Column and Opinions

Obama's bombshell: Pak plotting war on India

rkm — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:38 -0400

Washington: Accusing Pakistan of misusing the massive American aid to fight the war on terror, Democratic nominee for the US Presidential election Barack Obama, in a sensational comment, has said Islamabad was using these funds for "preparing for a war against India".

Senator Obama vowed to hold Islamabad accountable for the massive military aid it has received from Washington if he is elected to the White House. He said his administration will increase pressure on the Pakistan to come to terms with terrorist safe havens along its northern border with Afghanistan.

"What we can do is stay focused on Afghanistan and put more pressure on the Pakistanis," Senator Obama said in an interview with Fox News.

He noted that the US was providing Pakistan military aid "without having enough strings attached".

"So they're (Pakistan) using the military aid...Pakistan...they're preparing for a war against India," Senator Obama said. Maintaining that he will follow the al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the "gates of hell", the Democratic nominee said that this could be accomplished without resorting to sending ground troops to Pakistan.

However, he said his future administration is not going to pullout from the war on terror and allow the fundamentalists to take over Pakistan.

"What we say is, look, we're going to provide them with additional military support, targeted at terrorists, and we're going to help build their democracy. We've wasted USD 10 billion with Musharraf without holding them accountable for knocking out those safe havens," Senator Obama said.

He stressed that "nobody talked about some full-blown invasion of Pakistan", but "we've got to put more pressure on Pakistan to do what they need to do".

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/obamas-bombshell-pak-plotting-war-on-india/7...

Obama's bombshell: Pak plotting war on India

rkm — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:38 -0400

"What we can do is stay focused on Afghanistan and put more pressure on the Pakistanis," Senator Obama said in an interview with Fox News.

He noted that the US was providing Pakistan military aid "without having enough strings attached".

However, he said his future administration is not going to pullout from the war on terror and allow the fundamentalists to take over Pakistan.

He stressed that "nobody talked about some full-blown invasion of Pakistan", but "we've got to put more pressure on Pakistan to do what they need to do".

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/obamas-bombshell-pak-plotting-war-on-india/7...

RSS giving a helping hand to flood victims !!!

rkm — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:19:49 -0400

Saharsa/Purnia (Bihar), Sept 3 (PTI) The Kosi may have changed its course killing and displacing many in Bihar, but the river has also "sank" religious differences as evident in relief camps where RSS men were seen serving food to Muslims.
Clad in khaki shorts and caps, RSS men are serving gram and flattened rice to Muslim flood victims in a relief camp at Saharsa.

The camp being run by 'Seva Bharti', a Sangh Parivar outfit, at the zila school campus at Saharsa presents a rare but heartening sight where the devastating deluge of Kosi has sunk bitterness and differences.

"Over a 100 people of my community are taking shelter here for more than a week now and we have absolutely no complaint .... Life cannot be better than this in a relief shelter," says Mohammed Salauddin, who fled Parba village in Madhepura district along with his family to escape the flood fury.

In another camp, a kilometre away, a joyful reunion was taking place. The prayers of Phulo Devi, who has observed fasts on all occasions of 'Teej', have been answered.

Nago Paswan, her husband, who works as a farmhand in far away Punjab and had not visited their village in Murliganj in Madhepura for the last couple of years, rushed home when he learned of the flood havoc, but was stranded at Saharsa.

As luck would have it, he met Phulo and his children Rinku, Mamta and Rahul at the relief camp.

"I am relieved that my family is alive .... I had given up hope after watching on TV the destruction caused in Murliganj," says Nago.PTI

Why was Swami Laxmanananda killed? By An Insider

rkm — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:43:52 -0400

How was Swami Laxmanananda killed on August 23, 2008? Demonstratively, when his Ashram was crowded, they were performing Janmastami rites, with weapons that are fit for the Army, with advance warmning, when he was under police protection, and in the name of Christianity. The police promptly gave out the news that he was killed by Naxalites, even though the latter of threat he had received (and which he had enclosed with the FIR) was that he was preventing Hindus from converting to Christianity.

