Natwar Singh is continously sending very mixed message, either his thought and future vision is not aligned with ground reality or he is just nut.
He is not taking advise from other IFS and security officers.
Problem is his Independent policy based on obselete NAM is meaningless.
I am not sure whether carrot and stick policy of NDA was good or not, but Natwar's strategy or non strategy is scary.
To be honest, its a toss up between Nutwar's rants and ABVs peace initiatives. ABV scared the heck out of me at times. At times I used to pray he doesnt pull a DeGaulle on us .. A dose of Nutwar might be good lesson for the yanks/mush, methinks. That rascal powell slapped us real hard with the MNNA stuff - Nutwar's kabhee khushee kabhee gam rants will be good medicine for the rascal.
Nobody deserves Nutwar more then the Yanks - idiots had a chance to build a historic partnership and all they did was munna-this and munna-that. His rants on NAM etc will make them realise how good it was before and how irritating it is to hear cold-war-era ind-pak equal-equal crap.
'Tainted' Pak diplomat in India for talks<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The money was reportedly to be given to a Hurriyat leader, allegedly for funding militant groups.
Jilani was then charged under POTA by the Delhi police for funding terrorists in India but because of his diplomatic immunity, the police could do little.
Focus on peace process
Sources say Jilani, now the Director General, South Asia, in the Pakistan Foreign Ministry has been granted short-term diplomatic immunity to facilitate his visit to India.
Officials argue, this immunity is permissible under international law and New Delhi decided to extend it to Jilani given the importance of the talks and the emphasis on taking forward the peace process with Pakistan.
The irony however, remains that a man charged under POTA over a year ago, is now a VIP visitor.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
After reading this news, concerns about Nutwar makes me wonder. Even it is misplace wrt to Pakistan.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mr Cohen said if the US-India relationship is strained, âthen itâs clear that America has to rely even more on Pakistan than ever before.â He called the Indian external affairs minister Natwar Singh, the national security adviser J.N. Dixit and the new foreign policy and security establishment âamateursâ, adding, âif you look at the new people coming into this government, I canât find one of them who has significant or serious knowledge or expertise in military or security affairs.â <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And I thought they liked people like this and made munnas out of them.. <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo-->
> CP Bhambri is a well known journalist in Delhi.
> I think he was known for his pro Congress views. I may be mistaken.
> He is Professor of Political Scince in Delhi Universty and "pro congress" cld be de-meaning to him, he shld be called a psychophant.
Mudy > I am not sure whether carrot and stick policy of NDA was good or not, but Natwar's strategy or non strategy is scary.
And I am waiting for B Raman's view abt all this , or will he wait for govt to fall down and then give his views <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
rajesh_g> ABV scared the heck out of me at times.
Remember his comments in J&K " Badal hut gaye hain , Dosti kaa haath" , wld be interesting to see if the media started pumping him up since then.
Only ppl who belive "noaction is the action type theory" still believe in PARAKARAM's parakaram.
rajesh your comment abt Yanks! on the dot man, India definetly needs / needed good relation with US but Jaswant and BJP crawled when they cld have just bowed slightly.
NDA managed to rule for full term , but as a supporter of BJP, I still think they lacked the extra think JJ from Chennai had.
> After reading this news, concerns about Nutwar makes me wonder.
Mudy , but serioursly had it been NDA things wld still have been the same.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Finally, to the delayed use of air power. The former foreign and defence minister, Jaswant Singh, satisfactorily clarified some points yesterday, in the presence of the defence minister during the Kargil War, Fernandes, and the home minister, L.K.Advani, and their overall performance was very dignified, befitting both the offices they once held, and the absolute seriousness of the issue they were addressing. <b>Contrast that to some of the jokers in the government, who rush to the press every single day.</b> But it is what Jaswant Singh and the others left out saying yesterday which is significant, and to be fair, no worthy minister would go so far in his clarifications as to expose chinks in the fighting machine, and there were some during Kargil<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
These jokers don't understand India's security. The are really enemy. Pakistan should employ them, why to waste NLI when same can be done by these jokers.
> Lalloo is now a expert on defense.
> Lalloo and the Kargil war
Ummm .. wish he were Defence Minister and then tintin's of my other favourite forum wld have the pleasure of sucking upto.
Though must say he talk staringht . no charminars and no bulbuls ,, what say spinrao <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
This cohen piece of **** drives me nuts. The anti-india feeling is so institutional in the yank establishment its gonna take years and years for these idiots to let go of that. In the meantime we have to rub it in to these scumbags by saying - hey you guys lost the plot when we tried to build a relationship, and thats that - just let us know when u get NY nuked by your munnas.
