Vol. LXI, No. 32, New Delhi, February 14, 2010

Vishwa Mangal Gou Gram Yatra A tremendous success Over 8.36 crore signatures presented to President Smt Pratibha Patil By Pramod Kumar AN 18-member delegation including yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, many other senior saints and Shankaracharyas, religious leaders from Islam and Christianity, cow scientists, experts, organic farmers and leaders belonging to various organisations of the country met the President of India Smt Pratibha Patil on January 31 and handed her over 8.36 crore signatures collected from all over the country during the 108-day Vishwa Mangal Gou Gram Yatra.    more > Reang refugees : ACHR assails Mizoram Government By Jyoti Lal Chowdhury THE Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its fact-finding report released to the media on January 21 in Guwahati assailed the Mizoram Government for its failure to protect the Reangs or Brus.    more > Thinking Aloud Obama fad is fading in US By Dr Jay Dubashi ON the very first anniversary of his presidency, Barack Obama got a shock of his life when the voters of Massachusetts threw out the Democratic candidate for the Senate—Obama is a Democrat—and voted for a Republican, the first time such a thing has happened in fifty years.    more > Editorial Rescue Yamuna so that we rescue ourselves THE decline and slow death of the sacred river Yamuna is one of the major ecological tragedies of modern India. Yamuna, the capital city Delhi’s lifeline is but a flowing mass of faeces , according to the Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB).    more > Fourth Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture Facebook generation and digital divide FOC VISHWA Adhyayan Kendra, Mumbai, organised the 4th Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture on January 15 at Alkesh Dinesh Mody Auditorium in Mumbai. The function was presided over by Shri Ashok Goel, vice chairman and managing director of Essel Propack Ltd and also chairman of Uttan Vividh Laksheee Shikshan Sanstha of Keshavsrushti.    more > Sangh Samachar Swayamsevaks of Chennai defy an unjust ban, court arrest - FOC Learn any of the foreign languages but do not leave the roots -Indresh Kumar - VSK, Mumbai Sangh path sanchalan in BHU - By Loknath Stick to Indian lifestyle —Pramilatai Medhe - By Sanjiv Kumar, VSK Patna Assam Shilpi Diwas by Sanskar Bharati - FOC Ashish Gautam presented Vivekananda Sewa Samman - FOC Reading is a must for budding journalists - VSK, Jaipur National Executive Meeting of Grahak Panchayat - FOC A Ph.D thesis on how to develop a church planting movement in India Oh God! All in the name of God www.rickross.com HERE comes one more revealing document—a research conducted by a Missionary, interestingly to submit as his Phd thesis on Developing a Church Planting Movement in India!    more > Saudi girl accepts lashing for assaulting headmistress By Mohammed Jamjoom A schoolgirl in Saudi Arabia has accepted her sentence of 90 lashes and two months in prison for assaulting her headmistress after a confrontation over a cell phone, according to Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan.    more > Global bodies’ credibility at stake World’s poor lose billions of dollars By Shivaji Sarkar THE recent incidents have raised doubts over credibility of some of the global organisations. It has also strengthened the fears that some of these organisations have ties and serving the interests of certain industry or groups.    more > The soldier and the celebrity By Tarun Vijay THE only line that makes or breaks the lifeline of your journey is the line that you would like to tell your son or daughter—‘go this way, and not the other way’.    more > Rashtriya Sewa Bharati Passion for training activists and building organizations By Shyam Parande A bright but shy looking young boy of 9, I walked into while I was visiting Shanti Niketan—a free hostel run by Sewa Bharati Himachal Pradesh in the panoramic Dadsai, some 100 kms off Shimla, stunned me when he revealed that it was his first bus ride of life and that he had never seen a bus before he boarded one for Dadsai.    more > The Road Show: Aman ki asha (Hope for Peace) tamasha The Road Map to Peace By Dr Vijaya Rajiva IN the opinion of this writer the Aman ki Asha project is the effort of the Pakistani Punjabi elite who see the writing on the wall and want to make sure they have a comfortable berth in India.    more > Third International Conference of WOSY in New Delhi Most of the conflicts in the world are ego-centric—Sri Sri Ravi Shankar By Pramod Kumar MOST of the conflicts in the world are ego-centric and not ideological problems. They can be done away with by uniting the hearts and minds,” said noted spiritual guru and founder of the Art of Living Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji.    more > Bookmark Thus Rajpaksa’s steely determination finished LTTE By Dr Vaidehi Nathan - Sri Lanka from War to Peace, Nitin A Gokhale, Har-Anand Publications, Pp 184, Rs. 395.00 (HB) Narayan’s magical Malgudi By Dr Vaidehi Nathan - Man-eater of Malgudi, R K Narayan, Orient Paperbacks, Pp 205, Rs 195.00 In search of roots The Foreigner, Arun Joshi, Orient Paperbacks, Pp 192, Rs 225.00 - —DVN A fascinating adventure story By Lokesh Kumar - Taranauts: The Quest for the Shyn Emeralds, Roopa Pai, Hachette, Pp 120, Rs 145.00 A novel set in Partition backdrop By Manju Gupta - Remembering the Juice Mango, Neena Kahlon, Rupa & Co., Pp 342, Rs 395.00 A gripping saga of the poor people’s quest for education By Manju Gupta - The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey into How the World’s Poorest People are Educating Themselves, James Tooley, Penguin/Viking, Pp 302, Rs 499.00 A guide to breaking Indian marriages By Dr Vaidehi Nathan - Love Will Follow, Why the Indian Marriage is Burning, Shefali Sandhya, Random House India, Pp 255, Rs 295.00 (PB) Impending Doomsday and the hero who saved The Five Greatest Warriors, Mathew Reilly, Orion Publishing Group Ltd (Hachette India), Pp 459, Rs 595.00 (HB) Crack the board exam, not let it crack you By Dr Vaidehi Nathan - Beat The Academic Exam The Smart Way, Dr Sunil Vaid, Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd, Pp 118, Rs 50.00 (PB) each A useful book on Entrance Exams Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd, X-30 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase II, New Delhi 110 020

