Filtered Posts

Posted by sarwar Sep 7, 2003 08:29 pm

Hope is the only key

Dr Farrukh Saleem

The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist

farrukh15@hotmail.com

Time magazine’s issue of 1 September 2003 has devoted seven pages to cover ``India’s upwardly mobile middle class.`` Spread over seven pages are the lives of five real people; Saurabh Kedia, Swati Jain, Yamini Kandari, Kedia and Jyoti Sthankey.

Saurabh Kedia is a New Delhi native and a manager at a computer-call-centre. Saurabh is making enough money and can now afford to buy a new car, hoping to buy even his own apartment perhaps a year down the road. The night Saurabh was interviewed by Time, he was planning to ``watch X2: X-Men United at a posh, newly built multiplex theatre south of New Delhi and then sip cappuccinos with friends at one of the city’s hip new coffee shops...``

``We are able to make more and much easier money,`` says Saurabh, adding that ``every year in India, things are looking up.`` Swati Jain lives in Gurgaon, a satellite city south of New Delhi. Swati is 22 and works for a call-centre. Swati makes $2,000 a year (Rs10,000 a month) and every weekend strolls through New Delhi ``malls shopping for Levi’s jeans, watch movies and make the obligatory stop at McDonald’s.`` Swati hopes to buy a Mercedes one day.

Yamini Kandari is Swati’s co-worker. Yamini, more or less, follows Swati’s pattern but the hope in Yamini’s case is to buy a Ferrari one day.

Kedia, a college graduate, has been on the move; from one call-centre to another ``working phones all night in New Delhi to help Americans with their PCs during the day.`` Kedia’s first job paid him $1,550 a year (Rs7,500 a month). Kedia is now a manager and makes $6,200 a year (Rs30,000 a month). Kedia, when interviewed, was confident that salary is going to double within the next two years (Kedia’s salary has quadrupled over the past three years).

Jyoti Sthankey is 21 and has only recently taken up a sales clerk job at Wills, a new clothing shop in central New Delhi. Wills pays Jyoti $2,000 a year. Just last month Jyoti spent her entire month’s salary buying a Nokia mobile phone. Jyoti is hoping to quadruple her salary in the next two years.

What is common among Saurabh, Swati, Yamini, Kedia and Jyoti? They don’t belong to the same religion. They don’t fall into the same caste. What is common is that they are all Indians hoping - perhaps confident - that their tomorrow is going to be better than today.

India’s annual average per capita income is $470 but the National Council of Applied Economic Research ``estimates that the number of people living in households that earn at least $1,800 annually - considered the minimum for middle-income families - has increased 17% in just the past three years, to more than 700 million.`` At $1,800 per annum, Indian families can ``purchase motorbikes, televisions and refrigerators.``

DaimlerChrysler, the producer of Mercedes, entered India some eight years ago. DaimlerChrysler India Pvt Limited is now targeting India with a vengeance. In November 2002, DaimlerChrysler India launched its top-of-the-line version of its famous E-Class. The new E-Class is now available at the 15 authorised Mercedes-Benz showrooms across India. The ex-showroom price for Mercedes-Benz C-class is around Rs20 lakhs.

On an average day, Mercedes sells four units across India. In 2000, DaimlerChrysler India Pvt Limited showed a profit of Rs20 crore. In 2001, profits doubled to Rs41 crore on a total turnover of Rs260 crore. According to DaimlerChrysler Pvt Limited’s CEO, ``things are looking rosy for India.``

Rakesh Gangwal, Calcutta born, IIT-Kanpur graduate, became the first Indian American to head a major American airline. Victor Menezes, Calcutta born, IIT-Mumbai graduate, has served as Chairman and CEO of Citibank and was head of Citigroup’s Emerging Markets business.

Rajat Gupta, Maharashtra (Pune) born, IIT-Delhi graduate, led McKinsey & Company for nine years (McKinsey is a management consulting firm that advises Fortune 500 companies. McKinsey is the best that there is).

Vinod Khosla, Poona born, a student of IIT-Kanpur, co-founded Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun Microsystems went on and pioneered technologies including Solaris Operating Environment, Java programming language and UltraSPARC (UltraSPARC Scalable Processor Architecture) microprocessor architecture. On 18 January 2003, Vinod Khosla announced a $5 million donation for IIT Delhi.

NR Narayana Murthy (IIT-Kanpur) became Chairman of Infosys. Nandan Nilekani (IIT-Mumbai) became CEO of Infosys. Vinod Gupta (IIT-Kharagpur) became Chairman, InfoUSA. Rajesh Mashruwala (IIT-Delhi) became Chief Operating Officer of Tibco Software.