You want to live in the cold war era - listen to Nutwar ! Wonder why Nutwar hasnt come out strongly endorsing BRIC-solidarity etc. Even BJP should have some guy come out with statements that say - hey we tried our best to build a fruitful relationship with yanks but due to lack of support from the yanks unfortunately we have put that relationship on lower priority.
Natwar being nutty for a while might not be such a bad thing. The foreign policy has been so predictable - let other side sweat it out a bit.
Even the Mushy rushed to call ABV after Natwar's initial comments. Serves him right - thrice ABV had offered peace and he squandered the opportunity. Hope the Natwar ain't too shy on kicking a few nuts around.
Must read, good analysis done by MANEKA GANDHI<b>Clay-Pot Dictator</b>!
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the kulhar industry, the potter gets the bare minimum per kulharâabout 25 paisa. Besides, the same transport and exploitative labour methods are used. So if the potter works really hard and makes 50 kulhars a day, how much does he earn? Rs 12.50. How much agricultural land will be needed for several lakh kulhars a day? More than 100 acres per day per state.
Can we afford to let Laloo, whose knowledge of anything except caste structures is non-existent, damage the rural economy further? The long-suffering railway ministry, which has by now lost its ability to resist any absurd decision by any of their ministers, has agreed to budget Rs 250 crore a year to buy kulhars. While all that money comes from your pocket, where will it actually go?
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In the newspeak of the UPA, to be saffron is worse than being a terrorist or a Pak diplomat who has been charged with espionage. The Pak diplomat is wined and dined, while saffron, one of the colors of the tri color is denigrated. If being saffron is so bad why not remove it from the flag altogether and be done with it.
So now we are back to being fed a pack of lies in our history books which is what the Communists really want - the pound of flesh that the communists demanded in return for support in Dilli. It appears some Hindus will sell their own Mother to attain power. The rot that set in when IG let the camel in the tent during and after the emergency, has now come full circle and the fungus has spread , the camel is in and the Hindu is out (of the tent). The next step is to hire some Pakis to write our history books. Come to think of it why not just adopt the Paki texts it would save money for the Indian taxpayer. But who cares about saving money in Dilli anymore.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>In pursuit of its so-called commitment towards de-saffronisation" the UPA Government is dropping all of former Union Minister MM Joshi's men like hot potatoes.</span> The latest to figure on the hitlist are Kapil Kumar, member-secretary of the Indian Council for Historical Research, and Anil Kapoor, secretary of the National Centre for Education Research and Technology (NCERT).
The Human Resource Development Ministry issued orders sacking Mr Kumar and Mr Kapoor on Monday. These come after VS Pande, former joint secretary in the HRD Ministry, and financial advisor VK Pipersenia, were under the scanner after their role in the IIM fee-cut controversy. For the time being, AK Ambasht, a director in the HRD Ministry, has been given the additional charge of member-secretary, ICHR. This has caused disappointment in certain quarters as Leftist PK Shukla expected the job.
Mr Kumar was given the additional charge on February 5, 2004. This was after overruling the objections raised by the then chairman, MGR Narayanan, who was backing Mr Shukla, the senior- most director in the ICHR.
His removal from the post comes after a request made by chairman, ICHR, DN Tripathi, to the HRD Ministry last month. Mr Tripathi was unhappy about Mr Kumar not spending adequate time in his role as member-secretary since he was occupied by his work in IGNOU.
Mr Kapoor was given the additional charge of secretary, NCERT, during the reign of the former HRD Minister. His removal was impending since he holds the key to all important NCERT documents. Mr Kapoor has handed over the charge to Vivek Bhardwaj, another deputy secretary in the HRD Ministry.
Sources said Mr Kapoor's removal will do away with hurdles in the path of Secretary, Education and Literacy, Kumud Bansal as she approaches the deadline for submission of a report on charges of financial and administrative irregularities in the NCERT in early July .
Allegations include victimisation of colleagues, appointment of relatives, engaging consultants without justification, irregular spending of Rs 1 crore in the name of commissioning new textbooks and spending another Rs 1 crore for cultural programmes in the NCERT.
Dissatisfied with the functioning of officials in the ICHR, Mr Kumar plans to submit a report regarding the misgovernance in ICHR. Talking to The Pioneer, Mr Kumar appeared bitter about the system of governance that seemingly lacks a professional approach.
