DesiPundit

Its so easy to say that we””ll lay down our lives to bring Kashmiri pandits back to the valley and I appreciate the sentiment as I””m sure the Kashmiri Pandits reading it will. Pity that sentiment was missing when our mosques were being used to drive these people out. None of us was willing to stand up and be counted when it mattered. None of us grabbed the mikes in the mosques and said this is wrong and the Kashmiri Pandits had every right to continue living in the valley. Our educated, well to do relatives and neighbours were spewing venom twenty four hours a day and we were mute spectators either mute in agreement or mute in abject fear but mute none the less.

The leader of National Conference, Omar Abdullah, who recently started his own blog, discusses Kashmir’s past and present in a long post. Hopefully, this will inspire more politicians to start blogging. 

(Link via a comment left on The Acorn)

Soon after a confused group called ‘Indian Mujahideen’ struck Jaipur, a group of apologists  like Ram Puniyani, Asghar Ali Engineer, and Digant Ozha have surfaced insinuating that Hindus are behind this.

Offstumped explains who Ram Puniyani is.

Since yours truly is an almnus of IIT Mumbai I have had first hand experience of Ram Puniyani’s Left wing Acitivism and Political Correctness during the 1990s which he pursues with Taliban like Fanaticism. This is the same guy who amongst others ensured that IIT Mumbai disrobed Swami Vivekananda from Saffron to Blue for fear of hurting Muslim sentiments. This is also the same guy who amongst others pressured the IIT Mumbai Administration from denying permission to Chandraprakash Dwivedi of Chanakya from speaking on Campus on grounds that it would vitiate the atmosphere.

Nitin fisks the letter written by  the ‘Concerned citizens’

They conclude by summarising their demands. Note that none of these address how terrorists might be defeated. They are only about how counter-terrorism can be diluted. So it is not about human rights at all. It is merely a denial that Islamist terrorists might have been the perpetrators, an insinuation that Hindu terrorists might have set off the bombs and an attempt to point fingers at the BJP. Honourable people who really believed this would have said so openly. To pass them off under the rhetoric of human rights is cowardly and devious.

The Indian citizen’s indifference to national security is at once baffling and self-destructive. It would be easy to understand if the average citizen wasn’t concerned about the Indo-US nuclear deal: the details are too complex and the benefits too indirect and long-term. But failure to act against terrorist attacks–21 under Dr Singh’s watch–affects each and every one of us.

Why aren’t Indians more angry about these incessant terrorist attacks on our soil? Rohit at Retributions: National Interest offers few hypotheses regarding this apathy. The comment section is quite lively too; jump in with your 2 paise.

So why did the terrorists bomb Jaipur yesterday? There is really no good answer to this question, for who knows why people do such senseless things.  But Nitin speculates on some possible reasons for the timing.

2. Like B Raman has argued, the bombing was related to the tenth anniversary of Pokhran-II. That’s why they chose Rajasthan state. This was their way of sending a message that “you might have nukes, but you can’t stop us”. Such a message would be strategically pointless, because everyone knows that. Just like everyone knows that nuclear weapons have not stopped Naxalites, rapists, snatch thieves or drug smugglers either.

Personally, I think they did it (whoever “they” is) because they could, because India is a soft target.

Seven bombs  in the pink city have killed 45 people and injured more than 100. The first one went off near a Hanuman temple and was followed by six others near Hawa Mahal and Johri Bazaar.

Ha Vo from Netherlands, who has team members in Jaipur writes

Such attacks are always an attack on all mankind, all of us who try work together to achieve more success and prosperity. Too bad that in such a world like ours, where everyone is actually so closeby, that narrow minded people still can’t see the collaboration and constructive discussions. It’s a shame how some people think they have the right to destroy what so many people put efforts in to build.

hindustaniat asks Why Jaipur?

Jaipur is one of the foremost symbol of India’s cultural heritage. Lakhs of tourists come to the Pink City every year and Rajasthan is the face of Indian tourism worldwide, along with Agra. The anti-national forces must have been desperate as there was no major communal or casteist issue in the country for long.

And thus came this attack. The incident is serious in magnitude and of grace concern because it was not a solitary blast. There was a series of blasts that took place in the City including a car bomb blast. Let’s hope that our security agencies nail the culprits in this case.

Recently K.Subrahmanyam suggested that BJP should join Congress(I) to get the nuclear deal passed. Dulam Chandrasekhar thinks it might not happen due to the bad relationship between Manmohan Singh and the BJP leaders.

Even as Manmohan continued the two major foreign policies initiated by Sri Vajpayee, he does not have the same relationship with any BJP leaders. In fact Manmohan Singh took it up himself from the day Congress I took power to humiliate Sri Vajpayee and Sri Advani - the two leaders who currently matter in BJP. Manmohan almost never consults with opposition on any foreign policy issue - on peace talks with LoP, on negotiation with US on the nuclear deal, or on UN issues

The Calumnist deals out the gritty truth about the truths that the media doesn’t tell us.

That’s why papers tend to push away drought and flood and farmer suicide stories to the inside pages, where they are reduced to briefs, space permitting. TV usually doesn’t bother at all - there’s IPL now, and other masala.

So dear reader, when you pay a pittance for your paper, please know that you are pushing news media to economise on the truth. And next time you read a newspaper or watch TV, spare a thought to the news that’s left out. We editors are told it’s because you - customer, buyer - want it so.

With the death toll rising in Myanmar, Alaphia remembers India’s response to the tsunami in 2004.

…Jayalalithaa’s government did an outstanding job clearing bodies, cordoning off the beach, shifting people into temporary shelters, providing food and sanitizing the disaster zone … For someone whose default position is to be anti-establishment this was a refreshing revelation – when push comes to shove the government can deliver. Some of the smartest bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu were on the job leaving the western press a little incredulous that India remained disease free and the situation hadn’t descended into anarchy.

Pragmatic urges the Army to grant women officers permanent commission,

Irrespective of anyone’s liking, it is just a matter of time before permanently commissioned women officers are inducted into the services. The services have to accept the inevitable with grace and plan the changeover prudently before the harsh decision is forced down their throats by the political masters. In any case, this act of denying equal status to women in the military is an anachronism in modern India and in dissonance with the thinking of the current generation. It only reinforces the stereotypical image of military as a fossilised institution that reeks of senility and antiquity.

Amrit reacts to Bush’s claim that India and China are responsible for the increase in food prices because of the countries’ high food consumption

What does he intend to say, that it was better when people in these countries were impoverished and stayed malnourished? Some studies have claimed that 73% of food in the United States is disposed of, uneaten…. People simply consign the food on their plates to the garbage can as soon as they don’t feel like consuming it; and they take big portions even when they don’t intend to eat the whole thing.