The news did NOT appear in Times of India, Bhubaneswar edition, on August 24, 2008. Laxmanananda had been attacked earlier. Then there had been some riots, Christian leaders and their dummy NGOs had visited the area, held press conferences at Bhubaneswar and Delhi, and had received wide coverage. Even Anupam Bharat, a small Oriya news paper often devoted to Indian culture and Hindu philosophy, brought out a series of articles portraying how Christian ‘minorities’ were persecuted in Kandhamal district. The last of the series of articles appeared a week ago.

How minor is the Christian community in Kandhamal? During British rule one particular community in undivided Koraput, Kandhamal and Gajapati (earlier a sub-division of Ganjam district) district had been converted to Christianity. This was the same tacit policy of the British for conversion without affecting their main objective of earning money. In fact, the British still trusted Christian converts more than the Hindus, but most of these converts were Catholics. It should be remembered that the British were protestants. This particular was a trader community. British official gazetteers have described them as cunning, prone to crime and exploiters of forest dwellers. They were traders and monopolised sale to absolutely essential commodity like salt, and exploited the tribals through such monopoly. Please recall that when the British took control of any area in India, the first thing they did was to monopolise salt trade. So British officials allotted not only salt, they also gave away prime, plain, fertile, road side land to this Christian community. At the same time, the British trusted them so little that they did not appoint any of them as village rent collector or chieftain. A report of Lutherans available in Orissa Secretariat library admits that the tribals did not convert to Christianity because this had become the religion of their exploiters.

Meanwhile three things have happened. After Independence, when reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) was introduced, and the Christian converts did not get the benefit, they stopped taking Christian names, and switched over to Hindu names. They went to Church, kept a Cross in the bedroom, but kept a Tulsi (Occimum Sanctum) plant in the front yard and a photo of a Hindu deity on the verandah. So when officials in charge of giving caste certificate visited these houses, they were satisfied that the family was eligible for the benefits of SC. One such person is a retired IAS officer, also MP, who devoted his life to conversion. He too had forsaken his Christian name and had adopted a Hindu name to avail the benefit of reservation. The second thing which has happened is the ingress of rich American Baptists, and most aggressive of them is the Pentecostal group. With their enormous money power, they have been able to convert tribals in Rayagada, Gajapati and Koraput districts. But, they have not been available convert the tribals of Kandhamal because of excessive exploitation by this Christian community and more so because the major tribe in Kandhamal is Kandha, who are aggressive about protecting their religion. Many of the SC Christian persons have also acquired Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificates depriving the benefit to the tribals. The continuing land dispute and the above cheating by this particular Christian community has ensured that tribals of Kandhamal do not get converted to Christianity. It was not Swami Laxmanananda who prevented the tribals for becoming Christians. It is the exploitation, please understand. Laxmanananda was only performing his Hindu dharma. Then why was he killed?

The third thing which has happened is the Forest Conservation Act. This has not reduced devastation of the forests; this has increased exploitation of tribals, because the rent they have to pay to the forest officials has increased. The indebtedness of a tribal has gone up manifold because of the Act as enforced by the Supreme Court through a series of cases under the original Godavarman case, a parallel unknown in world jurisprudence.

Let us rewind to the issue of Graham Steins, who with his two sons were burnt down by irate tribals because of conversion. This had invited the wrath of the whole world. Particularly because the dead included two children. One Dara Singh was found guilty and ordered to be hanged. One can go through the order. There was no evidence that Dara burnt down the vehicle. The Judgment appears to be more tuned to world public opinion. At least one minor was incarcerated for years without guilt. The wife of the deceased missionary was awarded Padmashree ignoring the recommendation of the state government for an eminent classical singer. After the punishment and the award, Christian missionaries have a field day; there is rampant conversion. There has been no economic growth; it is only the money of people who want to convert innocent people to Christianity. If this had happened in USA or Australia, what would have been the view of the prosecutors and judges? They would have asked: “Why did this fellow take his children in the dead of night to a hostile ground?” Had that father been alive, the prosecutors would have charged him for causing death due to negligent and risky behaviour. That missionary would have faced the same punishment as someone who takes his children to a sea in storm. No, here of course, we have this fall guy called Dara, and he is to be hanged.

