Offered without comment (except for the post-script!):
Vatican says Nothing Wrong with Nuclear Power

Nuclear power should be considered a useful energy source, a senior Catholic cardinal has said on Wednesday.
…“With maximum safety requirements in place for people and the environment, and with a ban in place on the hostile use of nuclear technology, why should the peaceful use of nuclear technology be barred?” Martino, the Pope’s justice minister, told Vatican Radio.
“Excluding nuclear energy because of a preconceived principle or for fears of disasters could be a mistake and in come …

…or Shantanu’s Believe it or Not – Part IV.
Did you know these facts? Courtesy, a Sept ’09 report by Saba Naqvi in Outlook (“Allah’s Left The Building”):
4 lakh acres is the land Wakf properties account for. According to the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha, K. Rahman Khan, this makes the board the third-largest landholder after the railways and defence.
…and courtesy, an Aug ’2009 report from IBN (“Debate rages on over Catholic Church properties” by D P Satish):
The Catholic Church in India owns the largest chunk of non-agricultural …

Dear All: It is my pleasure to post this fascinating & thought-provoking guest article by Sanjay that looks into some lesser-known aspects of the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda in Orissa in 2008 and the attack’s links with Maoists and Christianity…Pl read and share. Comments welcome, as always.
*** On Kandhamal, Maoists and Christianity – Sanjay ***
On August 23rd 2008, VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati was murdered leading to the infamous Kandhamal riots which received widespread media coverage with the Sangh Parivar, being the prime accused, being at the receiving end for …

…or how some news is best left out of the main pages. Courtesy Ashok-ji,  my attention was drawn to this brief news-item about a Dutch missionary who was asked to leave Jammu & Kashmir within weeks  – just after his visa was renewed for four years. Read on:
A Dutch missionary of the Institute Mill Hill working in the Kashmir region of India has been asked by authorities to leave the country by the end of July.
His expulsion came as a surprise since the government had just renewed his visa until …

Some of you may remember my recent posts from the north-east in which I had highlighted my concerns re. aggressive missionary activities in the region. Many of you would also know that there is a considerable amount of literature and news-paper reports on how foreign aid is being funnelled into anti-national activities in this part of India – at least some of it, finding its way to the numerous terrorist organisations active in the border states.
Below are two first-hand accounts and one short extract that underline the magnitude of the …

Some of you may have read about UK’s latest Hindu temple that opened its doors a few days ago in London. While glancing through the BBC report on its opening, what caught my eye was a reference to Mother Teresa.  The report quoted Ajay Jobanputra, “governor of Shri Vallabh Nidhi UK (SVNUK), the charity which raised the funds to build the Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir” as saying (emphasis/highlight added):
Famous spiritual leaders and forms of Gods from other religions are featured in the carvings such as Mother Teresa, Sri Guru …

This weekend, please find a selection of articles from the North-East, touching on some of the topics previously discussed here. More “Notes from North-East” next week. Stay tuned.
The first extract on Majuli, the world’s largest riverine island in the world and its “Satras“:
Majuli was one of the nerve-centres of the Neo-Vaisnavite Movement during its heydays. It was at Majuli (then known as Dhuwahat, Ahom territory) that Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva met his foremost disciple and apostolic successor, Madhavadeva for the very first time, in the 16th century. This event, referred to …

Another hurried post….essentially a summary of conversations over the last three days (in no particular order). Sorry for the lack of formatting etc.
Aggressive Christian evangelism is a “live” issue across north-east. There have been incidents involving conversions either via direct inducement/ allurement or indirect/ soft persuasion aided by unspoken promises of rewards. I heard of at least two cases of deception and/or fraudulent tactics being used to influence impressionable minds.
Infiltration from across the border continues unabated. I sensed a certain degree of fatalism whenever conversation veered on this topic. This is …

From Buddhists allege NSCN-IM threat (emphasis added):
…“The people in Wangnong and nearby villages (in Arunachal Pradesh) have been passing sleepless nights. They are all Buddhists. An armed militant group belonging to the NSCN(IM) has ordered them to convert to Christianity,” said Ven Aggadhamma, the highest religious leader of the Buddhists in Changlang and Tirap districts.Aggadhamma said that on May 13, a group of armed men came to the village, gathered the village head and other senior members of the village and ordered them to embrace Christianity. “These persons came to …

Q: What is common to remittances, media houses and covert evangelism?
A: Grow India

If you have never heard of “Grow India“, I don’t blame you. I was alerted to this combined “effort” of Remit2India and WorldVision via two separate emails yesterday morning (Thanks to M Balaji and S Venkat).
A little bit of digging revealed that Grow India’s aim is
to bring sustainable development to the underdeveloped areas of India…The strategy is to have a sustainable development in…underdeveloped villages that will be monitored by the local governance community ensuring the well being of …