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Posted by admin in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, India, India Hall of Shame, INDIA'S HINDUISM, India's Nuclear Proliferation, Makaar Dushman, Pakistan-A Nation of Hope, Suppression of Women in Hindu India on May 4th, 2013
Two brothers from Panvel have been arrested for uploading a photograph on a social networking website depicting one of them desecrating a Shiva lingam.
Police had arrested the duo while they were at a relative?s house in Panvel on Thursday. Both the accused were laying low after the photo they uploa..
Posted by aka in Cult of Hinduism, India Hall of Shame, Suppression of Women in Hindu India on April 21st, 2013
In a white circus tent heated to 105 degrees, 600 not-quite-naked people contort their bodies into positions you never knew were possible. The men have perfect, rippling muscles. The women (and the majority of students here are female) are long and taut, with fatless stomachs curved just enough to be erotic and breasts that perk cheerfully upward. They sit with their legs tucked behind their heads, bodies arranged like pretzels, then gracefully deploy their arms, hips, hands, and legs to open like Georgia O’Keeffe flowers into variations on the split. The mats beneath them are damp with sweat. Overhead, great white plastic ventilating tubes, 70 feet long and 5 feet wide, pump humidity into the air. The vinyl of the tent drips with condensation, and a locker-room aroma hangs in the air.
I’ve only just arrived, but this bacchanal of bare flesh has been going on for two months. These men and women have come to the sprawling Town and Country Resort Hotel on the outskirts of San Diego to become certified instructors of Bikram Yoga, the controversial American variant that is performed at extreme temperatures. Each has paid $7,000 in tuition and $3,900 in residence fees (all students must stay at the Town and Country) for nine weeks of study, six days a week. This includes two daily 90-minute yoga sessions, as many as five more hours of posture clinic (where they learn to correct their spine or shoulders in particular asanas, or postures), and evening lessons in anatomy and Hindu philosophy followed by Bollywood movies and Indian soap operas until 2:30 or 3 in the morning. When they leave, they will be certified to teach at one of the 5,000 Bikram Yoga studios worldwide.
That’s assuming they’re able to execute the demanding series of postures that make up Bikram. Right now, the students are in head-to-knee pose, or dandayamana-janushirasana: From a standing position, lift one leg so that it’s at a right angle to your body, keeping your knee locked, then bend your upper body forward toward the lifted leg. Imagine the tableau, the kaleidoscope of slim, strong-hipped, bowed bodies, the scene multiplied by the mirrors lining three of the four walls. Now it’s camel pose, or ustrasana: On your knees, hands on your hips, bend back until you grab your heels with your hands, then thrust your chest into the air. Before the session is over, 50 or so students have rolled up their mats and left, overwhelmed. I hear what sounds like the chop-chop-chopping of helicopter blades and realize it’s my own heartbeat. The ceiling spins. I roll over, open my eyes, and watch the ballet of it in the mirrors. I see more than I bargained for. Because of the heat, everyone is wearing the smallest, tightest thing they can, and, especially with the sweat, the clothes do not cover so much as exaggerate.
Morning practice is bigger than usual today because this is “Intensive Training Week,” when many come for the recertification required to maintain their teaching credentials. Most are working through the 84-posture intensive series, the two-hour-plus advanced routine practiced by the elite. This is the portion of the program that is personally supervised by Bikram Choudhury, the 64-year-old founder of Bikram Yoga. Only the best, bravest, and most beautiful practice at the feet of the guru, who sits cross-legged on a giant inflatable leather throne against the back wall. He’s in a black Speedo, bare-chested, his hair tied in a topknot. His triceps stand out like pistons. Sometimes a woman will brush his hair or wash and massage his feet. He resembles a cartoon genie on his magic carpet. Between cell-phone calls, he barks Bengali-inflected criticisms and corrections into his headset. He speaks only in exclamation points.
“You, Miss Teeny-Weeny Bikini! Spread your legs! You, Mr. Masturbation! Until I say ‘Change,’ you do not move a muscle!”
