Stumbled on this very interesting post by Abbas Zaidi yesterday: Taliban’s hypocrisy is in fact Pakistan’s national trait. Brief excerpts follow. Please note that emphasis (bold) has been added by me.
*** Excerpts from Taliban’s hypocrisy is in fact Pakistan’s national trait ***
Muslim Khan, the spokesman of Pakistani Taliban…has justified the bombing of schools on many pretexts, but one stands out: Muslims must not get “English” education. By which Muslim Khan means that any school which has anything to do with the English language must be demolished.

This post was prompted by an exchange sometime ago on the Freedom Team of India google groups on the subject of “minority protection“.
As we get into the final stages of 2009 Lok Sabha elections, this is an attempt at dissecting this controversial topic and to examine how established political parties have dealt with this touchy subject. I would like to start off with this comment from Sanjeev Sabhlok, in response to points made during the discussion. He wrote (emphasis added):
All of us, each of us, is a minority of one.
Step …

Start this weekend with P Sainath at his best on Celeb crusades & the death of politics. A very brief excerpt:
The Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai averaged over 60 per cent voting between 1957 and 1977….
The barrage of celebrity propaganda to “get out there to vote” had an impact in Mumbai. Voting fell by 6 per cent….In Mumbai, voting was 41.41 per cent this time around as compared to 47.15 per cent in 2004.
Corporate media’s cutest efforts failed to arrest a decline in voting percentage. Nor did corporate-sponsored events and NGO …

*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
Over the last few days, as news continued to pour in about Taliban’s seemingly unstoppable march across north-west Pakistan, the question that would not go away in my mind was: Why is this not on the national agenda?
Is the Indian media really clueless? is it really so naive that it does not realise the gravity of the situation? or was this simply something that could be dismissed with a “Yeh to hota hi rahta hai” (and/or its variant: “Kuch nayee baat batao yaar“) ?
And yet, the happenings in Pakistan are not only much …

As some of you know, I have been organising a regular monthly get-together of like-minded fellow citizens and concerned Indians in London since the Mumbai Remembrance event that we did in December.
The meetings have continued steadily since the first follow-up in January. The mailing list now includes around 40 people…and we always run short of time (though rarely on food!).
In between the discussions and shared pizzas, we have also managed to raise funds for Loksatta and ADR (Election Watch).
The next meeting is on Monday (27th April) and the agenda is …

Start your weekend with Varnam on Einstein, Nehru and Israel. 
Next, read N Gopalaswami on poll process, Varun and Congress 
have a  look at another site that promises to inform voters…
read Brahma Chellaney on Pakistan’s Terrorist Windfall aka Fail, then reap rewards…
Nicholas D Kristof writes why there may be hope for moderate Islam in Islam, Virgins and Grapes…
and finally, Narayana Murthy on why ‘The Rich Can’t Live In A Make-Believe World In India’.
Enjoy the weekend. Stay healthy. keep smiling.
If you enjoyed this post, pl. consider subscribing to my Daily Feed or the Weekly Newsletter.
and don’t forget …

Excerpts from an eye-opening report in The Dawn (emphasis mine) 
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban will not lay down their arms in a northwestern valley as part of a deal that included the introduction of sharia law but will take their ‘struggle’ to new areas, a militant spokesman said on Wednesday.
President Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from conservatives, signed a regulation on Monday imposing sharia law in the Swat valley to end Taliban violence.
The strategy of appeasement has alarmed US officials, while critics say the government has demonstrated a lack of capacity and will to …

Start your weekend with this great post by Kislay Chandra on Riots and “Firaaq“.
Next, read TVR Shenoy on Why Varun and why not Geelani? but more importantly - think about this question that he raises in the article:
Are the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mullah Sufi Muhammad correct in holding that Islam and electoral democracy stand at two ends of the spectrum? And if they are wrong — as I hope they are — where are the Muslim leaders that are telling them off?
Here is an unusual post on how Twitter can make …

Brief excerpts from a thought-provoking article by Judea Pearl, Professor of Computer Science at UCLA and father of WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl who was murdered in 2002.
*** Excerpts Begin ***
This week marks the seventh anniversary of the murder of our son, former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. My wife Ruth and I wonder: Would Danny have believed that today’s world emerged after his tragedy?
…Neither he, nor the millions who were shocked by his murder, could have possibly predicted that seven years later his abductor, Omar Saeed Sheikh, according to …

Sh Krishen Kak emailed me this article written by Sh N S Rajaram in 2001 with the preface: “Prophetic!“. 
In an email yesterday, Sh Rajaram mentioned how the “…attack on the Sri Lankan team is eloquent testimony to the collapse of the state….”.  I am afraid one of my worst nightmares - a rapidly disintegrating Pakistan – may be closer to reality than I thought.
*** Excerpts from ”Meltdown in Pakistan” (2001) ***
The Indian establishment, obsessed with the insurgency in Kashmir, appears to have totally missed the cataclysmic changes taking place across the border that may soon render …