Vol. LVIII, No. 24, New Delhi, December 24, 2006

Interview of the week with BJP chief Rajnath Singh UPA has adopted the agenda of pre-Partition Muslim League CLEAR, committed and uncompromising on principles, the BJP chief Rajnath Singh is fully geared up to take on and expose the sectarian agenda of the UPA government, which is dividing people on communal and caste lines. A mass leader, orator with a tab on the pulse of the organisation, Rajnath Singh is a grassroots politician with a refreshingly modern approach. He is determined that the credibility of the BJP is not lost in the quagmire of vote and coalition politics. Astute political manoeuvre of unflinching adherence to the party?s political thought, ideological vision is the guarantee for minimising indiscipline and maximising credibility, he believes. The BJP chief candidly spoke on a wide range of issues confronting his party and the nation, in a special interview to Organiser editor R. Balashankar and colleague Deepak Kumar Rath. Excerpts:    more > Sachar report and terror crescent UPA engineering a festering division like Minto-Morley in 1909 By M.D. Nalapat Rajinder Sachar?s views on the way the state should deal with the purveyors of death through terror have not been a secret, whether it be on the ?rights? of the Khalistanis in the 1980s or the ?freedoms? of the Islamic terrorists in Kashmir during the 1990s.    more > Column UPA?s ungallant fall and desperate Afzal defence By Sandhya Jain To its everlasting shame, the UPA has preferred to allow family members of the police martyrs who lost their lives defending a terrorist attack upon Parliament in 2001 to return their gallantry awards, rather than meet the aggrieved families and assure them that no injustice would be done to dishonour their valorous dead.    more > Editorial We say India first, they say Muslim first FOR long, it was believed that Arjun Singh was the ultimate depth to which crass communalism and casteism in Indian politics could descend under UPA. Then, apologists for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used to claim that the apolitical gentleman economist was pained and disturbed that politics in 21st century India was getting to resemble the dark ages. more > Congress betraying Indian state By Shyam Khosla Prime Minister?s ?Muslims and Minorities, first? pronouncement has effectively demolished his public image of being an honest and decent man. One has no reason to believe that he has committed any financial fraud or impropriety but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Dr. Manmohan Singh is politically dishonest and can go to any length even pursuing policies that he knows go against the national interests-to keep the job given to him by his foreign-born boss.    more > Terror threat to Sabarimala By S. Chandrasekhar Sabarimala temple, where almost 3-4 crores of pilgrims from all over the world, come to have darshan of Hari-Hara Puthra ?Lord Ayyappan?, during the pilgrim season of November-January is always in the hit-list scanner of Jehadi outfits and ISI. Pilgrims coming to Sabarimala are being regularly targeted in the Muslim pockets en route to Sabarimala. Routinely vehicles carrying pilgrims were attacked and pilgrims assaulted.    more > Reports BMS seminar on globalisation and social security By Pramod Kumar Training camp of Kalyan Ashram?s Hitraksha Pramukhs in Ranchi FOC Karmayogi screened in Bhopal By Anjani Kumar Jha Roadblocks on Nepal?s tryst with democracy By Arabinda Ghose Competition to promote indigenous sports FOC Vanvasis have much to give nagarvasis-Madhubhai Kulkarni FOC A run for social harmony FOC A samarasta daur (run for social harmony) was organised at Sulatanpuri in Delhi to celebrate the birth centenary of Shri Guruji. More than 1500 youth participated in the race.    more > Petition by JoT for Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act, 2003 VSK, Gujarat Justice on Trial (JoT), an Ahmedabad-based NGO, has filed a petition in Gujarat High Court directing the Union Home Minister to obtain assent of the President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act, 2003 (GUJCOC Act).    more > In Jammu Displaced Kashmiri Hindus hold protest rallies on Human Rights Day From Khajuria S. Kant in Jammu Winter capital of J&K, Jammu remained hub of activities with protest demonstrations on the eve of World Human Rights Day on December 10. The displaced Kashmiri Pandits (KPs), who have been leading an exiled life for the last 17 years, took to the streets in Jammu demanding an end to ?human rights violations?? against the community.    more > Kashmiri Hindus protest in Delhi too FOC Roots In Kashmir (RIK), an initiative launched by the Kashmiri Pandit youth to highlight the atrocities inflicted upon the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) minority community, held protest rallies across India, Oman and USA on the occasion of World Human Rights Day on December 10.    more > Chinese ?gifts? worry India By Ramananda Sengupta A senior Indian intelligence official has expressed concern over what he described as the ?dramatic increase? in Chinese attempts to woo Indian politicians and business leaders with gifts, some of them ?phenomenally lavish.?    more > Coral Island By Santosh Paranjape The only coral reef island in India, Lakshadweep is the tiniest Union Territory of India consisting of 36 islands and covering an area of 32.5 sq. km, out of which 28.5 sq km is considered to be land of use as per revenue records.    more >

