An Equal Reaction

Reply Aakar:

Geez I can`t believe I typed ``Ramkrishna`` instead of Srikrishna... apne hee payr pe kulhaadi maar diyaa...now I will withdraw silently into a corner and crack Bong jokes with my fellow Mumbaikars.....

No seriosuly, thanks for your post. It`s nice when people you only know through newspaper columns become real :))

I`m too tired to go into the pro-thackeray anti-Thackeray thing again.... suffice to say I don`t ``admire`` theguy or his ideals OK?

Regds,

AB

re: semipreciousme # 391

``what more could you ask for?…``

Thoda sa taste, madam!

Is that too much to ask?

Re: dost-mittar

``...You are forgetting that the Congress was returned in 1984 with a massive majority...``

No, I am not. I was simply pointing out that Rajiv did not amend the Constitution, he simply passed a law. He also did not tamper with fundamental rights.

Dawood Ibrahim granted Pakistani citizenship



NEW DELHI: India can never hope to get Dawood Ibrahim back. Not anymore. For, even as India was making renewed requests to Pakistan (even using the US) to deport the 20 criminals, Dawood Ibrahim was granted Pakistani citizenship a month ago.

His aide, Chhota Shakeel, and Tiger Memon have also been granted citizenship by the Pakistani authorities. All the three figure on top of the ‘list of 20’ submitted by India, asking for their deportation from Pakistan.

This information has been received by Central intelligence agencies as well as the intelligence wing of the Mumbai Police, separately. After their reports were submitted to the home ministry, the MHA’s own team is further investigating the matter to double-check it. Latest reports say Dawood and Shakeel were spotted in Peshawar.

Before he became a Pakistani national, Dawood had been in possession of 10 passports. Eight of these were issued from Mumbai and two of the latest ones from Pakistan. His passport numbered ‘‘G-866537’’ was issued from Rawalpindi on 12.8.91, in the name of Shaikh Dawood Hassan.

He also possessed another one in his real name issued from Pakistan in 1992.

According to intelligence reports, Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar’s new name as a Pakistani citizen is Iqbal Seth (alias Amir Saheb). Haji Mohammed is Chhota Shakeel’s new identity as a Pakistani national. And Tiger Memon is now known as Ahmed Jamail.

Dawood now holds a bank account in Karachi, in the name of Iqbal Seth. He is trying to shift all his movable property, spread over other cities in Pakistan, into this account in Karachi, the reports say.

An Intelligence Bureau (IB) report submitted to the government last week says, both Dawood and Chhota Shakeel have been recently allowed to take up residence in Islamabad by Pakistani authorities and have been allowed to call their assistants, Fahim and Nasser Charasi, to Islamabad. In fact, it is also learnt, that the two have been allowed access to satellite phones.

However, they can use the phones to call their associates in any other country but not in India.

Does India now have any hope of getting it’s most wanted back? Former additional solicitor general Abhishek Singhvi says, ‘‘Ultimately, extradition depends on the domestic legislation of the host/sending country. Some legislations have an exception in favour of domestic citizens whereby such citizens might not be extradited. In case there is no such bar, extradition is possible.’’

Eventually, he feels, ‘‘extradition depends not so much on a treaty or a statute, but on the vibes between the host country and the requesting country. Countries with not-so-good relations, inordinately prolong the extradition process despite a treaty. The only remedy in such cases can be international pressure,’’ he adds.

prem:

“But celery?! Is that thing edible?”

….edibleshedible aside, it’s very good for you…full of water and minerals and practically tasteless…what more could you ask for?…

Sadna, Rsridhar

I think that writing poems won`t cut it anymore. The country needs a businesslike response, not an emotive appeal.

rsridhar #387
‘I’m scared of the truth, friendless among my own’

This is Vajpayee in Nainital reciting his poem, live and on the record. Was it the Prime Minister or the poet?

http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020331/top4.html

Sharat Chandra, the Bengali writer had a great concept which his heroines used, in order to move the idiot passive males who were his `heros` from point a to another point b in the story.

The concept was `adhikaar`. Time for Prime Minister Vajpayee to be reminded by Indians of his `adhikaar`.

re: Reply #: 379

Prem,

Thanks for your post.

I am sorry. I just latched on to Nasah`s post. I find hindu fundamentalism as deplorable as Islamic one. However, i was compelled to answer Nasah`s post because he was factually incorrect (at least i believe so)when he says Buddhists in North were decimated by the Hindus.

That is not how the 2 religions reacted to one another. For a thousand years, India was mostly a Buddhist country (except pockets of Hinduism in deep South). Still, there was no persecution of Hindus by Buddhists and vice versa. Huns and later Arab invasion was responsible for decline of Buddhism in north. Hindu resurgence in South has much to do with Adi Shankara and other teachers. There is no evidence of any physical liquidation of Buddhists by Hindus. Buddha is worshipped as one of pantheon of Gods by Hindus. Buddha Purnima is celebrated as a national holiday in India.