There are twenty-one cities in the Silicon Valley, including San Jose, Palo Alto, Los Alto, Foster City, Menlo Park, San Carlos, Sunnyvale and Woodside. Silicon Valley has at least twelve community and technical colleges including Silicon Valley University, Brooks College, College of San Mateo, Institute of Computer Technology and San Jose City College. Silicon Valley also has thirteen public libraries including Palo Alto City Library, San Carlos Library, Santa Clara City Library and Sunnyvale Public Library. Every city you visit, every college one enters and every library one passes by there are automobiles proudly displaying stickers of Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Madras (there also are IIT-Guwahati and IIT-Roorkee).

Pepsi, Ford, IBM, Citibank, Kodak, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Motorola, Heinz, Monsanto, Warner Bros, Federal Express, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Parke Davis, Intel, JP Morgan, Kellogg, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, American Int’l Group, Exxon-Mobil, Delta, Boston Consulting, Oracle, Unocal, Xerox, Lockheed, Raytheon, Rockwell, Honeywell, Adobe, AES, Alcoa, American Express, Northrop, McKinsey, Amway, Polaroid, Caterpillar, Dell, Sun, Texas Instruments, NCR, Hewlett Packard, Lucent, Novell, Ingersoll-Rand, American Data, MetLife, Cognizant, Caltex, Tenneco, Covansys, Diebold, Ernst & Young and Price Waterhouse with offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are hiring Indians by the thousands.

US corporate giants are now dependent on Tata Consultancy, Infosys Technologies, Wipro, Satyam Computer Services, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, Silverline Technologies, Mahindra, Pentasoft, Mascot, Mascom, Mastek, Polaris, L&T and Hexaware (all Indian software giants). All we are left with is our bomb.

Hope is the key. Bomb isn’t. India has a governing ideology. We are still debating as to who needs LFO the most - the ruling General or the opposition. Who should govern Pakistan; the coercive forces or the people? Should we have ‘rule of law’ or ‘rule of man’?

Pakistan’s foreign reserves are bulging by the day. Stock and property prices are going through the roof. Our missiles adorn every major street intersection. Our destructive potential is on full display. Hope for a better future, however, is somehow becoming a scarcer commodity by the day.

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2...003/oped/o5.htm

Living with the Bomb

Posted by sarwar Sep 7, 2003 08:29 pm

A Failed Education

Posted by sarwar Sep 7, 2003 08:29 pm

A Failed Education

Posted by sarwar Sep 7, 2003 08:28 pm

Hatred of India springs from school texts in Pakistan

Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Wednesday, July 30, 2003

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/30/MN241108.DTL

San Francisco Chronicle
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A Broken Promise

Posted by sarwar Sep 5, 2003 05:04 pm

Mohammad Ali Jinnah has been excessively blamed for what turned out to be the catastrophe of Partition. The fact was that the division was half-baked and incomplete. For Jinnah and a number of Muslim leaders such as the Nawab of Mamdot, Pir Ilahi Bux and Feroze Khan Noon, a transfer of population was an integral part of Partition. It was not wishful thinking on their part but based on a study of the European experience in the post-World War I period.

The Turko-Bulgarian Convention of 1913 resulted in a complete shift of all Bulgarians from Turkey and of all Turks from Bulgaria. Similarly, the Treaty of Laussane of 1923 insisted that the Turks living in Greece go back to Turkey and the Greek residents in Turkey return to their motherland. A total of some 20 million people thus changed homes.

According to the Pakistan daily, Dawn, at a press conference on November 25, 1946 at Karachi, Jinnah appealed to the Central as well as the provincial governments to take up the question of population exchange (quoted from Stern Reckoning by Justice Khosla in 1948). Earlier that year, Sir Feroze Khan Noon, while addressing the Muslim League legislators, had gone to the extent of threatening the re-enactment of the murderous orgies of Chenghiz Khan and Halaku Khan if the non-Muslims did not agree to the proposal for population transfer.

Incidentally, the expression ethnic cleansing was legitimate as enshrined in the Treaty of Laussane. As it happened, most Hindus were chased out of West Pakistan and many had to leave the eastern wing. By comparison, fewer Muslims changed their country.

Partition therefore was not merely incomplete but also turned out to be lopsided. Why, therefore, condemn Jinnah now? If anything, it was the Congress leadership of the time which should accept the blame.

Tunnel Vision

Posted by sarwar Sep 5, 2003 02:06 pm

strange kind of nationalism

By Aqil Shah

For days, Pakistanis watched in a state of suspended disbelief as the government and cable operators locked horns over the ban on Indian channels. Even as the two sides wrangled bitterly, their one-upmanship was couched in calculated appeals to nationalist sentiments.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) argued forcefully that it was acting in the best national interest by reinforcing a ban on vulgar Indian channels. Cable operators, initially nonplussed by the contradictory behaviour of a government ostensibly engaged in a normalization process with its eastern neighbour, fought back by saying they had always supported the official ban on Indian channels and were only demanding ``international entertainment channels``.

