Affirmative Action or Fundamental Rights
Editorial Team
The UPA government's priority should be to secure the
fundamental rights of all minorities, and only then can minorities successfully
participate in the economic growth of the country. In this context, the Uniform
Civil Code initiative, which was unceremoniously abandoned by the BJP-led
government, should also be implemented so that Muslim women in India can be
accorded the same protections available to all other Indian women.....more...
Kashmir: Time to Cede to the Islamists?
Dr. Subodh Atal
The status of Jammu and
Kashmir has been on a steady downhill ramp since the beginning of the
first BJP-led government in 1998. Six years of zigzag polices of that
government eventually led to lowering the threshold of dealing with a
terrorist state, putting the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir on the
negotiating table, India starting out with what should have been its
final position as its starting negotiating step - the LOC, and the state
now being ruled by a party whose links with terrorists are alive and
deep.....more...
Goodbye, Kashmir
Varsha Tickoo
I
felt a sudden pull of sadness in my stomach, and at that very moment I
placed my personal mental wreath on the grave that was my land. I
couldn't keep coming back to my land which was not mine anymore, where I
felt afraid to walk in the street, where I was now the stranger despite
being born on that land, of that land....more...
Mr PM, It's Our Paradise Lost
Aditi
From
the comforts of a home in the serene Valley to a pigeon-holed existence.
That's the story of half a million Kashmiri Pandits. Terrorised and
killed. Their houses burnt and properties looted. Uprooted from their
homeland, they are forced and live a life of refugees in their own
country.....more...
Rehabilitation of Pandits - A Dangerous Move
Kamal Hak
Mufti government’s latest proposal to the center seeking funds for
acquiring 100 kanals of land each in six districts of Kashmir for the
rehabilitation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits is a yet another attempt at
hoodwinking the Indian public and skirting the basic issues confronting
the Pandits.....more...
The Chasm between Rhetoric and Reality
G. Parthasarathy
New Delhi obviously has to embark on a process that enhances
cooperation, builds confidence and seeks to resolve differences with
Pakistan. But it would do well to remember that even as it treaded
softly on issues like Pakistan's membership of the ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF) and its readmission to the Commonwealth, the Musharraf
dispensation spared no effort to fulfill its ambitions on the Kashmir
issue at the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Foreign
Minister's Conference in Istanbul.....more...
PGT-2003: A Tale Told by an Idiot
Ajai Sahni
The US State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 (PGT
2003) Report has been pilloried by a number of American experts,
who note that, "its maths defies reality". The Report contains a number
of internal totalling errors that "even a third-grader could have
found", according to one commentator in The Washington Times. The
State Department has now taken cognisance of these errors and admitted
that "the data in the report is incomplete and in some cases incorrect",
and promised to issue a "revised analysis" after a review.....more...
RPGT 2003: Flogging a Dead Horse
Ajai Sahni
The US Department of State's (DoS) intrinsically flawed
Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003
Report was dead on arrival at the moment of its release on May 26, 2004.
Nevertheless, a promise of a miraculous resurrection had been briefly
held out by the DoS, when they acknowledged some errors and omissions,
promising a comprehensive review and revision. That revised report (RPGT
2003) has now been released and, unfortunately, reflects no more than
the efforts of a shoddy mortician trying to make a badly disfigured
corpse presentable for its final interment.....more...
Pakistan: Terror and the Economy
Kanchan Lakshman
In the shadow of continuing violence in Pakistan this past week, there
was a mixed bag of news emanating from the economic arena.
Unfortunately, the terrorist contagion - the seemingly indiscriminate
spread of radical Islamist violence - may continue to remain the key
factor in what appears to be an apparently achievable economic
turnaround....more...
"Desaffronization" or Apology?
Vinod Kumar
On June 28,
2004, The New York Times reported that "a resolution of formal apology for "a
long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies" has been quietly cleared for a Senate vote, with proponents predicting passage."....more... |
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