It’s hard to tell if these directives are intended for anyone in particular or if Choudhury is just working the crowd. He keeps up a patter of bawdy, sexually suggestive, often male-bashing banter throughout the session. Students—men, especially—have been known to complain, but for most, Bikram’s commentary is part of the package. He’s built his business, which has been estimated to earn him nearly $5 million a year, in large part by applying a veneer of eroticism to this ancient spiritual practice. For the women here, the “boss,” as he calls himself (and everyone else), offers a path to sexual awakening. For the men, Bikram Yoga is a great workout, and maybe an opportunity to get close to a few kundalini-stimulated hard bodies once class lets out.
Choudhury hums “Killing Me Softly” into the mic of his headset as his pupils struggle to hold a posture, even the strongest among them trembling. At last he gives the signal to change.
“This posture called dirty old bitch! Because not even one more inch can you stretch!”
UNDER THE BIG TOP: Choudhury strikes a favorite non-yoga pose.
Born in Kolkata, India, Where Yoga is a competitive sport as well as a spiritual practice, Bikram Choudhury claims to have become the All-India National Yoga Champion at the age of 13. He left in 1970 after his guru, Bishnu Ghosh (the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, who is generally credited with bringing yoga to the West), instructed him to spread the practice throughout the world. Choudhury’s principal innovation—heat—is supposed to increase flexibility and prevent injury, but he came to it by necessity. In Japan, where he first taught, he found himself shivering through his postures during winter, so he brought in space heaters. Suddenly it was easier for his students to lock their knees and touch their palms to the floor. As an added benefit, the saunalike temperatures heightened their sense of euphoria and purification after workouts. In 1972, when he launched Bikram’s Yoga College of India in a tiny studio in the North Beach section of San Francisco, the heaters came with him. Bikram Yoga was born.
Read More http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201102/yoga-guru-bikram-choudhury#ixzz2R5kxegIj
Posted by admin in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, Jahiliya "Jihadis"Illiterate Fanatics, Pakistan's Fights Terrorism, RAW-Mossad Axis, Zionist Enemy on April 21st, 2013
Ashok- Discover India-BloggerJanes information group, the world’s foremost source on intelligence information, reported in July 2001 that “The Indian spy agency RAW and the Israeli spy agency Mossad have created four new agencies to infiltrate Pakistan to target important religious and military personalities, journalists, judges, lawyers and bureaucrats. In addition, bombs would be exploded in trains, railway stations, bridges, bus stations, cinemas, hotels and mosques of rival Islamic sects to incite sectarianism.”Pakistani intelligence agencies also said that RAW had constituted a plan to lure Pakistani men between 20 and 30 years of age to visit India so that they could be entrapped “in cases of fake currency and subversion and then be coerced to spy for India.”This was the high point of cementing an unholy alliance which began much earlier and which continues to tighten its noose around the neck of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia.It appears that RAW and Mossad — either singly or jointly, either covertly or overtly — have been making efforts to penetrate sensitive circles of top echelon in Pakistan.It cannot be said with certainty but there are some reasons to assume that Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, wittingly or unwittingly, played in the hands of RAW-Mossad masterminds. She appointed Rehman Malik as chief of the Federal Investigation Agency which then launched a secret war against the Islamists; amounting to a direct attack on the ISI.War against religious extremists could have been a laudable goal but it seemed to target only those elements which could have brought a semblance of moderation to the religious swatch cutting across Pakistan society.Thus, leaving the field wide open for extremists.It seems that the Pakistani military was equally dismayed by reports of FIA contacts with the Israeli secret service, the MOSSAD, to investigate Islamist terrorists.One of the first acts of President Leghari after dismissing Benazir Bhutto on November 5, 1996 was to imprison the Ghulam Asghar, head of FIA, suspended on non-specified corruption charges. Rehman Malik, Addl. Director General FIA, was also arrested.Whether these actions were triggered as a consequence of plotting by RAW-Mossad planners or whether it was an entirely internal matter, it is difficult to say.Bhutto