Whether PEMRA`s original motivation was financial or ideological is a moot point. In the tussle that ensued, an otherwise important debate about the legitimate need for freeing electronic media was once again drowned in a sea of ideological righteousness. Also sunk were claims by the government that it was committed to a free flow of information. Wholly frivolous in itself, the ban has focused renewed attention on the deeply controversial parameters of our cultural and social mores.

Moral policing is nothing new in an authoritarian state steeped in the tradition of intellectual and literary inquisition. But where does it all end? Through frequent notifications, for instance, PEMRA has been instructing cable operators to block out this or that foreign channel because of its `obscenity`.

Silent on the question of the suffocating state control over Pakistan Television and Radio, the arbitrary Ordinance (and rules) that govern its conduct empower PEMRA to simply prohibit broadcasts that are supposedly against `the ideology of Pakistan` or `endanger national security`.

These euphemisms for draconian censorship practically preclude independent news and analysis. Programmes against `good taste or decency` are also proscribed. Just whose standard of decency, no one knows. And who is to decide? Appointed PEMRA bureaucrats now acting as guardians of our social morality.

While the recent cabinet decision to allow more private media channels is welcome, it is hard not to be cynical. PEMRA can mandate private broadcasters to telecast programmes in the ``public interest``. Unless Pakistan was Alice`s Wonderland, could there be a cruder device to recruit them for state propaganda? Ironically, the government doesn`t really need to commission these channels. Though better presented and covering a wider array of issues, news bulletins on private channels rarely go beyond the received wisdom on national security issues.

Often, they mirror state propaganda on Kashmir. While there is much to write home about, ideological overloading is also commonplace in prime time programming with self-proclaimed Islamic jurists evoking divine authority to settle contentions public issues. Each time, though, they open a new can of worms that adds to our unresolved cultural and ideological confusion.

Pakistan is destined to become another Madina, proclaimed retired General Hameed Gul in unison with a talk show host recently, drowning out any hope that a reasoned debate on the origins of Pakistan was possible.

Current affairs experts are mostly right-wing generals, retired diplomats or pro-military intellectuals. As they generously dismiss the establishment`s foreign and domestic blunders as minor miscalculations, any potential debate on the urgent need to rethink or re-evaluate flawed state policies is also conveniently swept under the carpet.

Mindless anti-India propaganda spewed through scores of officially sponsored videos is relayed endlessly. Sung by the country`s most popular rock stars, the Pakistan army`s souped up bravado is mixed with state-of-the-art special effects to drive home the bestiality of the enemy who kills indiscriminately. Even if the excuse is that the Indians do it too, this hyper nationalism remains at odds with Islamabad`s declared intent of normalizing relations with India.

Equally mystifying are attempts by some military-run entities to make up for their gross inefficiency through appeals to the people`s patriotic instincts.

My favourite is a dramatic rendition extolling the war-like readiness of Wapda. With national flags fluttering and a stern, uniformed Gen Musharraf saluting in the background, the song spins the fiction that Wapda is about to revolutionize our lives. Who foots the bill for all this crude propaganda? The Pakistani taxpayer, of course.

According to Antonio Gramsci, the state`s hegemony rests not only on material and coercive power but also on a measure of ``consent, cooperation and collaboration`` that comes from cultural and ideological support of civil society.

In Pakistan, civil society has been manipulated and coerced to extract this cultural and ideological compliance for reasons of state. The unsurprising result has been the subservience of all other priorities of civil life to the narrow national security concerns of an ``Islamic`` state pitched against a ``Hindu`` India.

In adhering to the notions of an ambiguous religious ideology, the country`s civil-military elite has projected Islam as the primary basis for state legitimacy. In the process, they have played with religion to accommodate and manipulate the religious lobby. The mullahs reaction, by and large, has been ever more boldly and violently to push their demands while refusing in most cases to abide by the rule of law. Just who is using whom has not always been clear, however. Compare the MMA`s crusade against cable TV in the NWFP and the state`s resort to regulatory mechanisms to curb what it deems immoral. A right-wing establishment, naturally, sits pretty at the table with the mullas.

Governments around the world often concern themselves with manufacturing consent to protect themselves against the enemies of the state. As the Nazi spin-doctor Joseph Goebels had famously remarked: a lie told often enough ultimately becomes the truth. In Pakistan, principal forms of socialisation (history textbooks, state-run electronic media) are thus infused with an undying sense of militaristic nationalism.

