Some of you may have already picked up this report: AP to give Christians subsidy to visit Israel
“…the Andhra Pradesh government of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Monday decided to dole out subsidies, on the lines of the Haj scheme, for Christians who want to visit holy sites in Israel.
Governor N D Tiwari in his address to the joint budget session of the Assembly and Council said, “My government has decided to extend the Haj pilgrim scheme to Christian minorities also for their religious visits to Christian Holy …

Thanks to Vidhya for alerting me to this article by Shri Arun Shourie…
It reiterates points that have been made by numerous commentators in the past…
WE APPEAR TO BE SLEEPWALKING INTO A DISASTER

Excerpts from�Shilpa Shetty trumps Arunachal again, Arun Shourie, February 12, ’08 (emphasis mine)
“…November 21, 2007: We were all at the weekly meeting of the BJP members of Parliament. L.K. Advani was presiding. Two of our colleagues represent Arunachal in the Lok Sabha � Tapir Gao and Kiren Rijiju…drew attention to the fact that Chinese incursions into …

Starting with this�one by Sandeep�which includes quotes from MF Husain’s recent interview.�The two that I�found most interesting were: (emphasis mine):
MF Husain:
“…Later, in Hyderabad, in 1968, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia suggested I paint the Ramayana. I was completely broke, but I painted 150 canvases over eight years…When I was doing this, some conservative Muslims told me, why don�t you paint on Islamic themes? I said, does Islam have the same tolerance? If you get even the calligraphy wrong, they can tear down a screen.
…
In colleges, you learn about Shakespeare and Keats, …

A report in yesterday’s Telegraph (14th Feb) has some surprising statistics re. the growth of Muslim population in the border districts of Assam, Bihar and West Bengal.
The numbers speak for themselves.

Source: http://telegraphindia.com/1080213/images/13zzpopulationbig.jpg
Some excerpts from the report, “Demography survey on eastern border” by Bhavna Vij-Aurora
…”There have been reports that more madarsas and mosques are sprouting along the borders, which in itself is an indication of increased Muslim population in the area,” disclosed an intelligence official.
….The last such study was done by the Intelligence Bureau and the home ministry in 1992, and …

Stumbled across this news today: “No love on Valentine’s Day, Sena on a rampage“
“… In Delhi, about a dozen Sena protesters briefly blocked a road early on Wednesday and burnt Valentine’s Day cards and gifts, chanting ‘Down with Valentine’.
In Lucknow, Sena activists sent out a diktat against Valentine’s Day celebration and threatened to beat up couples found celebrating their love.
“Our volunteers will check parks, hotels and restaurants and swoop upon young lovers found walking hand-in-hand,” Vijay Tiwari, a Shiv Sena activist in Lucknow, said. “We are deadly against Valentine’s Day,” …

The dark clouds may be parting…
In the last few days, I came across two more movements for political reform, at least one of which I was unaware of.
The first was LokSatta, which I had briefly mentioned before and which appears to be getting more active now; the second is Professionals Party of India (Thanks, Sundeep).
LokSatta appears to have a good base of volunteers, one of whom stumbled on my blog and sent me an email with this information (Thanks, Dnyanesh; emphasis mine):
“…We are a group of professionals in the age …

A few weeks ago I got in touch with all the 8 finalist of Times of India’s Lead India�programme and requested them to share their views on a several important issues of national interest with the readers of my blog.
Sadly only one of the contestants bothered to write back (not an encouraging sign)…He was Ujjwal Banerjee�who not only�wrote back, but did so promptly…in spite of his obviously busy schedule.
Ujjwal suggested doing the interview in parts as he needed time to reflect on the questions…So here is Part I of the …

Amidst all the recent brouhaha around Bharat Ratna nominations, someone conveniently forgot the “truth” about some of our nominees. I am thinking of Bahadur Shah Zafar who was proposed for the award as a champion of India’s freedom and someone who actively opposed the British.
The demand was made by Delhi Assembly Deputy Speaker Shoaib Iqbal…(who reportedly said that)…it was unfortunate that Emperor Bahadur Shah II, also known as Zafar, whose martyrdom and national stature rank among the highest in India’s freedom struggle, had not so far been conferred with the …

Read this eye-opening report on Ladakh by Tarun Vijay in the Times of India in full…(Anirban, thanks for alerting me to this)
Excerpts below:
“…Of late Ladakh has been witnessing a continuous trespassing by Chinese shepherds and soldiers in Chushul area where we fought a famous war of Trishul mountains led by Major Shaitan Singh (who received Param Vir Chakra after his and his brave men’s bodies were discovered one year after their martyrdom) and in the vast grass lands near Demchok.�
…Chinese are known to enter our region in a clandestine manner. …

From a very readable article in the latest edition of Technology Review* “You Don’t Understand Our Audience“, an excerpt that applies equally well to the media in India.
The background to this extract is a series on Al Qaeda that John Hockenberry (the writer of this piece) had proposed to NBC bosses in the aftermath of 9/11 which was deemed to be less interesting/relevant than a series on firefighters. Read on and think how sharply this applies to the Indian mainstream media.
Excerpt:
“…This was one in a series of lessons I …