s visit to India last year at a time when Pakistan was going through one of the worst crises in its history, and her statements there which aimed to undermine the whole foundation of Pakistan, generate more than a flicker of doubt in analytic minds.The basic question arises: Who is Benazir Bhutto?Leaving BB to her own fate, let’s return to RAW-Mossad connection.What is clear right now is that Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad are collaborating extensively to curb the freedom movement of Kashmir and destabilize Pakistan.The Indian newspaper The Pioneer wrote on March 3, 2001: Fencing of the Indo-Pak border is not enough. To check Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism, top security experts of Israel have suggested that hi-tech gadgets ranging from an electronic barrier system of radars to thermal imaging devices should be immediately installed on India’s sensitive international border in J[ammu] & K[ashmir] and Punjab sectors.The team of experts, including officials of the Mossad, the Israeli Army and the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), also found shocking loopholes in the security arrangements relating to the much-talked about Samjhauta Express. They advised that instead of Lahore, the train should terminate on the Attari border. Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs said the Israeli experts surveyed the 198 km international border in Jammu and Punjab and reviewed the route of the Samjhauta Express with top officials of the Border Security Force.Subsequently, former DG of the Border Security Force, E.N. Ram Mohan was appointed as the consultant on border management. Mr. Ram Mohan has recommended that besides radars, aerostate balloons and FLIR equipment be used.India is keen to purchase surveillance aircraft (UAVs) from Israel to gain intelligence teeth. The UAVs could also help the state police in keeping an eye in naxalite-affected areas of Andhra Pradesh.For several years, Mossad and Israel’s internal intelligence agency, Shinbhet, have utilised unmanned air vehicles to patrol the hypersensitive Gaza border.Qutbuddin Aziz, former minister in Pakistan embassy in London, wrote an excellent article, titled ‘Dangerous Nexus between Israel & India.’ It was published by a prominent Pakistani newspaper on April 1, 2001.Aziz writes: “Top secret details of Indian Home Minister LK Advani’s visit to Israel in June 2000, show that the deals he has struck with the Israelis would make India and Israel partners in threatening the Muslim world with diabolic conspiracies to fragment and cripple it as a political force in the world. The details of his meetings with Israel’s rulers, particularly the heads of the Israeli Home Ministry and its intelligence agencies, Mossad and Sabak, reveal that the arrangements he has made for joint Indo-Israel espionage operations in key areas of the Muslim world would make the Indian embassies in these Muslim countries the eyes and ears of the worldwide cloak-and-dagger Israeli spy network.”Under the euphemism of ‘counter-terrorism,’ India is allowing Israel to establish a huge spy establishment in India which will, inter alia, unearth and monitor ‘Islamic fundamentalist’ individuals and groups for elimination by extra judicial process or by cold-blooded murder and kidnapping.”The most important meeting Indian Home Minister Advani had during his three-day Israeli tour on June 13-16 was with the top brass of Israel’s intelligence agencies in Tel Aviv. Heading the Israeli team was the powerful chief of Israeli police, Yehuda Wilk, with the heads of the Israeli intelligence agencies, Mossad and Sabak, and military officials dealing with Israel’s punitive and espionage operations against Arabs in Israel, Palestine and neighbouring states such as Lebanon and Syria. Senior officials from the Israeli Foreign Office and the defence and home ministries attended this meeting. Israeli experts in bomb detection were also present.”Mr. Advani’s large team included India’s highest-level spymasters such as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Mr. Shayamal Dutta, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, Mr. R. K. Raghvan, the head of the Indian Border Security Force, Mr. E. M. Ram Mohan, Indian Home Ministry’s powerful Secretary K. Pande who oversees the work of the infamous Indian spy agency, RAW, and liaises with the Indian Foreign Office in respect of undercover RAW agents working in Indian embassies abroad, and a senior officer of India’s military intelligence agency (equivalent of Pakistan’s ISI).”In this top-level meeting in Tel Aviv on June 14, Advani reportedly thanked the Israeli government for its immense help to India in security matters and spoke of the dangers India and Israel face from