Despite all that, and more, why is it that over 90 per cent of cable TV viewers still demand Indian channels? Simple answer: They are not the dimwits the establishment considers them to be. Pakistanis can well differentiate between harmful propaganda and harmless entertainment. There is much that is wrong with Indian TV channels, and ours for that matter.

But that is no excuse for PEMRA or any other government agency to resort to tactics of thought control. The unbelievable condescension with which some PEMRA officials have been publicly speaking for the ``millions of illiterate and impressionable Pakistanis``, who are not yet ready to make ``free choices``, is an insult to the dignity of the whole nation.

Informed observers say memories of the aggressive media blitzkrieg by private Indian channels during the Kargil conflict was still fresh in Islamabad`s corridors of power when the Indians slapped a ban on PTV in early 2002. Though localized and short-lived, that ban only provided the pretext for a decision the Pakistani establishment would have liked to make anyway.

For some, the government`s plea of ``stabilizing`` Pakistani private channels and continuing the ban on Indian channels, therefore, smacks of foul play. Don`t blame these cynics for casting aspersions on the government`s oft-repeated desire for regional peace. From the way they conduct themselves in the 21st century, the abiding motto of Pakistan`s ruling elite could well be: Ignorance is strength.

http://www.dawn.com/2003/09/05/fea.htm

Towards Greater Tolerance

Posted by sarwar Sep 5, 2003 02:06 pm

Can Muslims Become Part of Mainstream Nationalism?

Posted by sarwar Sep 5, 2003 01:23 pm

Two-nation theory

I read the `Letter from New Delhi` on the two-nation theory (Aug 9), and here are my comments.

Mr Kuldip Nayar, referring to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, wrote: ``which two nations was he talking about?`` Two nations, Hindus and Muslims, not just to separate ideologies. To this and in times to come, these will remain two separate nations.

No matter to what extent the Indians succeed in transplanting their culture in Pakistan, but this won`t do. No intellectual debates but one cricket match between India and Pakistan would say it all, the two-nation theory. Go to the Wagah border, you can see it.

Mr Nayar wrote that Jinnah was unmindful of the fact that more Muslims would be left in India and that was why Maulana Abul Kalam opposed it. I wish Maulana could see the plight of Muslims living in India. The miserable, subjugated and oppressed life they`re living is not a secret. It just hurts deeply to see the deprivation wrought on their faces. These Muslims of India, who once lived with dignity and pride, now live a life of fear and deprivation.

Yes, there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. But what voice, what representation and what protection do they have? We all know this slogan, `learn from us how to burn Muslims`. Their respect, property, business and freedom is all at stake. Do I need to mention examples? I was struck when I read Mr Nayar`s letter. On what grounds did he refute and denounce the two-nation theory when the Muslims of India are being subjected to a life replete with oppression and humility.

I have met Muslims living in India. They look at Pakistani Muslims with longing and desire. Are the Muslims of India happy and contented? I think the answer is not difficult to surmise. Pakistan is our country, our very own motherland. We have our forces, our language and our identity. We are not a secular state. But nobody marches here to temples to demolish them, nobody says here, `learn from us how to burn Hindus`.

In no way, India has proved to be a better place for Muslims than Pakistan. India can only denounce the `two-nation theory` the day Muslims of India start to spend a life of respect, dignity, free from oppression, humility and subjugation. So, Mr Nayar you are not in a position to state ``which two-nation theory he talks about.``

Pakistan is my country and all my dreams are incomplete without it. This is my recognition, a Muslim Pakistan. The land my forefathers aspired for and thus created it. We can live as good neighbours, enjoying good relationship. But never as one. Pakistan came into being the day the first non-Muslim in the subcontinent converted to Islam.

Although we lost East Pakistan, but did it join India? It did not and never would. Mr Nayar, Pakistan has come into being to stay.

JAHANZEB SALEEM

Sukkur

http://www.dawn.com/2003/09/05/letted.htm#6

A Broken Promise

Posted by sarwar Sep 5, 2003 01:23 pm

Lata Mangeshkar & Noor Jahan Chalte Chalte

Posted by sarwar Sep 5, 2003 10:45 am

Articles By Lataji

http://members.tripod.com/gaurav-kumar/trans.htm

Translation from original Marathi By Sameer Desai

http://www.maharashtratimes.com/diwali/Lata-Gane1.htm

MAAJHA GAANA [MY SONG]

Thinking a lot about the song, putting in hard work, etc, such a mentality is not seen now a days. Making a quickest possible, simple, and easy song is what is done. Nobody feels the necessity of presenting music which would leave an effect on the mind and create an impression.. the result, one or two good songs are heard. Earlier an entire movie used to run on songs. Even if the movie was a flop, the songs used to be great hits. But nowadays, if a movie crashes, the songs too crash and once the movie is gone, the songs too are forgotten. Then if such a song is sung, people feel, why this one?