Why were the tribals of Mayurbhanj-Keonjhar angry with this Graham? Because he asked the villagers to plough the land during Raja. Raja is a fertility festival. This is when the mother earth is menstruating; so you do not plough, because this is the time for mother earth to heal. The environmental implications should be understood: after the first rains, if the land is ploughed immediately, many flora and fauna will disappear. So this is the rest period. For the tribal of Mayurbhanj, and all educated people of coastal Orissa, this sacrosanct. If land is ploughed during Raja, than there will be no crop. So this father came from Australia and said: “I am here, nothing will happen, go plough mother earth.” The tribal believed that there will be famine, because mother earth has been raped. That was why that Australian was killed. This is how much I have understood. I have not understood why his wife got Padmashree in place of the classical singer from Orissa.

The murder of Swami Lakshmanananda has been ascribed to intelligence failure. Over the last few years, police has become increasingly powerful. For example, in Cuttack Bhubaneswar police Commissionrate system, the powers under section 107, 198, 109, 110, CrPC have been given to police officers. If the order u/s 110 against Raja Acharya had been passed, then judo coach Biranchi Das would not have been killed. It should be recalled that the police had been found either incapable or too corrupt, to handle these provisions of law, and these powers had been restored to Executive Magistrates.

The Naxalites had arrived two days before the attack on policemen in Daspalla. They stayed in style in a farm house near Daspalla. They bought provisions, plucked lemons from the farm house, and made themselves quite comfortable. On the date of the incident, they sent information to public vehicles. Particularly passenger vehicles, that they should stay back at Charichhak or Banigochha, that is towards Boudh. This particular official came to his headquarters a few minutes before the incident. Then the road was blocked. After the incident, they stayed at the same place when police had moved to Gasma area to search for the looters. The police had no access to information. Because, they are in an independent mode. It is precisely because of this lack of communication with non-police people that they did not know that such a large armed group was attacking a known and revered destination of Swami Lakshmananand ashram.

Why did the Press give such imbalanced publicity to puppets of American colonialism, coming in the garb of Christian leaders, while the murder of the Lakshmananand went unreported? Shame? Shame for being born black? Or for being born Hindu?

Unlike the Padmashree winner Christian missionaries case, the death of Lakshmananand shall disappear from public memory, because no awards will be awarded, no money will flow in.

What the Christians had achieved in Mayurbhanj by hanging Dara and through other means in Koraput/ Gajapati, let us congratulate them now. Now that the Christians have the guns, all Hindus will have to abandon their religion. That is why Lakshmanananda was murdered. How stupid the murder is, because he was not afraid of death, he was an old man, and he did not bother about all the negative things that English (and Anupam Bharat!) press will follow. And let us congratulate the elite Press which capitulates to Christian names and rubbishes anything Hindu. Hinduism was never an aggressive religion. It could not be because, it was eclectic, all-inclusive. If that poor country (USA) with its few rich wish to donate their ill-gotten wealth (earned from stealing the Clarisworks software or going to war) so that there will be no Hindu left, then, they are mistaken.

Hindu activist have to understand: this is not a Muslim problem. This is a Christian problem. Muslim are quite nice people in Orissa.

The murderers of Lakshma-nanand will Never be arrested. Will those Christian Missionaries try to go to a Muslim country and “save their souls!”

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pi...

A severe hands-off policy on inflation By R. Balashankar

rkm — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:40:43 -0400

India has had a bumper crop. And a normal monsoon. Food prices have shot up, the first time in our history despite such record food production. Foodgrain production, according to government claim, galloped from 217.3 million tonnes to 230.7 million tonnes. Still food items are selling higher during the harvesting season.