I believe i had answered similar accusations by nasah in the past. What is it with some Pakistanis who want to believe that Buddhism could not have lost to the Vedic religion except by violence. There is something called assimilation, a trait most Islamists are not familiar with. Hinduism assimilated much of Buddhist thoughts. There was no need (or attempt) to physically liquidate the religion. Buddhism was not cosidered alien. There is a story of a Pandya king who was influenced by Buddhists but his wife was a Shaivite. She invites the young Shaivite devotee GyanaSambhandar who converts the king to his viewpoint. Debates between Hindus and Buddhists were common and each vied with one another for royal patronage. First Kushan king Kanisha was a buddhist but his son Vasudeva became a hindu. Until someone in chowk comes up with some substantive evidence that some hindu king did persecute buddhists for religious beliefs, i will hold on to my belief for the time being.

Sridhhar

re:Reply #: 378

tvarad,

The popular saying ``Nero fiddled while Rome was burning`` is apt for Mr Vajpayee, India`s P.M. He is penning poems while Gujarat and rest of the country is burning.

Gujarat seems to be a cursed place. First plague, then earthquake and now this riot. This, in the land of Gandhi. One would think that Gujaratis, who presumably know Gandhiji more than anyone else, would be more peaceloving than the rest of Indians. Not so. BJP and its cadres seem to have successfully sowed seeds of hatred in that area of the country. While the country is torn by religious hatred, our (literally)weak kneed P.M has done very little to punish perpetrators of the Godhra carnage. That present day nazi LKA is still at the helms. Nothing has changed as far as BJP is concerned while thousands of innocent people have been killed by their partymen in Gujarat. If this demon is not vanquished, it will torment India for years to come. Only the people can do this. I hope BJP is thrown into the dustbin of history where it rightfully belongs.

Sridhar

re: soysauce + msg

{{Hindu tolerance being legendary, there`s very little chance of it being questioned. We hindus need to ask ourselves if our tolerance is not just a myth.}}

hindu tolerance breaks down when confronted with in-your-face religions and people who put religion before nation....you are right, hindu religion does not tolerate that very well...

IMHO, the Shah Bano case did not result in any constitutional amendment. Rajiv`s government passed a law. Perhaps, someone on Chowk can give all the details.

In any case, constitutional amendments are easy when there is a single party rule (as was the case for the first 40 years after independence). Since the late 80s, amendments have become virtually impossible.

#373 ZAT

Hindu tolerance being legendary, there`s very little chance of it being questioned. We hindus need to ask ourselves if our tolerance is not just a myth.

The rest of your post went by me because i don`t understand gujarati. Sorry.

#368 nasah

Hasanji, i couldn`t tell you about hindus versus buddhists in n.india. The only redeeming feature of the event i cited is that it made it into a poem and is taught to students in TN.

Prem to rsridhar

``Did I read too much defensiveness in your reply to nasah?``

Good question, Prem miaN, good question:)

sridhar mian -- ``my`` religion is ``your`` religion -- not much different:)

(blowing off steam from another site)
Does anyone else notice the ironies related to the Shah Bano case?

The legislation passed to overturn the Shah Bano judgement is cited by Hindutva-votaries as assertion of `pseudo-` as opposed to `true` secularism saying `it made Hindus feel like second class citizens because Muslims get to have their own laws, etc`

The first irony is `Hindutva` has been cited as the remedy for `pseudo` secularism. Is Hindutva being touted as the true secularism, can a person like Ms Bhosle answer this?? If not why the negative term pseudo? And will the truly secular stand up and organise please??

The second irony is, first `second class citizen` Hindu men were able to act pseudo and pass a legislation to deny divorced Muslim women a decent maintanence from their husbands.

Then this legislation is used as excuse for some other `second class status` Hindu men to go around raping and murdering Muslim women in Gujarat. Other `second class status` educated Hindu men often enjoying the fruits their second class status bought them in Western countries, continue to defend these actions as `natural`.

And in the final cruel ironic twist, these men term Lord Ram the protector of the weak as their hero, while(I can bet) having no scruples demanding dowries from their own spouses or enjoying the benefit of civil laws which make it very difficult for their wives to divorce them without mutual consent. After all, do you see these men burning people for demanding dowry or for subscribing to the Hindu marriage law??

Proves that politics can be used as pretence to solve problems, a pretence which the criminally-credulous public accepts even though these problems are actually being blatantly aggravated.

re: Zafar Al-Talib # 373

Brilliant. It is critically important that two things happen simultaneously: (1) people communicate honestly, and (2) nobody is made to feel they have to carry the entire burden for tackling any issue. Else, communication breaks down. Everyone suffers.