Just Another BLOW-UP?

Posted by sarwar Sep 4, 2003 01:34 pm

http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/content.asp?y=2003&dt=0905&pub=Utusan_Express&sec=World&pg=wo_07.htm

New breed of Indian bombers are graduates, doctors, IT experts
NEW DELHI Sept 4 - Investigations into a string of blasts in Bombay in recent months show that the new breed of bombers in India are graduates, doctors and software experts with similar profiles to those who carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States.

``If you look at the nature of terrorism - the profile of the September 11 attackers or those detained for the Bombay blasts - it is part of globalisation that the terrorist is no longer the shadowy stereotype, the underworld criminal but from the educated middle-class,`` said C.U. Bhaskar, deputy director of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.

His view was echoed by a former Bombay police chief Julio Ribeiro, who told a television channel at the weekend most of those involved in the Bombay blasts were not mercenaries but educated people fighting a perceived injustice.

The Indian Express newspaper this week profiled 10 men who have been detained or arrested for their alleged involvement in blasts across India`s western financial hub since last December.

About 70 people have been killed in the blasts, with 52 of the deaths coming from lunchtime twin car bomb explosions on August 25.

According to the Indian Express, all 10 men are university graduates with some having degrees in forensic science, medicine, business management or computer software.

By contrast, Bombay police believe that a series of blasts 10 years ago in Bombay - although allegedly planned by Pakistan`s military intelligence and facilitated by underworld leaders - were carried out by ``misguided`` unemployed youths.

The Hindustan Times in a weekend article noted that sectarian riots in the western state of Gujarat in March-April last year had been a watershed.

The riots were sparked by a mob of Muslims torching a train carrying Hindu activists and devotees in Gujarat`s Godhra town on February 27 last year.

The incident sparked anti-Muslim riots which raged across Gujarat for three months and left about 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.

According to the Hindustan Times, Abdul Mohammed Mateen, 28, a specialist in forensic medicine who was arrested for a bomb blast in Bombay last December, was driven to carry out the attack by the Gujarat violence.

His hostel room had become a meeting point for like-minded friends from university, the report said, adding that the group also made contact with the pro-Pakistan Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group which is battling Indian rule in Kashmir.

The report also quoted unidentified Bombay police officials as saying that after the Gujarat riots many Muslim youths disappeared from their homes in small towns and villages.

They were indoctrinated into militancy and were now starting to return home, it said.

According to analyst Bharat Karnad from the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, the Gujarat riots likely provided the spark for the Bombay blasts.

``The Indian Muslim population is getting politically more literate, more aware of their rights and the obvious shortfall in justice in the violence perpetuated against them. This is bound to inflame them,`` Karnad said.

``The more literate they are, the better the rationale they can provide for their actions,`` he said.

Police said four Muslims arrested for last week`s car bombings - a man and wife and their 17-year-old daughter as well as another activist - were all members of the Gujarat Muslim Revenge Group, a splinter of the hardline Lashkar.

Mohammed Atta, a suspected ringleader of the September 11, 2001 attacks who is believed to have piloted the first plane that struck the World Trade Center in New York, was the son of a successful Egyptian lawyer.

He grew up in Cairo and graduated with a degree in architecture from Cairo University before moving to Germany, where he was registered as a student of urban planning in Hamburg from 1993 to 1999. - AFP

India Unvarnished

Posted by sarwar Sep 4, 2003 06:45 am

Yes, he did massacre and plunder Indians

By Mubarak Ali

It is difficult to understand why a controversy on Ahmad Shah Abdali`s role during his Indian campaigns is being raised these days and the Afghan king being presented as a hero by some and an invader and a marauder by others. Whatever the reasons, the fact remains that those who judge him from an ethnocentric point of view, for them he was the founder of modern Afghanistan and a great Afghan (popularly he is called baba) who defeated the Indians and conquered their territories.

And those who see his achievements in religious perspective, for them he was a great conqueror who defeated the Marathas at the Battle of Panipat in 1761 and liberated the Muslims from their political domination. But those who assess his career purely from a historical point of view, they will find him an aggressor who invaded India only for the sake of plunder and loot and inflicted great political, social and economic losses on the people of the Indian subcontinent.