<b>NCERT books may be history, new list of texts soon</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>It could be the Delhi SCERT books, books by Eklavya or Holy Faith </b>(independently printed textbooks) or even any of the dozen-odd privately produced books.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>National Advisory Council to meet in July </b>
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JUNE 25. The newly-constituted National Advisory Council of the United Progressive Alliance Government is scheduled to hold its first meeting in the first week of next month.
Congress sources said the Council headed by the Congress president and UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, desired an interface between the Government and the people and would advise the Manmohan Singh Government on how the Common Minimum Programme could be translated into programmes.
"<b>The NAC would be the interface of the UPA Government with civil society and by bringing in fresh thinking into planning that otherwise is not associated with the Government," a Congress leader associated with its formation said. </b> <i>Political parties are supposed to do this interface.</i>The NAC's would prepare a programme that could translate the large number of "commitments'' made in the CMP like a Minimum Employment Guarantee Act or the mid-day meal scheme; public exposure for the CMP by bringing in experts who have accomplished in their respective areas; and conduct a social audit of the Government's programme.
<b>Ms. Gandhi is reported to be in favour of giving thrust to four key areas in the first phase. These include, accent on agriculture, education, health and employment, the sources said adding that she had already held discussions with the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, suggesting that the first budget reflect the concerns. </b>
The NAC Secretariat is likely to be housed in 1, Tyagaraja Marg. Though the NAC Chairperson, Ms. Gandhi holds a Cabinet rank, the 12-member advisory council would neither hold any rank nor be paid any salary except being entitled to regular allowances for attending meetings. The UPA, which is designed as political body, would have a separate building.
Providing a brief profile of the members of the advisory council, the sources said that for instance, C.H. Hanumantha Rao was a member of the Planning Commission under Dr. Singh. Besides being an agricultural economist, his expertise includes drought management. D. Swaminathan is an educationist who too served in the Planning Commission, Jayaprakash Narayan, works on health and environment, Aruna Roy, a social activist worked on minimum wages and right to information while, Jean Dreze, a Belgian who acquired Indian citizenship, is associated with renowned economist Amartya Sen, who works on food and employment issues. The Havard-educated A.K. Shiv Kumar is associated with primary education and health issues and had presented a paper at the Congress Chief Minister's conclave in Mount Abu. N.C. Saxena and V. Krishnamurthy are former civil servants while Mirai Chatterjee, a John Hopkins University graduate in public health works in the health sector, and Madhav Chavan is associated with primary education.
<b>Did HRD minister's panel of historians lie to him ? </b> - Pioneer
Udayan Namboodiri/ New Delhi
Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh's panel of historians had lied to him about the NCERT books.<b> One of the "eminent" historians, JS Grewal, had ordered a ban on Meenakshi Jain's Medieval India, a textbook for Class XI, without even bothering to give it a read.</b>
So, how did he come to his grand conclusion that the NCERT's book authored by Jain was undesirable for study ? Instead of reading Medieval India, he decided to go through the Indian History Congress (IHC)'s much-discredited Index of Errors which Jain, during the JS Rajput era, had already demolished through the NCERT's August 2003 riposte, Fallacies in the IHC Report. After that, the IHC, a known Leftist bastion, retreated from the debate over textbooks, its "eminent" members preferring to operate through allegations in the friendly media.
Whereas the HRD Minstry, in its published Order of June 12 had asked Grewal and two other historians, S. Settar and Barun De, to "do a quick review of these (NCERT) books and suggest what needs to be done in the short term", the former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak University digressed from his brief and decided to act as an apologist for IHC. In his six-and-a-half page criticism of Medieval India, Grewal has used pretty strong words against Jain, both from the professional and personal standpoints. At one place the former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak University even chides Jain as a "well read student at the Master's level" even though she holds a doctorate in History. But, not once did he refer directly to the book he was supposed to review.
This is first apparent by matching the references Grewal makes to the page numbers. <b>His opening attack on Jain is over her alleged downplaying of one of the founders of the Bhakti cult, Sant Kabir. According to him, Kabir features on "page 191" and that too only in passing. But this is page 191 of Fallacies and not Medieval India. Actually, there is one big paragraph on Kabir in Medieval India spread over pages 125 and 126</b>.
Grewal uses up over 200 words to pick holes in Jain's riposte to the IHC over Kabir but ignores the basic truth. Similarly, Grewal alleges that Jain had given short shrift to Hindu-Muslim "cultural rapprochement". He refers to Jain's portion in Fallacies, but not the extensive coverage given by her over pages 120, 128 and 221.
