My my.. how did this thread dedicated to vermins survive so long <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The chances of a snow flake surviving on sun is greater than Teesta getting Nobel.
Even Angana Chatterji is not listed in the list - seems like all the FOILee crowd didn't get the notice of putting in their nomination. Come on, even Angana doesn't have Supreme Court of India breathing down her neck as in case with Teesta.
But given the negative publicity that attracts Angana, it would be logical to nominate say someone like that Kamala from Austin or Shalini Gera too. With all these people working fool (no typo) time, I think there are more deserving ladies than Teesta. If there was a Nobel 'Piece' prize, Akhila Raman wins hands down for working fool time to make pieces of India.
came in mail...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> To
Ole Danbolt MJÃS
Berge Ragnar FURREÂ
Sissel Marie RÃNBECKÂ
Inger-Marie YTTERHORNÂ Â
Kaci Kullmann FIVEÂ
Geir LUNDESTAD
Re. nominations to the Peace Prize 2005
1.  On behalf of an agency called "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize" group, a number of news items have recently appeared regarding nominations for the Peace Prize. Two such news reports are copied below for the information of the Committee.
2.  The Committee will no doubt examine the appropriateness of each of these 1000 names for the Prize, and is surely aware of the proverb that "even one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel". A few inappropriate names will cast doubts on the entire credibility of the Committee and embroil it in controversy.
3.  Amongst the names in the news items are a few to which, as a concerned member of the public, I would especially like to draw the Committee's kind attention.
4.  The first is that of Teesta Setalvad. Ms Setalvad, along with her husband, runs a private limited company called "Sabrang Communications" that is widely and popularly believed to receive financial support from the same agencies that finance terrorism in the Indian subcontinent, and there are increasing public demands for an enquiry into its financial affairs. Ms Setalvad is under investigation by the Supreme Court of India - she has been accused by a Muslim victim in the Gujarat violence in 2002 of having paid that victim money to fabricate evidence as well as that she falsely stated to the Supreme Court that she represented that victim. The victim's case that became known as the "Best Bakery" case is now being called the "Best Fakery" case. Whether the Committee should award the Prize to a person who may well be declared a perjuror by the Supreme Court of India - especially as the matter is still pending before the Court -is of course for the Committee to consider.
5.  Ms Aruna Roy is on the public record as having lied about foreign financial support to her NGO. In addition (as the second news item indicates), she is closely associated with the political party whose former leader publicly defended the massacre by goons of his party of 3,000 Sikhs in 1984. The perpetrators of that massacre have still to be brought to justice. In addition, the current head of the same political party was accused in the Parliament of India of being responsible for the massacre of Muslims in Bhagalpur in 1989. The accuser is a senior member of the current ministry that runs the government of India. Moreover, as the second news report below indicates, Ms Roy is a member of the NGO that is ascribed credit for "freedom of information" - if this is so, it is the entire NGO that should be prizeworthy, and not a single member.
6.  Ms Shabnam Hashmi, like Ms Roy, is on the public record as having lied about foreign financial support to her then NGO called SAHMAT. She was obliged to leave SAHMAT and she started another NGO called ANHAD. The latter solicited money from the public but refused to divulge whether it was a legally registered entity with a properly accounted-for bank account.
7.  The Nobel Committee expects its members to keep "a strong commitment to certain common moral and political principles". Surely it should expect the same of nominees for the Prizes? Mss Setalvad, Roy and Hashmi are amoral where financial principles are concerned, and Ms Roy's political principles (if not those of the two others) are certainly duplicitous.
8.  Should the Committee wish, I will be happy to provide more details.
9.  The Committee is requested to note that "The names of nominees were announced at 20 places across the world. In South Asia there were 13 press conferences, including eight in India where some of the nominees were also present. In Delhi, as many 15 nominees attended the meeting". It does seem that the nominators are trying internationally to generate popular favour for their nomination - and are even introducing prospective winners to the media and the public.