We need to understand that foreign invasions always bring havoc, chaos, and disruption to occupied territories. If we absolve our (Muslim) invaders from crimes and instead start eulogizing them, it creates false historical consciousness leaving no space for us to learn anything from history. In case of invaders and aggressors there should be no distinction between `ours` and `theirs`. They should be treated purely within historical parameters and their crimes should be exposed and condemned.

Ahmad Shah Abdali (1722-1773) was with Nadir Shah when the latter invaded India in 1739 and participated in all his Indian campaigns and subsequent lootings. Therefore, his main motive to invade India, when he assumed power after the assassination of Nadir Shah, was purely to plunder what his patron had left behind and nothing else.

Leaving aside the accounts of his Punjab, Sindh and Blochistan campaigns, I would like to concentrate on his invasion of North India and occupation of Delhi in 1757 and in 1761. That was the period when the Mughal Empire had lost its military power and failed to protect its imperial capital from the Afghan army. After the invasion, Abdali`s first victim was the population of Mathura, the holy city of the Hindus. The contemporary chronicles describe that the occupation army demolished the houses, broke the idols, massacred male population and raped helpless women.

Next was the Gokul city and then Agra where his general Jahan Khan not only slaughtered the inhabitants but also levied heavy fines on those who were fortunate enough to survive. Leaving a trail of devastation and destruction behind him, Abdali entered the imperial capital and launched a systematic campaign to plunder the city. The author of Tarikh-i-Alamgiri gives details of looting.

According to him, a centre was set up to collect fines from the citizens near Katra Roshan-al-Daula. Letters were sent to the rich people to come to the office and pay the imposed fine. On every street and market a kulahposh was posted who counted the houses and shops and demanded money according their financial status. Torture and beating was a common practice to extort money. As a result, many people committed suicide; many died because of torture. To find hidden treasure, the soldiers demolished the houses and dug the floors and no one was spared.

It is estimated that a total amount of money which Abdali took from India was between 3 and 12 cores of rupees. The booty not only included jewels, ornaments, diamonds, and other precious things but also the Mughal princesses. He wanted to marry Hazrat Mahal, the daughter of Muhammad Shah.

According to J.Sarkar in his The Fall of the Mughal Empire: `` This tender lamb was to be pounced upon by a fierce Afghan of grandfatherly age whose two ears docked and nose was rotting from a leprous carbuncle.`` There was resistance in the harem. The royal family threatened to kill her. He was told that she was not beautiful and was already engaged to a prince. However, all efforts to save her from the clutches of the Afghan failed. He married her forcibly.

Two widows of Muhammad Shah and the daughter of Ahmad Shah accompanied her to Afghanistan. Besides them, there were other Mughal princesses who were forced to accompany the Afghan army. They included Affatun Nisa, who was married to Nadir Shah`s son in 1739 and whom Ahmad Shah married after the death of Nadir. Sarkar quotes from a Marathi letter which says: ``The Pathan has taken away the handsome wives of the Amirs``. There was such a large-scale loot of the capital that it took 28,000 camels, elephants, mules, and carts to carry Abdali`s booty.

Shah Waliuallah (d.1762), who later invited Abdali to invade India, was in Delhi and wrote letters to his friends seeking help for his safety. In one of his letters he writes, `` When the Shah (Durrani) marches against India, you should write to some of your sincere friends in the Durrani`s army that so and so (Shah Wali-Allah) is in Delhi.

Should the Durrani`s army suddenly enter Delhi, some of his guards should be posted for his (Shah Wali-Allah`s) protection. By way of protection it would be better to depute a student to the Durrani`s army, in order that he might warn the army in time to protect the sincere friend (Shah Wali-Allah).`` In spite of his acts of plunder and atrocities, which was personally witnessed by Shah Waliullah, he wrote a letter to Abdali to invade India against the Marathas.

Most of the Pakistani textbook historians eulogize Abdali as a great mujahid who defeated the `kafir` Marathas in the third battle of Panipat (1761). However, historians of South Asia point out that the benefit of the Marathas` defeat went to the East India Company and not the Mughals. After the battle of Panipat, Abdali came to Delhi as a conqueror and resided at the Red Fort along with his wives and held court in the Diwan-i-Khass of Shahjahan. He and his army did not spare the city from pillage and rapine.

Mir Taqi Mir narrates the tribulations of the inhabitants of Delhi in his autobiography Zikr-i-Mir, in these words: ``In the evening Raja Nagar Mal (Mir`s patron) left the city, and in due course reached the fort of Suraj Mal (the Jat ruler). I stayed behind to look after my family. After evening, a proclamation was made that Shah Abdali had granted security to all, and that none of citizens should be in any fear. But as night had scarcely fallen when the outrages began. Fires were started in the city and houses were burnt down and looted.

