<b>Arunachal MP calls for focused study of China</b>

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kiren Rijiju explains to StratPost the need for India to focus on enhancing infrastructure in the border areas his state to as part of a larger restructuring of Indian dealings with China that has begun with a recognition of security concerns, and to alleviate the neglect of Arunachal Pradesh.

StratPost asked the Honorable Member Of Parliament from Arunachal (West) about the attitude of the Government of India towards security concerns in Arunachal Pradesh and the shortcomings of India’s approach in its interaction with China.

“There is a historical shift with regard to the perception towards our frontiers with China. This perception has changed in that I have made the Government of India understand the significance of the dangers.”

Rijiju thinks India is overcautious in its approach to its eastern neighbor. “We as a country believe ourselves to be at a lower level when dealing with China. We are not dealing with them on equal terms. There is an inferiority complex on our part. I’m not saying we have to be aggressive in our dealings with them, but we have to be firm. I’m an advocate of perfectly cordial relations with China,” he offers.

But the MP thinks both countries need to do a lot more to build trust towards each other. He also thinks India has been falling short in understanding China. “Firstly, there needs to be an increase in trust. There needs to be better understanding of each others’ problems. I’m afraid China understands India better than India understands China. Barring very few Indians, we do not have a proper understanding of China. While people in Bombay might not be too concerned about China, it is for the Government of India to understand these issues,” he says.

He also encourages to inter-mixing of the citizens of the two countries and commerce, advocating a confident approach on the part of India. “Secondly, there needs to be increased people-to-people contact. Cross border trade between the two countries is almost nil. The problem is we have no infrastructure in our border areas in Arunachal Pradesh, while just across the border, the Chinese have built highways. We are afraid of them flooding our markets with their cheap products. We need to exude confidence in our dealings with China. At least 3-4 border points must be opened for trade on the Arunachal border. Once that happens, there will be trade and customs officials manning the border crossings and somewhere down the line, even China will have to admit it to be a de facto border.”

Rijiju is emphatic about the need for India to recognize the significance of China and thinks too often India is distracted by other issues. “Our citizens need to get over their obsession with Pakistan and the US. It will be a disaster if they don’t. India cannot see the future. The future is not complete without China. If something happens in New Lahore or New York or Los Angeles people are very concerned but they take no notice if a bomb explodes in Guwahati. The people of Arunachal Pradesh are very patriotic and nationalistic but having seen the kinds of amenities available in the rest of India without development reaching them, they will get disillusioned in the long term. Militarily this will be telling in adverse times.”

The MP has a ready answer to a question about the reasons behind the lack of development. “The reason for this steady neglect of Arunachal Pradesh has been the obsolete thinking of the Government of India due to their total ignorance. We have already ceded so much land to China by not being able to monitor our border effectively due to lack of infrastructure.”

There has been a mindset that infrastructure in the border areas will aid the enemy in case of an invasion. “But if we are such a weak country that we can only guard our country by refusing development to our border areas, only God can help us! We are unable to build an all-weather road at a height of some 13,000 feet, while the Chinese have built their railway to Lhasa at a much higher altitude,” he counters.

Rijiju goes on to outline plans to bring up the region. “We need a trans-Himalayan highway. Already the trans-Arunachal highway has been proposed. But the border areas to the north need to be connected too. We cannot think only in terms of economic feasibility when it is a question of national security and the supreme interest of the nation. Arunachal Pradesh has been the most neglected but is the richest state in the north east. Even then, the Government of India has not been able to connect Arunachal by rail in 60 years since independence.”

Rijiju feels Arunachal Pradesh is treated unfairly even in terms of security concerns. “There has been movement on national security after the 26/11 attacks but I wish the Taj Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel were in Arunachal Pradesh. Then maybe the people and the government would take notice of us.”
Beginnings of Concern

But he does think he has managed to make a beginning in getting government recognition of the issues that concern Arunachal Pradesh. “At the end of my tenure in this Parliament I take satisfaction in forcing the government to change its perception towards Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal sends only two MPs to the Lok Sabha. So the rulers in Delhi are not concerned about us because we do not constitute a political threat. The government has been forced to change its perception due to my persistence in bringing up the issue at every level - perhaps due to my vocal power.”