10.  It is therefore for the Committee to consider whether, notwithstanding its request that "The nominators are strongly requested not to publish their proposals". the media blitz by the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize" group is not an endeavour to influence it.
An acknowledgement is requested.
Thank you,
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Read this.. This is a FACT.
<b>Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament (MP)</b>
Monthly Salary: 12,000
Expense for Constitution per month : 10,000
Office expenditure per month: 14,000
Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) : 48,000 (For a visit to Delhi &
return: 6000 km)
Daily BETA during parliament meets : 500
Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train : Free (For any number of times)(All over
India)
Charge for Business Class in flights : Free for 40 trips / year(With wife
or P.A.)
Rent for MP hostel at Delhi : Free
Electricity costs at home : Free up to 50,000 units
Local phone call charge : Free up to 1,70,000 calls.
TOTAL expense for a MP per year : 32,00,000
TOTAL expense for 5 years : 1,60,00,000
For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years : 8,54,40,00,000 (nearly 855 cores)And they are elected by THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, by the largest democratic process in the world, not intruded into the parliament on their own or by any qualification.
This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our
regular commodities.......
Think of the great democracy we have.............
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO ALL CITIZENS OF INDIA.........<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
PM awarded honorary degree from Oxford
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It was a trip down the memory lane and a proud moment for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday when he was conferred a honorary degree from Oxford University where he studied five decades ago and passed with flying colours.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How redundant <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rolleyes.gif' /><!--endemo--> They could have sent one to Sonia Gandhi - during last LS election a Cong worker lost his job for a "typo" of putting Sonia's bloated academic credentials online.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Islamic leader <b>warned</b> of London attack <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
DDM confused about the difference between "warn" and "threaten." Warning would be good thing, no?
Under Sify News
http://www.samachar.com
<b>Malaysia employer cuts hair of Sikhs</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->- By AP
Kuala Lumpur, July 10: A malaysian employer forcibly cut the hair of three of her sikh employees from india and prohibited them from wearing turbans â a grave violation of the religionâs centuries-old custom, a newspaper reported on sunday.
"our employer said we were not allowed to wear a turban as we would not be able to wear a safety helmet if we had a turban," the New Sunday Times quoted one of the workers, Darshan Singh, as saying.
According to the sikh tradition, males are forbidden to cut their hair, which serves as a symbol of their faith. Typically, their hair is wrapped in a turban. "we refused to cut our hair, but she called us individually into a room and we were held down by two men while another cut our hair," he said.
Mr darshan Singh, 29, was also cited as saying that the employer, who was not identified, had not paid his or his colleaguesâ wages. the report said the workers quit after working for four months, and lodged reports with the indian high commission and the malaysian authorities. Their case is pending at the labour department.
The report said the three were among 16 people brought to malaysia by a local company in order to put up telecommunication towers.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
OH MY GOD... there's a silent religious - caste war going on in Malaysia!! <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Viren+Jul 11 2005, 09:45 PM-->QUOTE(Viren @ Jul 11 2005, 09:45 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> OH MY GOD... there's a silent religious - caste war going on in Malaysia!! <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Minorites should leave country and move to other countries.
This caste war is dangerous influenced by upper caste religion. I hope members of IF are safe in Malayasia and taking all precations . <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Jul 11 2005, 12:25 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Jul 11 2005, 12:25 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> I hope members of IF are safe in Malayasia and taking all precations . <!--emo& --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
They are probabily fast <!--emo&  leepy--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sleepysmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sleepysmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo--> or have their snooty nose so far up in the clouds that they can't smell the stench under their own feet.
160,000 Have Converted Out of Hinduism in Malaysia in 25 Years
Historians seek to give Dehli back its name
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mr Misra said that even Dehli was a corrupted word. The pre-Mughal name was Dilli, which was derived from <b>Dhillika</b>, a Rajput name for the area which dates back to the 8th century.
