Indore has been in the news before…but�this time it is�back for all the wrong reasons.
From NDTV: “Arrested SIMI chief planned terror strikes”
“…Arrested SIMI chief Safdar Nagori had called a meeting in Indore to finalise plans for major terror strikes across the country, police sources have said…SIMI activist Ehtesham has told the police that Nagori held a series of meetings to plan the strikes.
He also organised training camps in Madhya Pradesh to raise a local terror force. Nagori’s plan was to set up a completely indigenous jehadi outfit trained in the …

I recently came across this excellent article by Capt Bharat Verma on How India can acquire great power status. Unfortunately, knowing the way our politicians thinks and our system works, this analysis is likely to pass un-noticed and ignored by the powers that be.
This inability (or unwillingness) to think strategically is one of our leadership’s biggest weaknesses – and we are paying for it – dearly.
Excerpts below (emphasis mine):
“Due to New Delhi’s slavish use of ‘carrot’ since Independence, without any equilibrium with the ‘stick’, the great power potential of India …

What most of us long suspected, or knew, has just been confirmed by Interpol:
INTERPOL admits Dawood’s presence in Pakistan.
So whats stopping him from being extradited over? A minor technicality….Pakistan refuses to admit that Dawood Ibrahim is in the country
Never mind…once they do, we have everything lined up…including a number of flight options and easier availability of visa(s) !!
Sorry, I forgot…Shri Ibrahim is an Indian citizen…

or is he?
His passport has been revoked by the Government of India… but that may only be a minor problem… as Pakistan’s government has …

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 …

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. …

Below, a collection of short excerpts from various reports and analyses following the tragic assasination of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
***
From M. A. Muqtedar Khan’s (Associate professor and director of Islamic Studies, University of Delaware) article for The Indian Express “The region’s new Afghanistan?“, comes this chilling conclusion:
“…For America’s foreign policy, this is a big blow. Washington was banking on Bhutto becoming the next prime minister and taking over the baton from President Musharraf as America’s frontline ally in the war against terror…now we have a diminished and peeved Musharraf and no …

Came across this superb tongue-in-cheek post by Mark Anderson: The Pakistan Play.
Excerpts (emphasis mine):
“Let’s see if I have this right. Every country in the Middle East (except Israel) is a dictatorship, specifically focused on preventing radical Islam from coming to power.
…And we want democracy for Pakistan?
…OK, maybe it’s all about our other big issue, Nukes. Except the greatest crime of the modern world was putting together all the materials necessary for a nuclear weapons kit and shipping it off to fellow Islamic (and other) countries, like Iran, Libya, Syria, and …

Several weeks ago, I came across this piece by Dr Dipak Basu (Professor in International Economics in Nagasaki University, Japan)�examining the role of Satyagraha in the national freedom movement.
Until I read the article, I used to believe that Satyagraha as a�tactic was effective to at least some extent in the fight for freedom. Now I am beginning to have some doubts. I would be very interested to hear from other readers on this topic.
But before that, excerpts from “Satyagraha and India”s freedom Movement” in which Dr Base analyses Gandhi-ji’s three�major …

A few days ago I came across this piece by Kishore Asthana which makes a number of important points that form the backdrop to Godhra.
I am reproducing some excerpts below but I would encourage you to read the article in full: Tehelka�s Gujarat Expose and the Deeper Truth
Excerpts (emphasis mine):
“……Look at the progression. Arguments with tea vendors and rumours of kidnapping lead a Muslim mob to burn 60 people alive. The burning of 60 Hindu pilgrims results in carnage all over the state. It is a case of a petty …