Diwali...Then

Veeresh, Hamzad

I hope the credibility of that website is high, at least as high as that of the other much quoted websites - Dalitstan and HinduUnity.

For, in addition to what Hamzad bhai presented, the referenced article claims emphatically that all Indian leaders - Gandhis and Nehrus, all of them - have been muslims. That is music to my ears since I have always believed it didn`t really matter who ruled over a country so long as they were good folks :)

Regards.

veeresh-----31

Doesn`t sound too credible but these days when the so-called champions of free media are at the lowest ebb suddenly I have much more respect for even a chandoo-khanaa source than that of the ugly americans.

I think it CAN & SHOULD be verified---minus the salcious `gossipy` part,which even if true doesn`t bother me.But the Guru Gobind,Farrukhseer,and Raj Kaul need to be investigated as historical record.A lot is at stake here and would help to reposition the sikh artillery.;)

``Thanks for the nice comments. For a first time contributor here it feels really nice.``

Believe me - it feels equally nice to have your comments appreciated too : ) Hope to see more of you here.

Take care

aicha

Thanks Hamzad, what is the credibility of the website what do you think? regards/veeresh

Reply #: 1 RSaxena

Reply #: 3 Khan

Reply #: 4 veeresh

Reply #: 6 aicha

Reply #: 7 saminashah

Reply #: 11 hamzad afaqui

Reply #: 15 Ansari

Thanks for the nice comments. For a first time contributor here it feels really nice.

Thanks Veeresh for directing me here. I hope the enthusiasm of the responses will keep the creative juices flowing.

When I had to submit the article I was also required to write an intro about myself. How does one capture a life time of acheivements ( toungue firmly in cheek) into a small space? So I decided to take the tangential approach.

Shekhar Kapoor is a film director who is by education a Chartered Accountant. I am a Chartered Accountant who is now a IT guy. The comparision is just for fun.

Yes Shekhar has married a Iyer babe (Suchitra ) and so have I :-)

Bapu 26

Indians Pakistanis can be friends finally. Not many Akbars in Pakistan but Pakistani Aurangzebs are everywhere. Must be a very important ruler.

Reply Veeresh # 20

``Spot News, Spot News from Delhi . . . Benazir Bhutto is out dancing at Float and seeking BJP ticket for South Delhi, but Imam Bukhari calls her, also, a dancing queen.``

Bukhari is just jealous because nobody will dance with him. He should go into therapy.

``But really, you Pakistanis are something. Every time you are in a problem...you send her to Delhi in the winter...but she is still saying the same things, it appears.``

Whatever she says, she`s obviously just coming to Delhi for the theatre season (and shopping at the cottage emporiums - shayad import export business karne lagi hai). And who can blame her? It`s better not to be too small hearted about these things and perhaps even arrange for tickets to that Tendulkar festival at the Lalit Kala Akademi...good will and all, no?

Veeresh---#25

Here it is....my pleasure.

http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/archives/byauthor/aghosh/twftlhastrtsm.html

Aurangzeb`s Fanatiscism WINS OVER AKBAR IN TEXT BOOK



FROM MONOBINA GUPTA



New Delhi, Nov. 26:

It’s now officially Akbar vs Aurangzeb.

When the National Council for Educational Research and Training “rewrites” history in its new social science textbooks for the next academic session from March, it will ensure that Aurangzeb has more space in the chapter on medieval history than Akbar.

“Why should we give so much space to Akbar and less to Aurangzeb? After all, Aurangzeb had many more activities to his credit than Akbar,” says Hari Om, the sole professor of history in the council. The social science text books are being authored by NCERT faculty members. The professor is digging into history and an old debate: was Akbar more significant than Aurangzeb?

Right wing academics have always blamed Left-liberal historians for expanding on Akbar’s reign because of his “secular” politics and squeezing out Aurangzeb’s rule because he represented the “tyrannical” face of Islam.

Satish Chandra, whose textbook on medieval history has been reviled by the NCERT as “biased”, says: “When they say Aurangzeb engaged in more activities than Akbar what they mean is destroying temples.”

“I find it very strange when someone tries to make out Akbar’s rule as less significant than Aurangzeb’s. It was Akbar who laid down the entire administrative structure — the revenue system,” he underlines.