Reports say that there is at least a 25 per cent increase in foreclosures in recent months and the banks are worried. What the bank manager told my fiend is interesting. Beyond economics to persuade him not to foreclose the loan the PSU bank manager told him some politics. He said, “Wait for few more months. This government is going. The next government that comes in anyway will bring down the interest rate.”

"If prices are rising one has only to wait. They would reverse themselves and begin to fall.” Discussions on inflation these days hinge on this nineteenth century model of the competitive economics, where a rhythmic sequence of expansion and contraction in economic activity was assumed. And economists preferred to suggest unhindered play of market forces rather than pro-active government intervention. The situation changed by mid-twentieth century with Keynes.

In India, today we are witnessing this 19th century response to the 21st century problem.

John Kenneth Galbraith, in his famous book, The Affluent Society, describes the old thinking on inflation vividly. “Through most of man’s history the counterpart of war, civil disorder, famine or other cosmic disaster has been inflation. In recent times inflation has acquired new habits: it persists in periods of peace and high and rising prosperity”, he wrote. The scene he narrated, “new high levels of living costs were posted month after month with monotonous regularity” seemed apt for Dr Manmohan Singh’s India. Dr Singh has dealt with the situation with remarkably little effort.

Why is it that nearly everyone finds it convenient to agree on the undesirability of any remedies that are effective? Galbraith said, “There are several reasons for this barren position. First, to be sure some reap material benefit from inflation. They too oppose it for reasons of respectability, but their opposition is less than impassioned. Of importance also is the influence of inaction-or postponement, as a policy.” Galbraith discussed this market condition, oligopoly, where a relatively small number of large firms enjoy in one way or another a considerable discretion in setting prices. In these markets, all firms are at or near capacity and are assured that no firm by holding back will capture an increased share of market. A near monopoly condition.

This is good for the manufacturer not for the consumer. The prices that have gone up since current phase of inflation began in late 2007 have only gone up, not come down, despite repeated assurances by P Chidambaram. Food prices are a classic instance.

Initially the UPA tried, with import-export restrictions, and manipulation of the monetary supply. That did not work. Perhaps because the government did not bother to factor in the forces that work to make inflation a peculiarly unmanageable problem embedded much more deeply in the fabric of our social life. I had discussed these factors in an earlier column on inflation.

The oil prices in the last two months have been falling. India has had a bumper crop. And a normal monsoon. Food prices have shot up, the first time in our history despite such record food production. Foodgrain production, according to government claim, galloped from 217.3 million tonnes to 230.7 million tonnes. Still food items are selling higher during the harvesting season.

There are mainly two types of economists in India. The establishment economists and the poverty economists of the Marxist variety. Both will not tell the truth. There is an attempt to sell a theory that the farmers are happy when the prices of foodgrains are high. Farmers are getting better price for their produce for the first time, the reports say. A World Bank analysis by Christina Savescu says the impact of high wheat and rice prices benefits farmers though it affects the consumer. This study has concluded that the net outcome is a decline in the poverty ratio by 0.8 per cent. Despite a marginal increase in urban poverty, the rural poverty will decline and so the national poverty also will decline. The study was reported last week.

Another World Bank report on global poverty released on August 26 said India is home to one third of all poor people in the world and that poverty reduction in India has slowed down during the post reform period. Who is telling us the truth?

It is not the middlemen or the trader making huge profit, it is all going to the farmer which is changing the rural economy, the native analysts assure us. Last week there was a survey which proved this. After the loan waiver and harvest, rural India is flush with money that they have pushed out urban India in the use of toothbrush, toothpaste, hair oils, talcum powder, soap and shampoo (AC Nielsen Survey, ET, August 25). This is not to deny that India is getting more and more urbanised and consumerism is catching up in rural India.

Nobody has explained as to why unlike on earlier occasions, the prices are high during the harvesting season. The procurement price the government is trumpeting so much is still very low when we consider the cost of production. The procurement price for wheat in 2006 was Rs.700 per quintal which this year is Rs. 1000. For rice in the same period it has gone up from Rs 570 to Rs.745. And what is the market price? More than double for both per quintal. So it is not the farmer making all the money as some economists are trying to convince us.