their common enemies, i.e., Muslim neighbours.”Advani, it is reported, highly praised the help provided by Mossad and army commando personnel to the Indian army in the war on ‘Muslim militants’ in Kashmir and against ‘Muslim terrorists’ such as the ‘Memon brothers’ of Mumbai in Dubai. Advani said he had, throughout his political career, advocated India’s recognition and friendship with Israel and that his party had played a key role in forcing Congress government to have full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992.”He lauded the Indo-Israeli cooperation in the military, economic and other fields. Advani recalled that India had voted in favour of a US-sponsored motion in the UN for rescinding a UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism. Mr. Advani explained at length India’s security problems in which the danger from Pakistan and Indian Muslims getting Arab money loomed large. Advani gave a long list of the special services in spying and the anti-insurgency devices and spy equipment India urgently needs from Israel to combat ‘Muslim terrorism.'”In the June 14 Tel Aviv meeting, the Israeli Police Chief, Yehuda Wilk, profusely praised India for its friendship with Israel and pledged help to the Indian government in combating ‘Muslim terrorism’ that poses new threats to Israel and India. The heads of India’s intelligence agencies then briefed the Israeli side in the meeting on the ground situation in India in respect of ‘Muslim terrorists,’ especially in Jammu and Kashmir, and the new dangers coming up for India and Israel because of the Pakistani bomb and the fear that Pakistan may give its nuclear weapons to the anti-Israel Arabs.”The Indian side showed a keen interest in learning from Israeli security experts how they had run the slice of Lebanon which Israel ruled for 18 years and gave up recently. Some information about the Israeli torture and investigation methods was gathered by the Indian side from the Israelis with regard to dealing with Arab dissidents within Israel and in the Palestinian Authority region.”The Indians gave the Israelis a long shopping list of spying, torture and surveillance equipment such as electronic fencing of sensitive sites, laser systems, short-range rockets, eagle-eyed long distance snipers, observation blimps, giant shields, night vision device, unmanned aircraft of the MALAT wing of the Israeli Aircraft Industries Limited, special protective dress and gear for security personnel, cross border snopping devices and gadgets, training and deployment of spies and the special gear for them, use of computers and Internet for espionage and disinformation, code-breaking, tailing of enemy agents and their elimination, nuclear espionage, purloining state secrets of hostile countries and pooling them for the good of India and Israel and their mutual friends.”The Israelis were interested in having access to the secret reports of Indian undercover RAW diplomats from certain Muslim countries of special interest to Israel (especially Pakistan, Libya and Iran). India is apparently willing to grant access to Israeli agents to the Indian Home Ministry’s Central Intelligence Processing Unit (CIPU) in New Delhi. This was recently set up under Advani’s direction with Israeli and US help. A handpicked RAW officer, trusted by Advani, heads this unit. Israel wants full access to its information data. The Indian government has already allowed access to it by American intelligence agencies now working with the Indian government on so-called anti-terrorist assignments.Federation of American Scientists website comments on RAW in these words: “RAW has engaged in disinformation campaigns, espionage and sabotage against Pakistan and other neighboring countries. RAW has enjoyed the backing of successive Indian governments in these efforts. Working directly under the Prime Minister, the structure, rank, pay and perks of the Research & Analysis Wing are kept secret from Parliament.”Tarek Fatah, a Turkish scholar settled in Canada, wrote: “Britain’s authoritative and respected defense publication, Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor, reports that Israel and India have formed a military relationship and that Israeli intelligence is active in Occupied Kashmir.”It says: Israeli intelligence agencies have been intensifying their relations with India’s security apparatus and are now understood to be heavily involved in helping New Delhi combat Islamic militants in the disputed province of Kashmir…Ed Blanche writes in Janes’ Security on 14 August 2001: “Israeli intelligence agencies have been intensifying their relations with India’s security apparatus and are now understood to be heavily involved in helping New Delhi combat Islamic militants in the disputed