But the authors of the new NCERT textbooks believe they have a “historical” role to play — to set the record “straight” by dropping “distortions” from the new textbooks and also the “irrelevant”.

History, in any case, will have to undergo a massive surgery to fit into the new social science textbooks, which will teach not only history, but civics, geography and economics as well. In the process, “unwanted” parts of history the current NCERT authors believe to be unnecessary will be cut out.

For instance, Professor Hari Om, who will author the section on modern Indian history, says: “Why should we elaborate so much about the 1857 mutiny? We will just sum it up — its causes and the fallout.”

There will be also other events that will be pruned. But what about world history? That is still a grey area.

Prof. Hari Om says he was “astounded” when he read the present textbook on modern India authored by Arjun Dev. “There is no mention of the Day of Direct Action — a call given by the Muslim League. The author is soft on Jinnah and the League,” he says.

The motto of the present academic debate seems to be to get even with the “past”. “So far, the Congress and the Left have had a field day. Then nobody said anything,” said a BJP leader.

So where does that place history? Nobody knows. The ruling party is ready to script history the way it wants it to be taught.

The authors in the NCERT feel R.S. Sharma has quoted only one source when he talked about beef-eating being a practice during ancient times. “There are other sources also,” they say.

When they write the new texts, are they going to mention all the sources, including the one that mentions beef-eating? The authors prefer not to answer.

Dear Hamzad . . . from another board, do you think you could please give me the source on the quote you have about Nehru? Thanks/Veeresh

http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=155000

Sunday, November 25, 2001

No Girls Please, We are Indians



PTI

New Delhi, November 25

-

Thanks to the penchant for a male child, India today has the dubious distinction of having the worst child sex ratio in the world and has emerged as one of the largest markets of `sex-determination techniques` which co@ck a snook at the law by claiming to intervene at the ``pre- -conception`` stage.

The latest addition to this burgeoning market is an imported kit claiming to ensure the conception of a `child of choice`, the advertisement of which has raised the hackles of activists and doctors who are relentlessly working to implement the seven-year-old law that prohibits the use and publicity of any such process used as a precursor for selective sex abortions.

While the Delhi Appropriate Authority, which is responsible for implementing the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prevention of Misuse) Act 1994 has already moved the court against the advertiser, a fresh debate has erupted over the use of techniques that determine sex in the pre-conception stage with some doctors saying it is legal, ethical and moral for parents to exercise their `freedom of choice.`

``Intent of the Act was to stop the declining female child sex ratio, which is as low as 793 in Punjab and less than 850 in the northern states of Haryana and Delhi; it didn`t matter at which stage sex-determination came,`` notes Dr Sabu M George, who has been campaigning against female foeticide in the country for the last 15 years.

The gains of technology have made segregation and selection (of sperms) at earlier stages, reducing guilt pangs or moral pressures that had come to be associated with infanticide or even female foeticide as a result of sonography, he says.

Even as the Supreme Court in May this year is reported to have expressed sadness over the use of modern technology to prevent the girl child from being born, a doctor in the capital spoke of the availability of sperm segregation techniques followed by artificial implantation of the fertilised eggs that are now attracting many prospective parents.

``While this is not illegal, it also is less stressful on couples opting for it,`` she said.

An editorial this week in the daily, which has come under fire for publishing the American company`s Gen-select Kit evidently aimed at India from where telephone ordering is `toll-free`, also said ``the Indian law does not prohibit a person from using any technique available to pre-determine the gender of her child before conception.``

``The PNDT Act,`` it said, ``focusses on the various medical techniques which enable a person to ascertain the sex of the child right from conception, whether or not the intent is to terminate the pregnancy or not.

``Technology has, however, always been a step ahead of the law and the need to legislate on pre-selection techniques is now being debated,`` said the editorial.

But neither the government nor medicos like Dr Sabu or activists from a host of women organisations buy that argument.

According to Dr Rekha Joshi of the Delhi Appropriate Authority, she received a complaint against the newspaper which published the ads on November 14 and 15, from five organisations - Indian Human Rights Law Network, Shama, Jagori, Nirantar and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan - on November 20.