The monetary policy is also not working. The high interest rates on loans have crippled the consumer segment. I know of a friend who wanted to foreclose his housing loan because of the increased EMI burden. He approached the bank to find how best he can get rid of the burden and he had arranged the money for a lump sum. Reports say that there is at least a 25 per cent increase in foreclosures in recent months and the banks are worried. What the bank manager told my friend is interesting. Beyond economics to persuade him not to foreclose the loan the PSU bank manager told him some politics. He said, “Wait for few more months. This government is going. The next government that comes in anyway will bring down the interest rate. Whichever party it will be they cannot afford to have this high rate.”

My friend was impressed and retracted. The market sentiment is this. You need more examples? Look at the long-term fixed deposit interest rates the PSU banks are offering. For the first time again, deposits beyond five hundred days will give you less return than deposits just above one year. For two, three and more years the banks are offering low returns. You may not remember another time like this where long-term rates are lower than short-term. The financial market assessment is that after the polls the rates will come down. Do you need clearer verdict than this that the corporate India has given up on this government? Because it is not up to the task.

Though inflation is about 13 per cent and the highest in 16 years, it has surprisingly moved out of the headlines. The Finance Minister P Chidambaram who used to send out diktat every other day when inflation touched 6.68 per cent in March has now adopted a severe hands-off policy.

It is a measure of the success of the government media management that it was able to silence the critics and push the stories on inflation out of the front pages. More interesting is that it has sold the theory that inflation, like most other things in India is imported. And that the Indians should be thanking the UPA that it has not allowed inflation to reach the global levels and essential articles are still cheaper in India compared to other countries. Pakistan has a 25 per cent inflation. And other developing countries, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and what to talk of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, they all have higher inflation, they say. They will not mention USA, China and EU with less than half—this is high by their standards—the rate of inflation as compared to India.

All these theories have no meaning for the average Indian. What matters is if his income is good enough to make his two ends meet. Talking globalisation, pursuing policies prescribed by the World Bank, promoting a strategy to integrate with the global economy and insisting that the inflation is a global phenomenon, the government cannot deceive the country talking as if only some sections are affected by price rise. The truth is domestic positives are not working to bring inflation down because cartelisation and profiteering are imposing huge pressure on local market.

The economists who talk of the farmer getting higher price than ever for his produce forget the fact that all his farm implements have gone up by more than double. The farmer also has to live with inflation in all other activities of life. Also the plight of urban India cannot be juxtaposed against rural India. The divide is only misleading. Those who tell us that the urban India is affected by inflation and this actually is benefiting rural India further propound a theory that inflation has really not affected the villages as much as the cities and that the government need not worry about the political backlash of inflation. Convinced of such studies some Congressmen, according to reports, are telling the party to advance the poll. That high foodgrain prices are not all that bad in politics. That price rise is not an issue in voter behaviour they say. During the Karnataka assembly election the CNN-IBN opinion poll confirmed it. Anti-incumbency is an issue, they said. Then Congress should have been the real beneficiary. But the BJP won and inflation was an issue. Congress will be proved foolish if it believes that inflation will not affect its poll prospects.

Unfortunately its friendly economists are not the type to give up. They will continue to feed wrong information. That is why like weather man the UPA government is going on changing its target for inflation to come down from September to December and to March next year. And postpone the monsoon session of Parliament to winter months.

(The views expressed in this column are personal. The writer can be contacted at editor@organiserweekly.com)

CPM gets a taste of its jam

rkm — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:37:47 -0400

The West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee makes an interesting specimen of the predicament confronting the CPI(M). It is natural that there are not many in the country who sympathise with the Marxist leader in his new-found enthusiasm for the Tata car factory in Singur.

