Some links for weekend reading - IV
On Bal Thackeray and his call for Hindu suicide squads/ Hindu terrorists: Nip it in the bud by Offstumped. A short excerpt:
Bal Thackeray’s remarks are reprehensible. There is no moral sanction for Terrorism by any tenet of Hindu Dharma. Those responsible for the Thane bomb blast must be brought to trial and any attempts by them to appropriate moral sanction under Hindu Dharma must be denounced unequivocally. There is no room or place for Terrorism by Hindus for Hindus with Hindu Dharma as moral cover.
Terrorism is Adharma let there be no ambiguity on this.
On Narendra Modi’s comment re. taxes and aid: Two curious legal cases by BarbarIndian. Excerpt:
The first involves the following statement by Narendra Modi:
“I want to tell the government in Delhi, lets sign a year-long pact, you don’t take any money from us and don’t give us any aid. And then we will show the Centre how we run the state. You all tell me, am I not right,” he was quoted as saying. [link]It is not known if these were the exact words uttered by Modi, but calling these statements seditious is quite ambitious. As a matter of fact, Congress bigwigs have not made any public statements, leaving the hatchet job to foot soldiers like Manish Tewari.
Given that the UPA top brass have basically maintained a wall of silence about the Gujjar and Gorkha issues, one can only imagine the seriousness of this regime about the nation’s security. Perhaps this is a moot point, since many of UPA’s partners are unabashedly seditious, especially the communist factions.
As a side point, Congress claims that the Government does not have “any system to determine how much a state government contributed in taxes to the Centre”. This is quite funny. Evidently the Government does not have any mechanism to determine which castes qualify for OBC privileges either. The Government does not even have a mechanism to determine how much of social spending actually go to intended recipients (15% if you believe the late Rajiv Gandhi, 5% if you believe Rahul).
The center-state resource allocation issue is nothing new. A plethora of studies have been done on this issue, as an example - here. The fact of the matter is, there is a well defined system that determines these issues. That system is called “electoral opportunism”.
I will try a summary of the study in a future post.
On Jihad Against Freedom of Speech at the United Nations by Jeffrey Imm. Excerpt:
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has no problem with its members suggesting that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” perpetrated by the United States on itself. …
Denying the role of Jihadists in the 9/11 attacks is apparently perfectly acceptable freedom of speech for the UNHRC, but criticizing Sharia law is another story.
On June 16, 2008, UNHRC president Doru Romulus Costea announced that criticism of Sharia law will not be tolerated by the UNHRC, based on the complaints and pressure by Islamist delegates to the UNHRC. In effect, the Islamist nations represented at the UNHRC have effected a Jihad against freedom of speech at the United Nations when it comes to criticizing Sharia or Islamic supremacist (aka Islamist) theocratic ideologies that threaten the freedom and lives of innocents around the world.
On Pakistan Army fires strategic broadsides at United States and India by Dr Subhash Kapila. Excerpt:
General Ashfaq Kiyani, Pak COAS has been quoted by the respected Pakistan journalist, Ahmed Rashid in a Los Angeles Times feature as follows:
- General Kiyani has told US military and NATO officials that the Pakistan Army will not “retrain or re-equip” its troops to fight the counter-insurgency war on the Afghan frontier as demanded by the Americans.
- Pakistan will deploy the bulk of its troops on Pakistan’s borders with India and prepare for possible conflicts with traditional enemy India.
Related observations emanating in this report are as follows:
- More than 80% of the $ 10 billion aid provided by USA to Pakistan was diverted to buy advanced major weapon systems for the Indian front.
- Pakistan Army after its peace deals with Taliban leaders has virtually withdrawn from the seven districts of FATA
- Posts vacated by Pakistan Army now stand occupied by Taliban cadres.
- The peace deal with the Taliban has only one proviso that they will not attack Pakistan Army troops. There is no proviso that they will not attack US/NATO troops in Afghanistan and therefore the Taliban has now a free run against them.
Have a thoughtful weekend.
Related Posts:
Some good links for weekend reading…
*Must Read* links for the weekend