The Delhi Appropriate Authority on November 23 filed a complaint against the daily in a lower court here, said Dr Joshi, noting that the Advertisement is in violation of the PNDT Act.

The 1994 Act, in fact, prohibits the publication or distribution of any advertisement ``in any manner regarding the facilities of pre-natal determination of sex at any genetic counselling centre, genetic laboratory, genetic clinic or any other place.``

Contravention of the clause invites a jail sentence up to three years and a fine up to Rs ten thousand. There is no mention of pre-conception or post conception stages, as some doctors have sought to argue.

According to Dr Sabu, in the most traditional sense life is considered to begin from fertilisation and earlier conception was defined as fertilisation, `pre-natal` being the time period from conception till delivery or birth of the child.

Today, technology itself has redefined conception, so as to begin from implantation of the fertilised egg in the uterus, he says, pointing towards in-vitro techniques that have helped fertilisation outside the human body.

``It is the users of these techniques who are seeking to redefine the concept of pre-natal and suggesting that the law be amended to make a specific reference to them,`` he says noting that the law in its present form is inclusive of all such methods - the misuse of which has to be prevented.

According to him, the laws are made and are interpreted in tune with times, they can`t be created every second year. The law in its present form by not making any specific reference to pre- or post-conception stages ensures that there is no misuse of the `pre-conception` techniques, the accuracy of which is doubtful.

In the Erikson`s or the sperm segregation technique which has been available in India since 1981, for instance, the chances still remain 50:50, says Dr Sabu, adding that there are just a handful of laboratories in the world which could boast of sophisticated equipment to ensure a cent per cent segregation.

``In most cases across the country, after sperm segregation, the fertilisation takes place in the human body, and the pregnancy allowed to follow the complete cycle after the sonographs confirm the `child of choice` (read son),`` he says.

However justified the argument of curtailing individual freedoms be, activists cite the skewed child sex ratio as a grim reminder that ground realities are far different and that all these techniques, however less the accuracy rates, have been tried to beget a son.

The moot point here, they argue, is not of individual freedom but that of a subtle way of gender discrimination that is slowly resulting in the elimination of the girl child thus violating the basic tenet of our very constitution

re: Romair # 21

Hehe...Ramadhan will be great...you will have some Hindutva nuts distributing sweets among poor people about whom they otherwise care very little.

But I did weep a few tears upon learning that some Pakistanis are bent upon doing away with Khuda Himself.

Khuda khair kare...

...is benazir india`s next foreign minister?...

Shah #19: You can have Benazir, if you want. Take here whole family. Her and Nawaz Sharif seem to be the two most popular Pakistanis in India, for obvious reasons. But be careful what you wish for, your wishes might come true.

Scout #18: Yes, somewhere along the line, Khuda Hafiz was changed to Allah Hafiz. Ramzan went to Ramazan, then to Ramadan, then to Ramadhan, since Arabs prounce it like that. I wonder what is next.

I wonder what Ramzan is in Turkey. Perhaps one of our local Turks could help us out. Maybe we should change Ramzan to Ramzanogolu.

Spot News, Spot News from Delhi . . . Benazir Bhutto is out dancing at Float and seeking BJP ticket for South Delhi, but Imam Bukhari calls her, also, a dancing queen.

But really, you Pakistanis are something. Every time you are in a problem, first with East Pakistan aka Bangladesh aka East Bengal and now with Afghanistan aka Khyber Pass aka ``Not puerto Rico, the other place`` . . . everytime, you send her to Delhi in the winter. Last time, in 1971, she was here in short kurta pajama aka shlwar khameez and this time she is here in decorously positioned headgear . . . but she is still saying the same things, it appears.

We can forgive you Pakistanis many things, but this? Next you will send Nawaz Sharif to grow sugarcane and then Musharaf to try to throw his tenants out (he has not read the Delhi Rent Control Act, in existence since before his family left Old Delhi).

I do wonder whether Yasser will change his signature, the ``jeeye Bhutto`` bit?

There is no truth in the rumour that Benazir Bhutto has also gone to meet Rabri Devi, whose husband LP Yadav, Esq., is also in jail in Ranchi.

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