“The major satisfaction is the huge economic package that the Prime Minister has announced for the development of Arunachal Pradesh and that now a big chunk of the people of India know about Arunachal Pradesh.”

China’s veto of ADB loan for Arunachal Pradesh
Recently, the Asian Development Bank loan that was proposed for Arunachal was blocked by China, which claimed it was disputed territory. “See China plays diplomacy much better than India. When I was to go to China they initially denied my visa, but the don’t have a problem when a common man from Arunachal applies for a visa. These are all diplomatic tactics to pressure India. My question is why do we need a loan from an international institution for the development of Arunachal Pradesh? We’re a rich country. Loans can always be taken for the development of other states. So why can’t the Government of India fund the development of Arunachal Pradesh?” he asks.

Chinese Incursions
<b>Rijiju reveals the Chinese have been intermittently intruding and taking over Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh, even abducting Indian citizens. “On a particular date it is difficult to say that China has made incursions into Arunachal Pradesh</b>. They practice what I call ‘Creeping Incursions’. Over a period of time, they slowly and gradually shift the flag posts. The Indian Army is deployed in only a few pockets where it is peaceful and calm. The problem is that the lack of infrastructure and roads on our side makes it difficult for the army to monitor the border in all areas. The culprit here is not the army. It is the Government of India. In fact, our people and even security personnel are captured and tortured by the Chinese.”

Study of China
He prescribes the setting up of an institution dedicated to the study of China. “The major concern here should be about how to build a relationship with China. Surplus suspicion and trust deficit. We need to properly formulate a China policy. We need to build a special institution to study and research China and then led them advise and handle our relationship with China. We need to take this forward on two fronts.”
“Firstly, soft diplomacy which would include trade and people-to-people contacts. Secondly, we need to be strong and robust from our defense point of view and this would include sorting out our infrastructural issues.”

“I have proposed the setting up of such an institution, but lets see. I have been let down by the Government of India when I should have been their blue-eyed boy. The media, the papers; our resources are being wasted on incessant talk about Pakistan and the US. We should be looking at the north east not as the eastern end of India, but the beginning of East Asia and Southeast Asia. A bridge to East Asia and Southeast Asia.”

http://www.stratpost.com/arunachal-mp-call...-study-of-china
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I put this info in new thread. Mods can decide.

<!--emo&:devil--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/devilsmiley.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='devilsmiley.gif' /><!--endemo--> "The Election Commission is trying to help the UPA by holding the election of two Rajya Sabha seats separately. The election of both Rajya Sabha seats should take place together," BJP leader Raghubar Das told reporters on Saturday.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/P...how/4624700.cms

Start collecting news of all arrested terrorist, so that we can link dots.
Terrorist name
Link to terrorist attack
Who is reporting? Media or Govt Press release
Any court appearance after arrest?

http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index.ph...indpost&p=98128

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b> If the BJP is indifferent to Hindu angst and anger, it will be seen by Hindus
as being no different from the 'secular' political class. But if it actively involves
itself in the redressal process, it will rile liberal Hindu sensitivities. </b>
<i>{I really would like to know who is and what makes up a "liberal hindu"}
</i> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

A liberal hindu is the one who has the following symptoms. (I am not including passive hindus of any hue in this). The common thread to all is their aversion to Hindutva, RSS, VHP, etc etc (whatever they think it means)

o A hindu in name only and wants to be left alone to practice her "beliefs" driven activities and afraid/scared of others constraining her activities should she get vocal

o A hindu in name only and does not really want to practice anything - basically an accident (of birth into Hindu family) but shapes/understand the politics in her head fashioned after west's (Total disregard for India's own history, culture etc etc)

o A hindu by practice but really does not have a clue about identity politics, and also "faith" driven agendas all around her and totally unaware of the implications of 4M axis

o A hindu either in name only or by practice also, but really afflicted with "Log Kya Kahenge" disease - log being white man and basically needing affirmations and pat on the backs

o A hindu either in name only or by practice (not out of choice) , who just gets annoyed/irritated at the word Hinduism as she really feels its really backward/regressive and does not want to be associated with anything Hinduism

o A hindu who wants to marry more than one, or ___ (fill in the blank) and finds it extremely inconvenient to justify any of these actions

o A hindu who thinks White man brought civilization to India on Horses thus knows better and in fact British invented Hinduism along with bringing the trains, english and stopping all evil practices <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->.