Plans to rename Dehli might seem slightly far-fetched, not to mention expensive, but precedents abound. India has renamed three major cities in the past decade
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The world's most powerful women
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Condoleezza Rice
Wu Yi
Yulia Tymoshenko
Gloria Arroyo
Margaret Whitman
Anne Mulcahy
Sallie Krawcheck
Brenda Barnes
Oprah Winfrey
Melinda Gates <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wasn't Sonia Gandhi in this last year. What happened?
Salman poaching case: Hearing on August 16
August 07, 2005 15:25 IST
Hearing in the infamous black buck poaching case, involving film actor Salman Khan, could not reach the last stage owing to a technical objection raised by the counsel for the film star.
Advocate Hastimal Sarswat, appearing for Khan and comedian Satish Shah, questioned the legality of the statements of one of the prosecution witnesses, Angad Lal, saying he had not been examined by the defence lawyers.
He also submitted a request that the court only entertain properly examined witnesses against the accused.
Chief judicial magistrate Briendra Kumar accepted the contention on Friday and fixed August 16 as the date of the next hearing in the 7-year-old case.
The prosecution, on its part, protested against another application moved by the actor seeking exemption from personal appearance in the trial.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/07salman.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Wasn't Sonia Gandhi in this last year. What happened? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now she is busted Queen of nowhere. After Goa and Jharkhand episode plus criminals in ministry are responsible. She got exposed within one year.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Aug 7 2005, 11:42 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Aug 7 2005, 11:42 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> Now she is busted Queen of nowhere. After Goa and Jharkhand episode plus criminals in ministry are responsible. She got exposed within one year. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mudy,
Sorry to prick your bubble! Sonia is not on that list, not because she was busted, but because power-that-be decided that showing Sonia to be powerful when everything about the congress govt is going south is just bad PR. And the fact that she is extra-constitutional makes her "power" worser public image. Sonia's international friends want to preserve her "charisma" for the next elections.
Remember all those people magazine polls about 10 most handsome men etc that the actor whose film is about to be released always wins... this is something like that.
<b>Sonia everywhere</b>
LSrini not so fast.
HT already started image makeover. <!--emo&  --><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
HT should print "Lost and Found" and picture of Manmohan Singh.
<b>Where names don't clash with god (FEATURE)</b> <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Bhuj (Gujarat), Aug 7 (IANS) Some have embraced Hinduism but have Muslim names, others are Muslims but carry Hindu names! Meet the world of tribal people coming to grips with the modern world - and gods.
In the interiors of Gujarat's Kutch district in western India, religious conversions are not unusual for aboriginals. Happily this has not affected the social equilibrium in the area, and religious differences have not led to tensions.
There is Maluk Mamu, who has become a Hindu and adopted a new name: Mavji.
He lives in Bhirandiara village some 400 km from Ahmedabad.
Other members of his Koli Vadha community have also taken to Hinduism under the guidance of a local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, Shashikant Patel.
Although they have accepted the religion, not all have assumed a new identity. There are Hindus with Muslim names like Ismail, Jusab and Hussain in interior villages of Banni grassland in Kutch.
They converted to Islam three years ago.
When the VHP became active in the region, rebuilding houses in areas ravaged by the January 2001 earthquake, it started a conversion drive among the Vadhas.
Today, many Koli Vadha members, bearing Muslim names, can be found practising Hindu rituals.
"We have started worshiping Ramdev Pir. Earlier we did not follow Hindu traditions," Mavji told IANS.
"It is the VHP who had this temple built for us. We used to wander in the jungle, could not even build houses. How could we have built the temple? The VHP has built houses for us," Mavji said.
The community members believe they have been converted to the Dalit community. At least this is what Patel has reportedly conveyed to them.
Patel denies his personal involvement and maintains that the Vadhas have been following Hindu religion since ages.