When Ratan Tata gave an ultimatum last week to shut down the dream car project in West Bengal even incurring a loss of Rs.1500 crore, there were many state governments offering him land and single window clearance to set up the Nano factory elsewhere. The Nano car has undoubtedly caught the imagination of Indian middle class. Every state is eager to have a share in the historic venture. The latest reports say that the first Nano car will drive out of the Pantnagar Tata factory in Uttarakhand. In fact the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen. (Retd.) B C Khanduri was the first to offer land and other facilities in case the Tatas walked out of West Bengal. He was followed by states like Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Every state wants more investments, more industrialisation, job creation, development and prosperity.

Unfortunately, SEZs have become controversial because of the lopsided manner in which the centre promoted it and without sufficient homework the states adopted it. However the BJP-ruled states particularly, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have shown how even a controversial development initiative can be implemented without controversy and taking the people, particularly, farmers as partners and stakeholders at the implementation stage. The farmers should get good price for their land. As far as possible the land acquired for industry should be non-agricultural and industry should come as a vehicle of development, not exploitation.

Even in Singur the agitating farmers are all not against the Tatas. They are not against SEZs either. The Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee is also not opposed to industrialisation. More than anyone else, she as the future alternative of the Left Front is aware of the need to make a paradigm shift in the West Bengal economic approach. In fact Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tried to garner and capitalise on the craving of the state for progress and change. That is what gave him his unprecedented mandate in the last poll.

But Buddhadeb underestimated the forces of negativism his party had unleashed in the society over the last three decades. Everywhere the CPM is identified with the melancholic demons of darkness, negation, destruction, unemployment and agitation. It is the romantisisation of poverty, blood-letting and mayhem that the CPM has shown. So his own comrades could not digest his new ways.

Today he is talking against bandhs. After conducting over a dozen bandhs sponsored by the state in West Bengal as Chief Minister when he talks about bandh as anti-people his comrades are appalled. They are asking for explanation. The CM says in the company of industrialists that he hopes to convince his people in Delhi. But are they open for discussion? A party in a time-warp promoting the most antediluvian values in politics. The comrades not only in West Bengal, but in Kerala and Tripura are unimpressed. The Kerala Chief Minister who can easily claim a Guinness World Record in conducting the maximum number of state-level strikes in his rule (75 in eight months) was the first to question. A few days ago his state secretariat passed a bundle of allegations questioning his anti-development agenda and characterising him as obscurantist. His reply next day was the party secretary Pinoray Vijayan is a radical revisionist. This is the level of debate in the CPI(M). Neo-capitalism has corroded the party as no other bourgeoisie party. The leaders are divided into two camps. Meanwhile the states under their sway have no development story to tell. They have become huge graveyards of industry. Flight of capital is routine. Educated unemployment is at its peak and like capital, human resource is also finding its way out of the Marxist states.

Mamata Banerjee has exposed this Marxist hypocrisy. But for her spirited agitation in Nandigram and Singur the CPI(M) would have got away with murder. The land acquisition was arbitrary, brutal and inhuman. The CPM leaders were bluffing all these days that the land was taken with willing consent of the people. Rather it was opaque, authoritarian. The CPM attempted to perpetuate a Chinese model top-down-type of industrialisation on farm land forcefully taking away without paying compensation appropriately.

CPM enters five star hotel venture

rkm — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:32:01 -0400

The Kerala unit of the CPI(M), backed by an asset base worth more than Rs 4,000 crore and a vast cadre system, is in the last stages of entering the glittering area of hospitality business with a five-star hotel. The party, which had on last Sunday opened a Rs 30-crore water theme-cum-amusement park at its fortress Kannur, would soon launch the new business with a Rs 25-crore five-star hotel and a hospitality institute in Kozhikode city.

http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=7081&SKIN=K

A 58-cent land plot has already been acquired by the party-controlled Kozhikode Tourism Development Society, a Communist cooperative, for the purpose and top leaders are busy collecting money from investors for the project. The party-controlled society purchased the land from the director board of the legendary ComTrust Spinning and Weaving Mills through a court case in the context of suspicions that the cooperative bank controlled by CMP could take it over.