province of Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state which lies at the core of the conflict with neighbouring Pakistan.”Israel has several teams now in Kashmir training Indian counter-insurgency forces to fight the dozen separatist guerrilla groups operating in the Indian-controlled sector of the disputed state.”The exact extent of the involvement in Kashmir by Israel s intelligence agencies is far from clear, but it fits into Israel’s increasing focus on events in Central Asia, and as far afield as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim state, to counteract Islamic fundamentalism, which it perceives as a major threat.”Shimon Peres, currently Israel’s foreign minister, said during a visit to New Delhi in January 2001 (shortly before he took his current post in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s coalition government) that Israel was prepared to co-operate with India to fight terrorism. Weeks earlier, an Israeli counterterrorism team, including military intelligence specialists and senior police commanders, paid a visit to Indian-administered Kashmir and other regions of the country that are grappling with anti-government militants to assess India’s security needs.If there is still any doubt as to the real intentions of Israel, then please see this statement issued by David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister. His words, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967, leave nothing to imagination:”The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.”This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.”Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.”It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans. ____We are grateful to Tariq Saeedi for permission to reprint excerpts from his special report that appeared first in The Balochistan Post, www.balochistanpost.com .
Imran Khan should NEVER come to power in Pakistan’s upcoming elections. That is the key objective of NATO, Western Think Tanks and Feudal/Industrialist/Military entente in Pakistan. A populist leader cannot rule Pakistan. He/she needs to be eliminated, because he/she will not serve the interests of Western Powers. Pakistan’s history tells us that populist leaders had a short life span in a country like Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and even Murtaza Bhutto were eliminated mysteriously. Not a single of these assassination were ever investigated by neutral observers or commissions. Populist leadership in Pakistan is either eliminated physically or by political assassination and intrigues. The belief of a common Pakistani that his nation has been hijacked by foreign powers has a kernel of truth to it.
At present, Imran Khan is a thorn on the side of its ISAF allies and US. There is a concerted effort to remove him from the political scene by demonizing his character. Presstitutes like GEO, ARY, AAJ, and Dunya, plus several popular newspaper have received millions of rupees in funds from the Western embassies, among them are US, UK, Netherland, France, Norway, UAE, Saudi Arabia and others in Islamabad. Many members of Pakistan Tehrik Insaf are enticed with financial and commercial incentives to leave the party. These are the stealthily corrupt individuals, who came into the PTI to ride the tide of its popularity. An in depth searches of these individuals’ background reveals their feudal or Jagirdarana roots. These opportunists had a choke hold on Pakistan’s politics and they are back in action to claim, which they consider is rightfully their inheritance: an inherent right to rule Pakistan and steal whatever is left in the country. Spearheading this movement is a nexus of strange bedfellows, PML (N)-PPP-US Interests in Pakistan, represented by Jagirdars, Waderas, Industrialists, and fifth columnists in the Pakistan Media, led by GEO, AAJ, ARY, and Dunya. The scions of the Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman family represent the media business interests, who put their own financial interests above that of the nation.
How does this propaganda work? As election strategies progress, so is the use of political campaigning.
1. Direct personal attacks on TV, opposed to surrogates doing the attacking
Result: The effects it can have on “someone who is uneducated,” like the majority of electorate or voting public in Pakistan. Historically speaking, even in the US Elections, “Name-calling and invective are themselves nothing new in American political life. Washington was called a “Whore Master” and would-be-monarch; Jefferson a coward and atheist; Lincoln, a “rail-splitting baboon.” Franklin O. Roosevelt, Jr., as a surrogate for John Kennedy in the West Virginia primary in 1960, declared Hubert Humphrey was a draft dodger.