o A hindu (of any of the above), who thinks Hindus' suffering, human right abuses should always take back seat compared to others' (for whatever reason).

o .....


The thread, if it has any merit in starting one, is to identify, discuss, and enhance our understanding of our liberal hindus. So gentle readers, who is a liberal hindu?

Not sure if this has been discussed here on IF, and also not sure if a new member can start a topic, but if it's ok with forum protocol, here goes:

It is becoming increasingly clear that a key aspect of Pak self-denial about the 26/11 having been perpetrated by Paks is that the terrorists could not have made the passage from Karachi and landed in Mumbai without being detected and apprehended. This myth persists even among the RAPE.

IF and a few other sites are regularly visited by Paks and others as their source of information and perspectives. Maybe this subject of the sea passage and how it was accomplished could be examined here as well to add to the information out there and provide uncle google with more sources on the subject.

The above topic has been discussed in some detail on BRF - the government has made many of the documents available online (don't have the links now. It is easily googled, I suppose).

If its not OK for a new member to start a topic, please delete.

<b>EVM: Dangers Of Trusting Them Too Much</b>

By Subramanian Swamy

There is much talk today about electoral rigging in the recent general elections. These doubts have arisen from the unexpected number of seats won by the Congress, and they are accentuated by the spate of articles recently published in reputed computer engineering journals and in the popular international press. All raise doubts about the EVMs.

For example, International Electrical & Electronics Engineering Journal (May 2009, p 23) has published an article by two professors of computer science, titled: Trustworthy Voting. They conclude that while electronic voting machines offer a myriad of benefits, nine suggested safeguards are absolutely essential to protect the integrity of outcomes. None of these safeguards are in place in Indian EVMs. In India they do not meet the standard of national integrity.

Newsweek magazine (June 1) has published an article by Evgeny Morozov, who points out that when Ireland embarked on an ambitious e-voting scheme in 2006, such as fancy touch-screen voting machines, it was widely welcomed: Three years and 51 million euros later, in April, the government scrapped the initiative. What doomed the effort was a lack of trust: the electorate just didn’t like it that the machines would record their votes as mere electronic blips, with no tangible record.

A backlash against e-voting is brewing all over Europe. After almost two years of deliberations, Germany’s Supreme Court ruled last March that e-voting was unconstitutional because the average citizen could not be expected to understand the exact steps involved in the recording and tallying of votes. Political scientist Ulrich Wiesner, a physicist who filed the initial lawsuit said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel that the Dutch Nedap machines used in Germany were even less secure than mobile phones. The Dutch public-interest group ‘Wij Vertrouwen Stemcomputers Niet’ (We Do Not Trust Voting Machines) produced a video showing how quickly the Nedap machines could be hacked without voters or election officials being aware (the answer: in five minutes). After the clip was broadcast on national television in October 2006, the Netherlands banned all electronic voting machines.

Why are EVMs so vulnerable? Each step in the life cycle of a voting machine — from the time it is developed and installed to when the votes are recorded and the data transferred to a central repository for tallying — involves different people gaining access to the machines, often installing new software. It wouldn’t be hard for, say, an election official to paint a parallel programme under another password, on one or many voting machines that would ensure one outcome or another pre-determined even before voters arrived at the poll stations.

These dangers have been known to the Election Commission since 2000, when M S Gill, then CEC, had arranged at my initiative for professor Sanjay Sarma of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Gitanjali Swamy of Harvard to demonstrate how un-safeguarded the chips in EVMs were. Some changes in procedures were made by the EC, but not on the fundamental flaws. In 2004, the Supreme Court First Bench, of Chief Justice V N Khare, Justices Babu and Kapadia had directed the election commission to consider the technical flaws in EVMs put forward by Satinath Choudhary, a US-based software engineer in a Public Interest Litigation. But the EC has failed to consider his representation.