Everything needed for the setting up of the star hotel-cum-hospitality institute project has been organised and the director boards of the society for its promotion has already been constituted. The director board has two CPI(M) Ministers, party's Kozhikode district committee secretary TP Ramakrishnan and Kozhikode City Mayor M Bhaskaran as members.

Top party leaders refused to explain the project but one claimed there was nothing wrong in a Communist party trying to establish a network of bright businesses. The party now owns three television channels, specialty hospitals and a theme park.

Society vice-chairman M Mehaboob said efforts had already begun for the project and that they were collecting money for it. The basic individual shares in the society were being given for Rs 5,000 a unit and a single member could take several shares.

At the same time, the CPI(M) has also begun efforts to solve the problem of space as far as the star hotel project is concerned. Since 58 cents of land is insufficient for a star hotel project in the modern era, the party is planning to annexe the 2.5 acres of land still owned by the ComTurst Cooperative, ruled presently by a governing body constituted by trade union representatives, cashing in on its financial crisis.

Reliable sources in the CPI(M) admitted that the CITU representative on the board had started lobbying for the sale of the land to the party on the pretext that such a deal would bring enough money to ComTrust to settle its liabilities. PM Suresh Babu, director of ComTrust representing pro-CPI AITUC, said the land could be bought by the CPI(M) for the project.

At the same time, several members on the director board of ComTrust said the CITU had played a big role in bringing ComTrust to its present pathetic condition through workers' strikes for unjustifiable reasons. KC Abu, Congress district committee secretary, said the CPI(M) move was a challenge to the people, especially workers of the company. "If the CPI(M) is feeling that business is better than political work it should do it but must not use the ComTurst land for that," he said.

Meanwhile, opposition to the party's race for starting big business ventures is coming up from the grassroots level, where cadre are feeling that the leaders are up to some big mischief which they cannot understand. The general feeling is that the top leaders of the party, especially those from the neo-liberalist camp, are building up an asset base which would look after their financial interests in the future if something happens to the party.

"When the party was planning to launch a television channel, we all had worked for that tirelessly as there was a thinking that the party should have a good presence in electronic media just like we have it in the print sector with Desabhimani daily. But one fine morning the leaders simply announced that the CPI(M) had nothing to do with the management of Kairali TV to escape some crisis in the context of the group war. I am convinced that this is not the way to treat us, who had worked for that channel, who had bought shares in it simply because we wanted it to come up," said a branch committee secretary in Alappuzha.

'Indians not getting loans in Malaysia'

rkm — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:47:13 -0400

Kuala Lumpur, Sep 2 (IANS) A business lobby of Malaysian Indians has claimed that the government financing agency Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) has not given loans to any of the 200 people it had recommended for micro-financing after conducting a nationwide survey this year.

'We sent the list to AIM but to date, none of the candidates had received loans,' said Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA) president P. Sivakumar.

Sivakumar said AIM, which was set up to help all Malaysians, should reveal how much it had disbursed to poor Indians over the last six months.

'It should be transparent by releasing the list. We want to know why AIM is not giving poor Indians a chance to benefit from its micro-financing services,' he said.

The report had stated that AIM had helped 190,000 so far, disbursing RM2.6 billion in micro-financing to members, nearly all of whom were women.

Sivakumar suggested AIM set up a special board with representatives from Indian non-governmental organisations to help channel funds.

Meanwhile, AIM consultant for the Indian community, M. Sivalingam, said MIBA should send its complaints to the chairman of the AIM board.

He said AIM would entertain requests from any group or individual who required loans.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20080902/838/tbs-indians-not-getting-loans-i...