2. Bribe media owners, commentators (exceptions are Talat Hussain, Shahzeb Khanzada, Iftikhar Ahmed and a handful of others) and reporters. A Report from London Institute of South Asia (2) described these activities in details below:
Results:
Pakistan Media Corrupted
Starting 2010 the Obama administration made plans to spend nearly $50 million on Pakistani media to reverse anti-American sentiments. This has done wonders as one sees the erstwhile hostile (anti US policy) TV anchors changed like chameleon changes its colors. In the perception of many Pakistanis, the card being played right now by US establishment and its allied media is to weaken the only institution left intact in Pakistan; its military. Pakistani media that has immature anchors, journalists and some of the opportunist politicians who are trying to settle their score with the military establishment is reinforcing the military-bashing campaign
Only in Pakistan do the media champion the cause and lionize traitors and terrorists that act against their country. Would the British media have acted in the same way in the case of IRA or the Spanish for ETA or the Indians for the Kashmiris, Sikhs and Naxalite?
The media is ideally perceived as the fourth pillar of the state (alongside the judicial, legislative and executive powers), but in Pakistan, most people have come to distrust the media and those who practice journalism. Presently, Pakistanis are demanding that star anchors of various current affairs programmes and other journalists be held accountable for their actions.
US- Afghanistan-Pakistan
The war in Af- Pak did not progress as planned by the US. The US – Pakistan standoff over a range of issues worsened the situation where Pakistan is well placed to extract maximum leverage from US towards a Taliban friendly dispensation backed and dominated by Pakistan. However this may not be forthcoming because of weakened establishment and a corrupt and pliant government in Pakistan. The dirty picture emerging in Af- Pak has US fighting for influence with major stakeholders such as China backed Pakistan and Iran. Both these countries can be instrumental in finding a face saving formula for the US to resolve the crisis and affect a graceful exit.
In his article ‘The Lost War’ Patrick Cockburn writes that it is an extraordinary turn-around that in a decade the Americans are departing and the Taliban are back in business. A leaked NATO report on interrogations of 4,000 captured Taliban, Al-Qaeda, foreign fighters and civilian shows that Taliban prisoners are in a confident mood. They believe their popular support is growing, Afghan government officials secretly collaborate with them, and, once foreign troops are gone, they believe they are going to win.
Afghans like to bet on winners, and the US action will convince many that these are increasingly likely to be the Taliban and Pakistan rather than the Afghan government. No wonder NATO officials looked as anxious as they pretended that the US action had not come as a nasty surprise.
The US has failed in Afghanistan and the Taliban will become stronger. But it is unlikely they can win a total victory. The non-Pashtun communities, a majority of the population, will resist them. Reconciliation will be very difficult in a country as deeply divided as Afghanistan. In the foreseeable future the war may soon be over for the Americans, but not for Pakistanis and certainly not for the Afghans.
India Getting Trapped
In the new Cold War between US and China, India is being groomed to play the role Pakistan played as a US ally in the cold war with Russia. (And look what happened to Pakistan.) Many of those columnists and “strategic analysts” who are playing up the hostilities between India and China, can be traced back directly or indirectly to the Indo-American think tanks and foundations. India must understand and learn from Pakistan’s case that being a “strategic partner” of the US means collaboration (interference) at every level. It means hosting US Special Forces on Indian soil (a Pentagon Commander recently confirmed this to the BBC). It means sharing intelligence, altering agriculture and energy policies, opening up the health and education sectors to global investment. It means opening up retail. It means an unequal partnership in which India is being held close in a bear hug and waltzed around the floor by a partner who will dump her the moment she refuses to dance.
There is certainly more of the smell of war in the air around the Persian Gulf this year than any other year in recent times. This is driven by fear that Iran is inching ever closer to actually getting its hands on the bomb and that its window of vulnerability to an Israeli attack may be closing rapidly. The prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb is not so much an existential threat to Israel as an end to Israeli nuclear hegemony and full-spectrum dominance over all other countries in the Middle East.