The conversions have not led to communal tensions. The Muslim nomadic groups do not mind the Hindu acceptance by some Vadhas.
This explains why Kutch remained untouched by communal violence that engulfed major parts of the state in 2002.
In the Koli fisher folk community, Meena, 27, says: "My parents used to follow Islam, now we are Hindu."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Court refuses to discharge two blast accused
August 11, 2005 17:36 IST
Despite recommendation of the POTA Review Committee, a special court on Thursday refused to discharge 2 accused held for conspiring the twin blasts in the city in August 2003, on the ground that there was sufficient evidence against them.
The blasts had taken place at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in the city on August 25, 2003 killing several people.
Hearing the plea of the accused, Mohammed Ansari alias Usman Ladduwala and Mohammed Ansar Shaikh alias Hasan Batterywala, designated POTA Judge A P Bhangale agreed with prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam that there was enough evidence against the duo.
The POTAÂ Review Committee had recommended that the two accused should be discharged from the case as there was no material against them. The recommendation was forwarded in June to chief secretary of the Maharashtra government R M Prem Kumar who was asked to take necessary steps.
The prosecutor, however, argued that police had found RDX and detonators from the residence of the two accused after the blasts and he also harped on statements of some witnesses who had observed the duo were in a 'joyous' mood after the explosions.
Prosecutor Nikam told the court that the police had relied upon statements of witnesses who said both the accused had remarked that they would create more such upheavals in future. This indicated their prima facie involvement, he argued.
He said the POTA Review Committee had not considered the entire evidence, particularly the seizure of explosives and detonators from the residence of the accused after the blasts. Nikam said the recommendations of the Review Committee were not binding on the prosecution and that he had taken an independent view of the involvement of the accused based on evidence collected by police.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/11court.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
From today, India gets first litter-free city: Kozhikode <!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Posted online: Friday, August 12, 2005 at 0231 hours IST
KOZHIKODE, AUGUST 11: Many Kozhikodans love to believe that Vasco Da Gama wonât lose his way if he returns to the city now, 507 years after his ship famously docked hereâthe narrow, winding city streets havenât changed much since.
But Kozhikode is now all set to be declared Indiaâs first litter-free city, tomorrow. Author and social critic Sukumar Azhikode will make the formal declaration at an elaborate function here.
The only rough patch is, the Congress-led opposition in the local city corporation has decided to boycott the declaration. They allege it is a vote-catching ploy of the CPM-led front ruling the civic body, five months to Keralaâs local bodies poll.
The change, however, is for real. Gone are the odious heaps of fly-infested trash, even the eyesore public rubbish bins. No one throws garbage out anymore, or need to. Thanks to an initiative that has caught the fancy of much of the city population, smartly uniformed young women arrive driving specially designed cargo autorickshaws at each city home, shop and office every morning, picking up the garbage. Every home has been given two covered containersâa white one for plastics and other non-biodegradable wastes, green for other trash.
Together, the 730-odd trained women belonging to local self-help collectives now handle some 300 tonnes of city wastes, over the 83 square kilometres that this small city straddles. They are organised into 73 different units of ten women each. The city corporation gives each unit a grant of Rs 1.25 lakh and helps get an equal amount as bank loans, to buy two autorickshaws. Almost all of them are the unemployed from poorer city homes.
Itâs not a free service. Each home must pay them a service charge of up to Rs 30 each month. Shops, hotels and offices pay more. But few seem to grudge it, except in politically polarised city pockets. ââIt is any civic bodyâs basic responsibility to keep its city clean. Itâs not fair to charge people for such a service,ââ says Noorbina Rashid, councillor and a leader of the opposition in the corporation.
But others are happy. ââAll 73 units remain comfortably viable a year since launch,ââ says P Venugopal, the corporation secretary. Initially, the women used to hire male drivers, but not anymore. They drive their autos themselves.