There are many ways to prevent EVM fraud. One way to reduce the risk is to have machines print a paper record of each vote, which voters could then deposit into a conventional ballot box. While this procedure would ensure that each vote can be verified, using paper ballots defeats the purpose of electronic voting in the first place. Using two machines produced by different manufacturers would decrease the risk of a security compromise, but wouldn’t eliminate it.

A better way, it is argued in the cited International Electrical & Electronics Engineering Journal article, is to expose the software behind electronic voting machines to public scrutiny. The root problem of electronic machines is that the computer programs that run them are usually closely held trade secrets (it doesn’t help that the software often runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system, which is not the world’s most secure). Having the software closely examined and tested by experts not affiliated with the company would make it easier to close technical loopholes that hackers can exploit. Experience with Web servers has shown that opening software to public scrutiny can uncover potential security breaches.

Now the Madras High Court is soon to hear a PIL on the EVMs. This is good news. The time has arrived for a long hard look at these machines. Otherwise elections would soon lose their credibility. All political parties must collect evidence to determine how many constituencies could have been rigged. The number would not exceed 75 in my opinion.

We can identify them as follows: Any result in which the main losing candidate of a recognised party finds that more than 10 per cent of the polling booths showed less than five votes per booth, should be taken prima facie as a constituency in which rigging has taken place. This is because the main recognised parties usually have more than five workers per booth, and hence with their families would poll a minimum of 25 votes per booth for their party candidate. Hence if these 25 voters can given affidavits affirming who they had voted for, then the high court can treat it as evidence and order a full inquiry.

We need to study the origins and growth of US Evangelical movements like Baptists, Epscopalians, Mormons etc. These also are the core supporters of the US conservative movements. The US interaction with other countries has their POV.

THe Indian leadership is taking a beating even after the election

Despite hard-fought win, DMK image takes a beating

R.K.Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI: The sheen of the hard-fought victory in the Lok Sabha elections in the State has faded: DMK’s tremendous show in the parliamentary elections has been relegated to the background following the party’s inability to finalise its list of representatives to the Cabinet more than a week after the win. The gains made in the elections came against seemingly insurmountable odds, especially in the Vanniyar dominated north Tamil Nadu and the acutely caste-conscious deep south. The DMK had fought the elections like it had done never before – in most places, there was hardly any dissent and there were no complaints of DMK leaders working at cross purposes from any district. Its Ministers and district secretaries worked as one unit, even if they had serious differences.

In fact, the district bosses of four northern districts where the PMK holds considerable sway – Cuddalore, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Vellore – promised the Chief Minister that they would come back and meet him only if they managed to win the seats allocated to them. If not, they told him, he should find replacements.

Such was the dedication of senior leaders that most of them went without rest for days on end; checking and re-checking the work in each block and even the lower levels and drawing up fire-fighting plans in areas where people expressed dissatisfaction over the State government’s performance.
Tall demands

Many of them feel let down over the manner in which the party has conducted itself since. “We [the DMK] have been reduced to a laughing stock in Delhi. It is time we took a hard look at ourselves,” said one leader.

Ever since the process of formation of the new government began in New Delhi, the DMK has been at the receiving end of some nasty jokes and has been reduced to laughing stock in the media, with anchor after anchor ridiculing the party for its tall demands. The DMK’s demand for five Cabinet berths was laughed off and its subsequent demand for one Cabinet berth more than last time (last time it was three – till the Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran resigned) was turned down as unacceptable.

A few party seniors wonder the source for one particular story that made headlines day after day in the media: that Senior Ministers T.R.Baalu and A.Raja were not acceptable to the Congress and the Prime Minister. Both the Prime Minister and the Congress have denied that they had placed any such demand. In fact, a few Congress leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vyalar Ravi, are on record saying that it is the prerogative of the party who it nominates to the Cabinet.

