslims have risen to hold positions like president of India, Chief Justices of Supreme Court and captain of Indian cricket team(eventhough he betrayed the faith we put on him). The entire bollywood is ruled by Khans.Shah Rukh Khan reportedly was the top tax payer among actors for 2007-2008 with 34 crores in income taxes paid.

In fact the UPA Govt. as part of their appeasement policy has declared that

"minorities, particularly the Muslims, have first right over the national resources"

The minority welfare budget is Rs 1,000 crore, Maulana Azad educational fund corpus from Rs is 250 crore and in the 11th Plan the corpus is going to be increasede to Rs 750 crore. The UPA has also created a national commission for minority education. She herself have been an MP and an successful actress. She received the national awards consecutively for three years from 1983 to 1985 for her roles in movies, Arth, Khandhar and Paar. Another film named Godmother (1999) brought her another national award taking her tally to five national awards.

I am not sure what caused her to make such outrageous comments. dont know what else we need to do to make her feel comfortable!

Update:

Four flats in Juhu, and a house in Khandala are what actor Shabana Azmi owns, if some of the prominent people from the film fraternity are to be believed.

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TOI decided to do a reality check. Its reporters posed as Muslim flat-buyers-Mohammed Hanif and Abdul Rashid-and called up several builders' offices and real estate agents at random, inquiring about the availability of flats. The results were by and large contrary to what Azmi alleged.

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Secular responses before and after Bangalore/Ahmedabad bomb blasts

India Milli Council (AIMC)

AIMCexpressed grave concern over the “excesses” committed against the Muslims in the ‘witch hunt’ in the name of fighting terrorism and demanded a judicial commission to examine alleged police excesses against innocent Muslims and other weaker groups.

(Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told AIMC that their proposal for setting up a judicial commission to look into alleged excesses against the Muslims in the name of fighting terror would be examined closely for possible remedial measures.)

Lalu Yadav, Railway Minister

The minority community members are being apprehended and harassed there. They have again started the same thing now. Bombs are now being found everywhere from roof tops to shrubs to trees. What was the state and its police doing when all this happened? Culprits should be booked but only after solid

Prof. Dinesh Oza, a journalist and human rights activist working in Gujarat

“Around 400 innocent Muslim youths have been picked up by the police for interrogation with regard to the recent serial blasts in Ahmedabad. We condemn the terrorist act, but demonizing of a particular community without investigations does not augur well,”

Asghar Ali Engineer of All India Secular Forum

“It is beyond anybody’s comprehension that all the live bombs in Surat did not explode, while in Ahmedabad most of them did. The bomb disposal squad defused the explosives without any safety gear and with smiling faces, even the bystanders showed no fear as they watched the bombs being defused,”

Shabnam Hashmi from ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) voluntary group.

“The unexploded bombs in Surat were planted as high as on hoardings and tree tops and had to be brought down with the help of a crane. Shall we believe that terrorists were planting bombs with the help of cranes, about which Surat police were unaware,”

ICC general secretary Digvijay Singh

"People should take cognisance of the fact that the blasts took place when the BJP was in trouble. Whenever the BJP is in trouble, bomb blasts take place in the country. When the Tehelka issue rocked the House, Parliament was attacked, Jaipur blasts took place when the Karnataka elections were on and recently when the BJP's trust motion was defeated bomb blasts took place in Ahmedabad and Bangalore".

Holding the Sangh Parivar responsible for the blasts, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said:

"It is intriguing that in Surat bombs were found on trees. I have evidence to prove that the persons owing allegiance to the RSS and VHP were involved in making and planting the bombs." He added that fanatics of both communities were involved in terrorism.

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in the Lok Sabha.

These are our brothers who have gone astray. We have a duty to bring them back to the family fold. It is only through dialogue that a solution is possible

Kashmir Protest

Kashmiri protester hoisting pakistani flag in Kashmir!

SIMI: All roads lead to Kerala

As per gujarat police, SIMI activist from Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat were involved in Ahmedabad case. Could precious lives have been saved in Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad had Kerala cops not "bungled" in a case involving some senior SIMI activists arrested by them in 2006?
Although a total of 18 SIMI men were rounded up from the venue, the police mysteriously registered a case against only five and let off the rest. The FIR registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act named five accused — Shaduli, Ansar Moulavi, Nizamuddin, Abdul Rafeeq and Shamas.
Almost two years into their arrest, cops are yet to even file a chargesheet in the case.

- Two of them — Ansar Moulvi and Sahduli — are now in the custody of the Rajasthan police in connection with the Jaipur blasts.

- A third one is reportedly detained in Bangalore after last week's serial blasts in the IT city.

- Nizamuddin fled India and is now said to be operating from Saudi Arabia, while the whereabouts of the fifth person isn't known.

- Shaduli's brother, Shibly Peediackal Abdul, was the outfit's key operative in south India. Wanted in the 2006 Mumbai serial blasts, he, too, was arrested in MP in March.

It is more shocking that two senior cops is said to have "sabotaged" the investigation and an MLA belonging to the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala is said to have called on the SIMI men in jail a few days after their arrest.

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