At the end of a rambling essay on what Jain ought to have written in her reply to the IHC, <b>Grewal frustrates the discerning reader by his reluctance to reveal what is wrong with Meenakshi Jain's book</b>. Yet, surprisingly, the NCERT Executive Committee glossed over this aspect while passing its sweeping judgement against the book at its extended meeting on Monday.
An enraged Jain said she is considering legal action against Grewal.<b> "The man is shameless. I wrote to him after getting a copy of the report, but instead of acknowledging his crime, he went on to give statements that my book should be banned immediately"</b>, she added. <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>Men in khaki proudly wear Hindu identity on their sleeves</b>
Thursday July 22 2004 09:53 IST
AHMEDABAD: At the Naroda Police Station, in a corner of Senior Inspector V.S. Gohilâs chamber is a mini temple. There are idols and pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses on a shelf. Garlands, flowers, and agarbattis indicate there is daily puja.
Gohil readily admits as much. He says heâs religious, of course, and is bewildered that anyone should question the elaborate ââpuja sthalââ with fairy lights inside his chamber.<b> ââBeing a police officer does not mean that I cease to be a Hindu,ââ he said. ââWhatâs wrong with this?ââ </b>
<b>The army recently initiated a drive to emphasise its secular character by asking staff on duty not to sport signs of their religion on their person or display them in offices and vehicles. And in most states, police stations are discouraged from displaying religious pictures or idols</b>. [Reason for 1857 first independence war- are they going to ask sikhs not to put Kara or Pagari, Hindus not to wear moli or tilak]
But things are evidently different with police in Gujarat. The men are in khaki. If it werenât for their nameplates â many donât even have them â thereâs no way youâd know their religion. There should be no need, either. But chances are that as you step into any police station in Ahmedabad, you canât help feeling that the force is Hindu first.
At the Vejalpur Police Station, two large, framed pictures of Goddess Durga and Lord Shiva on a wall. Beneath them is the table at which an assistant sub-inspector sits.
And at the police chowki in Juhapura, Sub-Inspector G.P. Rathoreâs room has a wooden niche with a picture of Goddess Durga in it.
If Naroda is the place where Muslims were burnt alive in the post-Godhra riots while the police allegedly stood watching, the Vejalpur-Juhapura area has a sizable Muslim population.
But Director-General of Police A.K. Bhargava seemed sure of himself when he said that ââno Muslim visiting a police station to lodge a complaint feels frightened because of these pictures and idols. They know that a policeman remains a policeman despite being a Hindu.ââ
Like him, most inspectors in charge of police stations said thereâs nothing wrong with the practice. Some seemed proud of the fact. And some said there was nothing in the police manual to prevent it.
ââAll this doesnât reflect any pro-Hindu bias,ââ said Senior Inspector N.K. Desai of Khadia Police Station. ââWe have the gods around because we seek their blessings for greater efficiency in our daily work as policemen. This is not to show we are Hindus.ââ
Like Desaiâs police station, those at Satellite, Navrangpura, Kalupur, Khadia, Sola, Shardanagar, Meghaninagar, and other areas too bear unmistakable Hindu identities, with pictures or puja sthals where worship is regular.
Even police vans have pictures of Hindu deites. The practice, say those who have been in the force for long, has always been there but has grown in the last few years. But police chief Bhargava said he wouldnât initiate any move to end it.
ââThereâs no need to rake up an issue that has no significance,ââ he said. ââPolicemen who are Hindus have a right to worship their gods and goddesses. If they do it at the police station, whatâs wrong? A policeman cannot be disallowed from retaining his religion when heâs on duty. This happens even in Parliament house and in the armed forces.ââ
<b>Reminded of the armyâs recent directive, he said: ââThis is not the first time theyâre trying to do it. Have they been able to stop it?ââ </b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->But things are evidently different with police in Gujarat. The men are in khaki. If it werenât for their nameplates â many donât even have them â thereâs no way youâd know their religion. There should be no need, either. But chances are that as you step into any police station in Ahmedabad, you canât help feeling that the force is Hindu first. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wow what a spin .. <!--emo&:mad--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:furious--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/furious.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='furious.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Wonder who wrote this and for whom.
Besides how is it different in other states ? Non-gujju police-wallahs dont do a pooja in other states ?
Read between the lines and Chidambaram's dream budget is all words.
In reality, the much-hailed `human touch' of the new government is
cosmeticâinvolving little new in terms of ideas and lesser in terms
of money
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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