``The following morning there was all uproar and confusion. The Afghans and Rohillas (Najib`s soldiers) started the work of slaughter and plunder, breaking down doors, tying up those they found inside, and in many cases burning them alive or cutting off their heads. Everywhere was bloodshed and destruction, and for three days and three nights this savagery continued. The Afghans would leave no article of food or clothing untouched.

``They broke down walls and roofs of the houses, ill-treated and tormented the inhabitants. The city was swarming with them. Men who were pillars of the state were brought to nothing, men of noble rank left destitute, family men bereft of all their loved ones. Most of them moved the streets amid insult and humiliation. Men`s wives and children were made captive, and the killing and looting went on unchecked. The Afghans humiliated and abused their victims and practised all kinds of atrocities upon them. Nothing that could be looted was spared, and some would strip their victims even of their underclothing. The new city (Shahjahanabad) was ransacked.``

Mir Taqi Mir further writes how the old city of Delhi was plundered by the occupation army of Abdali.`` For seven or eight days the tumult raged. Nobody was left with cloth to wear or with enough food even for a single meal. Many died of the wounds that they had received, while others suffered greatly from the cold. The looter would carry off men`s stores of grain and then sell it at an extortionate price to those who needed it.

The cry of the oppressed rose to heaven, but the king (Abdali), who considered himself a pillar of true religion, was quite unmoved. A large number of people left the city and fled into the open country, where many of them died. Others were carried off by force to the invader`s camp. I, who was already poor, became poorer...my house, which stood on the main road was razed to ground.``

This was the legacy of Ahmad Shah Abdali, the great warrior and conqueror that he left behind in India. If still he is to be regarded as a hero or saint, then we shall have to change the meaning of both words. (Those who wish to know more about Abdali may refer to Ganda Singh`s excellent book Ahmad Shah Abdali).

The writer is an eminent historian of Pakistan and has written several books on South Asian history.

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/encounter/encounter.htm#3

Musharraf : Self Styled Saviour Stuck in a Rut

Posted by sarwar Sep 3, 2003 10:52 am

The Pakistan government is considering filing a case of treason against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for revealing in an interview to India Abroad that General Pervez Musharraf harboured ambitions of capturing Srinagar long before the Kargil war.

rediff.com owns India Abroad, the widely circulated newspaper published for the Indian-American community.
Full story ...
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/03inter.htm

Coming to Terms with Kargil

Posted by sarwar Sep 3, 2003 09:32 am

Benazir-establishment tiff takes new turn

By Kamran Khan

KARACHI: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s already troubled relations with Pakistani establishment took a new dip when she revealed elements of an important military operation in a newspaper interview with an Indian journalist in London, a few days after a Swiss magistrate judgment last month, senior officials have said. ``Musharraf wanted to grab Srinagar,`` Shayam Bhatia quoted Ms Bhutto in August 21 issue of India Abroad, a weekly news magazine.

Ms Bhutto disclosed to Bhatia: ``He was my Director General Military Operations and he presented me with his plan in front of 50 officers about how the mujahideen would infiltrate an area similar to Kargil, how they would bring about a war and how the Indians wouldn’t be able to dislocate us and they would be forced to start a second front at which point the international community would intervene and we would take Srinagar.`` The interview or its contents have not been disputed by the PPP despite its publication on August 21.

Without commenting upon the exact contents of the briefing, several official sources have now said that Ms Bhutto’s interview with the Indian journalist contained elements of the ``Top Secret`` briefing arranged for her by the then COAS Gen Abdul Wahid Kakar at the Joint Staff headquarters in mid-1995.

In the briefing attended by the top hierarchy of the military services, informed officials said, the then Director General Military Operations Major General Pervez Musharraf briefed the audience about the contingency plans and operations prepared by the military operations directorate, the backbone of military planning at the General Headquarters (GHQ).

Officials confirmed a vigorous interaction that took place between Ms Bhutto and Major General Musharraf, but they said that even then it was impressed upon her that the Army was not contemplating any action and the idea for that most confidential briefing was only to apprise her of the preparedness of the country’s military planners.

``Based on hypotheses that may sometimes sound weird, the military operations directorate prepares contingency plans to meet internal or external crises,`` commented an informed senior official.

``As back as in 1965 the Indian army had plans to march through the borders to the centre of Lahore and to have their drinks at the Lahore Gymkhana Club,`` he added. ``Even such a ridiculous proposition was part of the Indian military plan.``

The official said that each operation and plan at the military operation (MO) level is finalised after crucial inputs from other elements of the Army and is debated even up to the COAS level before being secured as a final MO plan.

