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India On Edge:TIME TO ACT AGAINST TERROR, by Insaf,18 September 2008 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 18 September 2008

India On Edge

TIME TO ACT AGAINST TERROR

By Insaf

Have the serial blast in the Union Capital given the much-needed jolt to the ‘soft’ Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government? Notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s confession that “there were vast gaps in intelligence’ the spate of blasts across the country has by and large left the intelligence agencies none the wiser. And if one goes by Home Minister Shivraj Patil sartorial dress sense, not at all. True the Centre is now finally thinking of a POTA 2, with two minor changes as suggested by the Moily Adminstrative Reform Commission. However, the moot point is: who will reign in the coalition allies like Lalu’s RJD, Mulayam’s Samajwadi and Paswan’s LJP who all are serenading the lifting of the ban on SIMI. Remember their bee-line to Azamgarh, the hometown of terror-mastermind Basher.

In fact, experts aver the Centre’s wishy-washy approach has to make way for a pro-active hit. Wherein, the agencies take the fight into the bastions of the terror brigade. Or else the terrorists will continue to have a free run and hold the country to ransom. Towards that end we had the Union Cabinet debating last Wednesday how to strengthen the Unlawful Activities Act “in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism”. Some suggestions such as strengthening the police force, setting up of special fast track courts for terror-related trials, installing CCTVs in markets et al were made. Along with a wee-bit of criticism of the National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Patil. Global standards did you say? Clearly, if the Centre truly wants to fight terror then it has to act tough. For starters, Afzal Guru should be done away with. Is anyone listening?             

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Kashmiriyat Hit Militants

Patient enquiries interestingly show that Jammu & Kashmir’s former Governor, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (Retd) is more sinned against than sinning in the tragic violence and trouble that erupted over the Amarnath Yatra in the State. Bare facts speak for themselves. The Amarnath Shrine Board was set up in 2000 during Farooq Abdullah’s Chief Ministership on the basis of the recommendations of a Judicial Commission that inquired into the death of 250 pilgrims in the avalanche of 1996. Lt. Gen Sinha, as the State’s Governor, took over as its Chairman in 2002. The Board tried to set up state-of-the art toilets and pre-fabricated huts along the route. But PDP’s Mufti Sayeed as Chief Minister strongly opposed the move. The citizens, thereupon, took the matter to Court, which decided in favour of the Shrine Board. Thereafter, 2,000 toilets and pre-fabricated huts were set up. The Board asked for land in 2005 and in May 2008 the Governor got “a pleasant surprise” from the Government informing that “land would be transferred to the Shrine Board.” The proposal was approved unanimously by the State Cabinet.

What seems to have greatly upset the militants and secessionists, eventually leading to violence, was the Governor’s decision as the Chairman of the Shrine Board to promote “Kashmiriyat”, a tradition of religious tolerance and brotherhood. The Governor made it a practice to visit the dargah of Sheikhul Alam, the patron saint of Kashmir at Charare-e-Sharif after inaugurating the Amarnath pilgrimage. What is more, the Shrine Board organized a festival of Sufi music every year. It also set up a Centre for Kashmiriyat at the Kashmir University, which was deeply resented by the separatists who stood for hardline Islam. What appears to have finally got the militants goat was the Board’s decision to invite the famous Pakistani band Junoon to play Sufi music in Srinagar this year. They tried their best to scuttle the band’s visit. But failed. Next, they even gave a call for a strike on the day Junoon was to perform. This too did not work as some 10,000 people, turned up for the concert. What appears to have driven the militants mad was the announcement by Junoon’s leader that their concert was a “musical jihad for peace!”

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Conversion Fire Engulfs Karnataka

The communal fire, yet to die out in Orissa has now swept Karnataka’s coastal Mangalore, Udupi, and Chikmagalur, with Bajrang Dal activists targeting churches, prayer halls and Catholic-run schools. The activists, defying prohibitory orders, claim their protests are not against Christians but conversions. Specially, by the Bangalore-based Protestant sect, “New Life,” which is busy converting Hindus to Christianity. So far 16 churches and prayer halls have been attacked. The Dal has called for a bandh in Mangalore on Monday, perhaps emboldened by the BJP’s Yeddyurappa Government ordering a probe into the flow of foreign funds to some organizations reportedly being used for “conversion of Hindus into Christians.” Meanwhile, his counterpart in Orissa, Naveen Patnaik is thinking of reviewing the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, which prohibits conversion from one religion to another by use of force, allurement, inducement or by fraudulent means.

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TN Frees 1400 Convicts

Tamil Nadu does take the cake in political one-upmanship. On Monday last a whopping number of 1,405 life convicts were released from different prisons in the State. Not because of their good behaviour, but because the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi decided that this was the best way to commemorate the birth anniversary of DMK founder C N Annadurai. From one prison alone, 117 life convicts, including 6 women were set free. Instead of serving the 14-year life term, many convicts who had done only 5 to 7 years were allowed to walk free from jails. Not only that. The State Government gave cash and utility machines to those released to help start life afresh. The DGP (Prisons) word of advice: “Never show up again, even to visit acquaintances”.

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Famine in Manipur Villages

Flowering of bamboo in Mizoram is playing havoc with bordering Manipur. About 265 villages in this North-east State are reeling under famine. Around 1,600 acres of standing crop have been damaged and over one lakh people affected. The cause: the flowering of a particular bamboo “Melocan na Baciferra” (known as Mautam or bamboo of death in Mizoram). This species flowers only once in 40-50 years, but when it does, it spells disaster. The consumption of these flowers increases the fertility of rats, which then invade fields and eat up the standing crop. While Mizoram has valiantly been tackling this, villages in Manipur have been reduced to starvation. Worse, their misery has been compounded by incessant rain and landslides. Though the Centre has sanctioned over Rs 16 crore for relief, little has reached the famine-stricken. Clearly, the State better pull-up its socks and not forget that it was the 1960 famine that sparked insurgency in Mizoram. Wherein the NGO Mizo National Famine Front, working for the victims, in 1964 transformed itself into the Mizo National Front and demanded Independence.

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Women Power in Uttarakhand

The “other half” doesn’t want to lag behind their political husbands in Uttarakhand. This is the ‘fair’ total of the recently held Panchayat elections in the State. Many political heavy-weights wives contested the poll, and took advantage of the 50% reservation of seats for women at all the three levels. The winners included the wife of the State Sports Minister, Congress Leader of Opposition, former Congress Minister, BJP MLA and the Samajwadi’s National General Secretary. In fact, the latter’s wife outshone her husband --- who had failed to win even a single election in the past 20 years!  The State saw 62 women emerge victorious as Gram Pradhans, 7 won Zilla Parishad seats and 65 were elected to the Block Development Council. If this trend continues, the wives indeed qualify as the “better halves!” ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

 

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