Cover Page Realpolitik Under UPA jazia makes a return Balbir K. Punj In a shocking development which has gone virtually unnoticed, the UPA government has sought to turn history upside down and redefine Islamic theology beyond recognition.    more > Kerala newsletter Civil war in Kerala CPM spills over in public > CM helpless before his ministers V.S. and Kodiyeri lock horns on fake video raid By S. Chandrasekhar The raid on a digital CD studio, manufacturing fake CDs, has aggravated the ongoing war between the Pinarayi and V.S. Atchudanandan factions in the CPM, putting into question the future of the LDF regime and state?s progress.    more > The moving fingers writes India and cricket By M.V. Kamath India has lost all its one-dayers against South Africa most ignominiously. India has lost in the past; that is part of cricket and one must accept defeat sportingly.    more > Defence Matters The Winnable War! By Bharat Verma On a scale of 1 to 10, an American editor of a defence newspaper told me that his threat perception on terror attacks inside the United States would merit an eight.    more > Bookmark Treating history as fiction By M.V. Kamath India: Another Millennium? Edited by Romila Thapar; Penguin; pp 317; Rs 295.00 India: Another Millennium! What a fascinating subject! How would things be in India in the year 3006? For that matter how would things be in 2106? In just one hundred years more? Of course it is a matter of speculation. But one could try to speculate intelligently.    more > Guru Nanak and Sikhism By Manju Gupta Nirmal Kumar: Sikh Philosophy and Religion, New Dawn Press, 232 pp, ? 14.99 The book under review is the second edition showing that the first edition must have gone down well with the general reader. It is a compilation of Guru Nanak Memorial Lectures delivered in 1977 at the Punjab University in Patiala.    more > Kids Org. The Vivekananda in Naren By M.V. Kolhatkar The childhood name of Swami Vivekananda was Narendra. He was inquisitive by nature. He would ask umpteen questions. He was never at ease till he got the answers. He would not rest even after getting content with the answers.    more > Ocean of life Media Watch Journalists can take on academics too Narad The Hindu (November 30) carried an interesting column on its Op-Ed page concerning bridging ?the Media-Academic Divide?, by Hasan Suroor. Suroor referred to a recent talk delivered at a gathering of academicians and journalists at Oxford University by a distinguished Oxford professor, Timothy Garton Ash.    more > Know our country Kanyakumari By Sudharshan Kumar Kapur Who would not wish to see the farthermost point of mainland India in the South and visit Kanyakumari, the site of one of the most popular and famous pilgrim centres in the country?    more >

India That is Bharat Business of sorry and Gandhigiri Satiricus WHAT would Gandhiji have thought of Gandhigiri? Satiricus cannot say. But he thinks Gandhiji would have approved of it. At least the latest Gandhiji and the current Gandhian government would certainly go into secular raptures at the recent news that the Vardhaman Mahaveer    more >

Opinion Pakistan is not offering solutions but laying a trap on Kashmir By Jagmohan Of late, Pakistan President Musharraf has been talking of the possible lines on which solution of the Kashmir problem could be worked out. The most charitable interpretation that can be put on President Musharraf?s suggestions is that, like a good General, he is searching for line of retreat. more >

Readers? Forum Unprofessional and slack: -Dr Balram Misra by e-mail The mental torture that I have been subjected to by the two public concerns-MTNL and BSNL-makes me conclude that their apathy for users? complaints tends to help private telephone/ mobile/ broadband companies. They discourage their users by not attending to their problems and compel them to go to private parties.    more >

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