``It was irresponsible on the part of the former prime minister to speak about an India related military operation and that too with an Indian reporter,`` said a senior Pakistani official. A senior PPP leader in Islamabad, requesting anonymity, recalled: ``Ms Bhutto had granted this interview soon after the Swiss magistrate’s judgment and she thought that the military junta had bribed the Swiss magistrate to defame her internationally.``

Whatever may be the background of Ms Bhutto’s interview with ``India Abroad``, conversation with several senior officials here in past weeks showed that this particular statement might aggravate her problems with the Army more than anything else in recent past.

Ms Bhutto’s decision to speak about the military operations presented to her by the Army has apparently further angered the establishment, which had not yet recovered from her series of media interviews since September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States in which the former prime minister had accused ISI of having direct connection with Osama bin Laden.

Several times also in the past two years, she branded top generals such as General Musharraf, former DG ISI Lt-Gen Mahmoud Ahmad and Chairman joint chiefs of staff Gen Aziz Khan as fundamentalist pro-al Qaeda generals.

The reason for her continued tirade against the Army is her belief that the establishment never allowed her government to function normally and she is being defamed internationally because she represents a solid challenge to the establishment’s grip over power in Pakistan.

Paradoxically, she never had serious complaints against the Army chiefs that had served the PPP government. Ms Bhutto had such an admiration for former COAS Gen Aslam Beg that she decorated him with an unprecedented Medal of Democracy. Her opinion about Gen Beg has now changed completely as she accuses him now of accepting $10 million from Osama bin Laden to overthrow her government through a no-confidence vote in parliament in 1990.

Ms Bhutto regarded COAS Gen Wahid Kakar so much that she wanted to extend his term as the Army chief and she still tells visitors that Gen Jehangir Karamat is a gentleman and he did not encourage former president Leghari to dismiss her government in 1996.

Though in opposition against Nawaz Sharif, Ms Bhutto established cordial relations with then COAS Gen Asif Nawaz to an extent that after Gen Asif Nawaz’s sudden demise the PPP awarded his non-political brother a National Assembly ticket from Jhelum.

But it seemed she never trusted the military’s security services. Less than a year in power, she ordered the sacking of then ISI chief General Hamid Gul in May 1989 and for the first time in ISI’s history appointed a retired official as its director general.

The same year she demanded General Beg to dismiss his DG military intelligence (DGMI). At one point, she even asked Gen Beg to transfer the military intelligence’s Sindh sector commander in 1990.

After the dismissal of her government in August 1990, Ms Bhutto openly locked horns with the establishment by openly declaring at a press conference that her government was sacked under a military intelligence conspiracy and her government’s dismissal order read by the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan was actually drafted in the GHQ’s judge advocate general branch.

Though she held military intelligence responsible for hatching conspiracy against her first government, but during the second term in office, she surprised many in her party by choosing Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, former DGMI, as her government’s ambassador to Germany.

During her second term in power, during which Gen Wahid and subsequently Gen Karamat had served as her COAS, Ms Bhutto did not have any serious dispute with the ISI chiefs, Lt-Gen Nasim Rana and his successor Lt-Gen Javed Ashraf, but in 1995 she stunned Gen Wahid by demanding that the then Deputy Director General ISI, Maj-Gen Shujaat Ali be sacked for working against her government.

A year later Ms Bhutto wrote a demi-official letter to COAS Gen Karamat, this time to demand dismissal of the then DGMI Maj-Gen Mahmoud Ahmad.

As former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Ehtesab cell under Saifur Rahman swung into action against Ms Bhutto and her husband, she charged that the establishment had planted a former ISI director Brig Saghir Ahmad to expedite cases against her.

After the downfall of the Nawaz government, particularly after 9/11, when she was accusing Gen Musharraf of running a pro-al-Qaeda government, she singled out the then chairman NAB Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool of harbouring personal grudge against her.

Repeatedly in the past few weeks, the PPP chairperson, whose grip on the party still seems formidable, has alleged that the General Pervez Musharraf-led establishment influenced Switzerland’s judicial system to win an initial magisterial inquiry against her and now this verdict is being used to rid her of a positive international image.

Meanwhile, informed officials said authorities are exploring if Ms Bhutto’s interview with Shayam Bhatia of India Abroad is tantamount to the breach of her oath as prime minister.

The oath of the prime minister says: ``I’ll not disclose to anyone any matter or subject that is brought into my knowledge as the prime minister.`` No head of state or top government of Pakistan official has ever been convicted for violating the Official Secrets Act.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2003-daily/02-09-2003/main/main4.htm

Kargil: A view from Pakistan

Posted by sarwar Sep 3, 2003 09:32 am

Kargil and the Myth of Losing the Media War

Posted by sarwar Sep 3, 2003 09:32 am

listing 32-48 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

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