“The entire press corps will not run the same story unless someone fairly senior spoke to each one of them. I think our party will have to find out who this person is and which party he or she belongs to,” said a leader.

Representatives of a few other political parties felt that the second term of the UPA Government has got off on a wrong note, only because of the DMK.

Ironically, it was DMK that formed the nucleus for the formation of the UPA ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. They feel that the DMK Ministers in the Cabinet and its Ministers of State will have their hands full for an extended period of time – initially to prove to the Prime Minister, the Congress and its allies that they can deliver, and second, to prove to the sceptical voter and the country that the initial hiccups were mere markers that any small party will have to set to dictate the terms of engagement over the longer term.

http://www.swapan55.com
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"They won all the battles, we had the best songs"*

[* A line from a Communist song from the Spanish Civil War]

Apologies for not writing yesterday. I was busy pontificating on TV and finishing my columns which have appeared in today's Times of India and Pioneer.

What are the specific lessons for the BJP?

    * The party must recognise that this was a political failure and not merely a defeat caused by management shortcomings.
    * The so-called "Hindu" appeal may work in specific areas (Pilibhit, Mangalore, Azamgarh, Kandhamal, et al) but it is perceived as divisive elsewhere.
    * The ugly face of Hindu extremism puts off the middle ground.
    * There is no such thing as a Hindu consciousness that exists today. The nationalist middle ground has shifted to the Congress.
    * The BJP leadership is seen as completely unresponsive to youth aspirations and modernity.
    * There is a tendency of the BJP to preach to the committed and not reach outwards.
    * In caste terms, we are witnessing a definite drift of the upper castes to the Congress.
    * The OBCs are now the bedrock of the BJP but this has not been formally acknowledged.
    * The RSS-isation of the BJP organisation post-2005 has created serious distortions.
    * The integrity quotient of the BJP is now at par with that of the Congress. This is a problem that the moral guardians of the party have wilfully turned a blind eye to.

What should the BJP do immediately?

    * Recognise the magnitude of defeat and not live in denial (as happened in 2004).
    * There has to be some visible demonstration of the fact that the party has responded to the message. Advani was right to step down and the Parliamentary Board was wrong to reject it. There is still a very important role for Advani but his position is that of a mentor.
    * There has to be a revamp of most state parties. Young, dynamic MLAs and MPs must be given organisational responsibilities.
    * The RSS-non-RSS divide in the party must be bridged. Those who never attended shakhas can't be treated as second-class members.
    * The BJP must focus on the policy debates in the coming two years. Interventions in Parliament must be given due importance. The Leaders of Opposition in both Houses must be chosen accordingly.
    * The party needs to project a modern, cosmopolitan face as national president to woo back the middle classes. What is needed is a picture of wholesome sobriety. The sooner this is done the better.
    * A culture of frankness and debate has to return to the party. The miscalculations resulting from telling the leadership what it wanted to hear were colossal.
    * Modi has to add the OBC tag to his appeal. His pronouncements must become more measured. He has to work on his national acceptability.
    * Stringent norms of fund collection should be set. The private war chests have caused havoc to the functioning of the party.

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<!--QuoteBegin-dhu+May 16 2009, 12:17 PM-->QUOTE(dhu @ May 16 2009, 12:17 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->There was a planned six month break in terror attacks.  Now they will begin again.  Maybe Jihad in UP.  BJP did its best.  It is Indians who have failed.
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What about the blasts in Assam...?

==

Was everything clean in elections or was there any high tech conspiracy - thanks to Navin Chawla?

Silver lining:
- resounding rout of commies... total tally of Left looking between 25-30 for the first time in about 3 decades. Bengal celebrates.
- Paswan has been wiped out. no seat for LJP. Lalu reduced to just 4.
- Jehadi Ansari of BSP - defeated from Gazipur.
- TR Balu defeated, so also chidambaram.

==

Now where does the BJP go from here? From what I hear on TV discussions - to further secularization. Good for them: vinAshakAle...etc.

==

UP is a surprise! Congress won more than 20 seats? Including Vajpayee's Lucknow!