COVER PAGE The Moving Finger Writes The tasks before Gadkari By MV Kamath THE Big Question today—indeed since Nitin Gadkari took over as President of the Bharatiya Janata Party replacing Rajnath Singh—is whether he can, in the end, revive the party which is now apparently in the doldrums and make it a force to reckon with.    more > Think It Over Cross and Crescent: The looming conflict By MSN Menon A clash is again building up between the Cross and the Crescent. Last time it lead to the Crusades. There was no clear victory.    more > Kid’s Org Learning a lesson By Manju Gupta SRI Krishna and Balaram spent their childhood in Gokul but on growing up, they left Gokul and Balaram went to live with Sri Krishna in his palace.    more > Culture Plus Significance of Tyagaraja Aradhana By VN Gopalakrishnan SAINT Tyagaraja was a renowned composer of South India famous for his Telugu kirtanas (devotional songs) and ragas. These songs were mostly in praise of Sri Ram, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.    more > Controversy Sahitya Akademi Award to blasphemous Telugu novel Draupadi From Vani Nagaraj PRAGNA Bharati, a voluntary organisation (a forum of intellectuals) based in Hyderabad, publishing an English monthly magazine Bharatiya Pragna, approached Human Rights Commision, AP, under the chairmanship of Justice Subhashan Reddy seeking withdrawal of award to Mr Yarlagadda Laxmi Prasad for his novel Draupadi.    more > Sangh Samachar Swayamsevaks of Chennai defy an unjust ban, court arrest - FOC Learn any of the foreign languages but do not leave the roots -Indresh Kumar - VSK, Mumbai Sangh path sanchalan in BHU - By Loknath Stick to Indian lifestyle —Pramilatai Medhe - By Sanjiv Kumar, VSK Patna Assam Shilpi Diwas by Sanskar Bharati - FOC Ashish Gautam presented Vivekananda Sewa Samman - FOC Reading is a must for budding journalists - VSK, Jaipur National Executive Meeting of Grahak Panchayat - FOC Open Forum Hope of peace: Mirage or reality ? By Madhav Ghangurde THE hope (asha) of peace (aman) with Pakistan comes to the fore at irregular intervals. A section of the intellectuals, in this country, is always very much optimistic about bringing about peace with our western neighbour.    more > Insight Fight for the mother tongue Some lessons to be learnt By Sudarshan Kumar Kapur FOLLOWING a proposal submitted by Bangladesh at UNESCO’s General Conference in 1999, UNESCO proclaimed that “21st February will be observed every year as International Mother Language Day” to celebrate linguistic pluralism and cultural diversity and protect and preserve the heritage of humanity.    more > TogadiaSpeak From Green and White Revolutions to Bloody Revolution for Food ! By Dr Pravin Togadia WHETHER it is democracy, monarchy or communist rule, nations are made of people and people need to live. And for living they need essential things: Food, shelter, water, medical facilities, employment/earning opportunities, safety and social security. Sure, I know that this is a simple basic fact of life.    more > Media Watch Quote, misquote as politicians’ last resort TWO issues stand out in the matter of the Shashi Tharoor case which need to be addressed. One is of being misquoted by the media. That is a serious enough charge, and needs to be immediately looked into.    more >

Report Kashmiri Hindus protest on 20th anniversary of displacement From Khajuria S Kant in Jammu VOWING to continue the struggle in exile for restoration of rights of community, the displaced Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) marked the twentieth year of their migration "Holocaust Day” from the Valley by holding a strong protest on January 19.    more >

Special Report To forget would be to forgive By Kanchan Gupta TWENTY years ago this past week, Hindus were forced to flee Kashmir Valley, their ancestral land, by Islamic fanatics baying for their blood. Not a finger was raised by the State in admonition nor did ‘civil society’ feel outraged. In these 20 years, India has forgotten that outrage, a grotesque assault on our idea of nationhood.    more >

Readers’ Forum Temple was destroyed to build the Babri structure (Organiser, 13-12-2009); —SHANTA DYUTHIKAR, 39, 15th Cross, Malleshwaram, Bengaluru The Liberhan Commission took seventeen long years to write a thousand-page report about Babri structure demolition—all about only a structure. Everyone seems to have forgotten about the thousands of temples desecrated, destroyed and looted.    more >

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