The city corporationâs covered trash trucks relay the collected rubbish from the autorickshaws to the refuse yard on the outskirts at Nheliyamparamba. A private company, Poabs Ltd, then gets down to turning wastes into manure at the corporationâs refuse processing plant on the site, while the segregated plastic and non-degradables go to landfill sites.
The Rs 6.13-crore model solid waste management project is funded jointly by the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests, the state pollution control board and the city corporation. Before its kick off in 2004 June, the corporation had managed to rope in local NGOs, officials, residents associations, trade bodies and others to pledge their support.
Local monitoring committees headed by the respective ward councillors and nine local members monitor the garbage collection and cleanliness drive. Hotels and the trade have their own street monitoring committees.
ââThere have been some non-cooperation in some areas, mostly political. So we are going to bring in adequately hefty fines for garbage throwing, with a built-in option of designated rubbish drop points in the city for those wanting to keep off this project,ââ says city mayor Thottathil Raveendran.
The only remaining hitch in cleaning up the city, the Mayor claims, is finding a site to house the cityâs Rs 50 lakh night soil disposal plant. Its attempts have been meeting with stiff local resistance everywhere.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>EVERY CITY IN INDIA SHOULD FOLLOW THEM!!!</span>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Veteran RSS leader H V Seshadri dead
August 14, 2005 20:00 IST
Last Updated: August 14, 2005 20:38 IST
Veteran Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader H V Seshadri is dead, doctors said.
The end for Seshadri, 79, came at Keshava Krupa, the RSS state headquarters in Bangalore on Sunday evening, Dr Nagaratna, who attended on Seshadri, told PTI.
She said he died of multiple organ failure due to septicaemia, an infection which spreads to all organs of the body.
Seshadri breathed his last 45 minutes after the life support systems were withdrawn at the private hospital where he was admitted early in August, Dr Nagaratna said.
Seshadri was on life-support systems in the hospital for the last few days.
"Life-support systems were withdrawn on Sunday evening as doctors said there were no hopes of him surviving," a senior RSS leader said.
Seshadri joined RSS in 1946 and rose through the ranks to become its Sarkaryavah (All India General Secretary) in 1987, a post he held for nine years. Thereafter, he was working as Akhil Bharath prachrak (full-time worker) pramukh.
His mortal remains lay in state at Keshava Krupa where a steady stream of mourners paid their last respects.
RSS chief K S Sudarshan, RSS general secretary Mohan Bhagawat and top BJP leaders, including former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Lal Kishenchand Advani are expected to pay their homage to the departed RSS leader on Monday.
Earlier on Sunday, RSS leader Madan Dass Devi and Swadeshi Jagran Manch leader S Gurumurthy visited Seshadri at the hospital.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/14rss.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mangal makes British mad again
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It is three days since the British release of The Rising and the critics have risen.
Mangal makes British mad again
These aren't, however, professional film critics feeling let down by the latest production. Itâs the historians.
The government-backed UK Film Council has been slammed by Tory politicians and British military historian Saul David for investing £150,000 of lottery funds in a film that "savages British rule in India".
Historians quoted in the Telegraph say The Rising is littered with historical inaccuracies. They say the film accuses the company of murdering civilians to further its interests and of flouting the Empire-wide ban on slavery.
In one scene an officer is shown bidding for a slave girl who is sent to a brothel for the exclusive use of British officers. Later, a fellow officer orders the destruction of a village and its inhabitants after they refuse to set aside land for opium production.
David attacks the depictions as fabrication. He is also scathing about the film's claim that 1857 events were sparked by the company's insistence that Muslim and Hindu sepoys use bullet casings covered in beef and pork fat. In reality, he insists, the cartridges were withdrawn in the light of the concerns.
Farrukh Dhondy, who scripted The Rising, however, says, "The Rising is based on historical facts, broad historical occurrences⦠There was an issue about the grease in cartridges and the rest - which is openly fictional -- comes from my imagination."
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_...430004.htm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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