S.Gurumurthy Speech at IIT Chennai

rkm — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:26:18 -0400

Pro-poor economy needed to defeat Maoist/Xtians -

Maoists may like in neighbouring Nepal capture India as now they rule over 40% India! 2 Decades of Liberalisation has made 77% poor from earlier 33%!
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCr isis/idUSDEL218894

But, material science without spirituality is going to cause destruction of nature and humankind by pollution, disparities of income, making commoners poorer, etc. Due to over exploitation of limited resources by science, technology and enginering iron, minerals, coal, petroleum and other such resources are soon going to dry up! Hence, already we are suffering from an energy crisis. Then too much specialisation in the name of scientific development has left most people poor while Bill Gates and Narayan Murthys have grown super rich! In ancient Vedic scientific age the disparity of income between a sage/scientist and a common worker was minimal but now even a common engineer earns 100 or more times greater than a farmer or labourer which was even unheard of 2 decades ago. I am for Welfare State Model of Capitalism with Domestic based Privatisation and controlled Foreign Trades! Like - http://members.lycos.co.uk/surajcap/

Without poverty alleviation, civilians may rather join them and Christian Missionaries! Pro-poor Welfare State economic policies instead of crony capitalism as proposed by Guruji - http://www.golwalkarguruji.org/shri-gur uji/thoughts/shri-gurujis-thoughts-on-ec onomics

Seventy-seven percent of Indians - about 836 million people - live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies, a government report said. The state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) said most of those living on below 20 rupees (50 US cents) per day were from the informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty. http://www.blogger.com/profile/01453913 586888547641

Military Intelligences & RAW be under Defence !
All the 3 intelligence wings of Indian Military be merged with RAW and brought under Defence Ministry under a CDS (post formed) for external inteligence!

IB for national intelligence also be stregthened up!

Chief of Defence Staffs (CDS) urgently needed -

For integration and co-ordination of Indian Armed Forces in modern age of mechanised warfare!

In Military the regiments named after caste, creed or region like Sikh regiment, Rajputana rifles or Jat Regiment should be abolished and named on Indian freedom fighters from Guru Govind Singhji to Netaji Subhas or given plain alpha-numeric values!

Earlier they were entire made of their castes but after revolt of Sikh Regiments post-1984 due to Khalistan movement Late General Vaidya made half of these Regiments filled with other castes.

But, for true nationalistic pattern we need abolishing these and reorganisation of all like INA of Netaji Subhas.

Remember the history and pride of these Regiments are from Bitish times when they tortured and killed Indian Freedom Fighters and treasoned by stoping INA of Netaji at east!

As Netaji wished they after our independence now should be renamed!

LOC, LAC & ASEAN -

India should leave the Muslim dominated dead SAARC (with 4 Muslim nations) and join Hindu-Buddhist majority ASEAN along with Mauritus, Fiji, Nepal, Bhutan and Srilanka. India should also leave British Commonwealth the last vestige of colonialism as British Crown is its permanent head. India should make 'Line of Actual Control' or LAC with China the international boundary in exchange of their accepting Arunachal Pradesh as an Indian state. Similiarly, India should unilaterally declare the LOC or 'Line of Control' and status quo position with Pakistan as the permanent international border with Indian Jammu and Kashmir state renamed 'Kashmir' like East Punjab into 'Punjab', only!

Only Hindutvadis are the true seculars in India !

rkm — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:00:12 -0400

Secular Manifesto of the Hindutvadis -

1) All Religions will have same status as they lead to same God and since all are equal conversions will be banned.

2) Subsidies to Haj & Muslim religious land through Waqf will be discontinued along with taxation on Hindu Temples.

3) Revoking Art. 370 of Indian Constitution in Kashmir as other states don't have it.

4) Immediate enactment of Uniform Civil Code as all Indians must be equal before law.

5) Compulsory maximum 2 child policy for all Indians irrespective of sects and religion to maintain equality and balance of population.

6) Reservation in Govt Educational Insitutes only and just for the meritorious BPL students and not in jobs to give equal opportunities to all.

7) Environment friendly sustainable economic model with domestic based privatisation of industry and independent economic growth policy for India through exim control.

8) In the interest of communal harmony the Islamic colonial time Mosques on Kashi Vishwanath and Mathura Krishnajanmasthan Temples be peacefully relocated by Indian Muslims.