India has good relations with Iran based on shared trade and security interests. Iran supplies about 12 percent of India’s oil imports. Delhi has also had a long-standing interest in building a gas pipeline from Iran to India, but that would have to run through Pakistan. US pressure on India to cut its reliance on Iran oil and gas has created a complex situation for India. India has to balance a complex array of interests in the region. Some Indian independent strategists are of the view that there has been an equally long-standing convergence of strategic interests with Iran in Afghanistan and Pakistan that will outlast the Western military involvement in Afghanistan.
Supreme Court a Forlorn hope of hapless Pakistanis
It appears that the Supreme Court of Pakistan has inadvertently fallen prey to these schemes as the timings of hearing the Mehran Bank scandal suggests. Since the hearing of this case was commenced by the Supreme Court the media went berserk in a relentless attack on the institution of the Army and ISI. Never in the history of Pakistan or for that matter any nation in the world, the local media and politicians have maligned, humiliated and insulted their own armed forces with no holds barred.
An independent judiciary would pose a threat to the corrupt. The picture looked promising when an independent judiciary (Supreme Court) was reinstated after a truly memorable struggle and thus the expectations were high. In the perception of many its judgments are slow and it has failed to enforce its own judgments. Ikram Sehgal, a journalist with high integrity and repute writes: All cases are pending for unknown reasons! The nation is losing confidence in the judiciary. “Justice delayed is justice denied “.
Agreed, The Supreme Court did not have guns or armored divisions or special service group to force subservience to its edicts. But, it had a surfeit of moral authority and the active public support to back it if the need for that ever arose. Ikram Sehgal goes to the extent of saying that the Supreme Court should have been able to call on all institutions including the instrument of last resort, the armed forces. Pakistan government and its Prime Minister and The President take pride in its open and willful defiance /disobedience of the judiciary. Most Pakistanis subscribe to the view that there were countless opportunities for the judiciary to assert its authority through a combination of issuing expeditious judgments and following up on their implementation through the use of constitutional powers vested in it. It is on both these fronts that the judiciary has been found wanting. As a consequence of this failing, the proponents of the corrupt status quo have become more daunting in their misdemeanors, thus adding to the woes of a beleaguered people most of whom are incessantly fighting for a few miserly morsels every day.
When President Zardari and his son Bilawal openly attacked the Supreme Court (specifically the Chief Justice of Pakistan) and the Army, only then perhaps His Lordship understood the game plan and stated that he shall not allow anyone to defame the Armed Forces or the Judiciary of Pakistan. Too late too little My Lord, the damage has been done and may we have the audacity to suggest that such comments are unnecessary and meaningless coming from the highest judicial officer unless they are translated in appropriate timely judgment that court has the will and wherewithal to implement.
Pakistan- Besieged or Held on Ransom?
Raoof Hassan befittingly remarks in his article in the News International that Pakistan is a besieged country in the hands of its leadership and their crude machinations solely crafted for their vile advancement.
Pakistan’s misery can be traced to the incompetence, woeful lack of sincerity, an inherent defiance of the rule of law and deep-rooted corruption of its rulers who have adorned its throne playing out a ghastly sequence of masquerades. Exploiting an economically captive electorate is rather easy to bring forth a coterie of people who control their purse strings. Is this democracy by any stretch of imagination? Crimes are being perpetrated in the name of democracy and religion while the relatively clean higher judiciary and the Army are sitting placidly watching this sordid drama of plunder and loot.
A Ray of Hope
Imran Khan has emerged in Pakistan as a light at the end of tunnel. A survey conducted by the institution in the urban center revealed that 80% of educated elite would support him in future election. However, well over 55% conceded that winning at polls is different ball game. Whereas the current rulers PPP along with a very friendly opposition of PML (N) would easily exploit an economically captive electorate in towns and rural areas fully supported by the feudal lords in Punjab and Sindh and the warlords /Sardars of Balochistan would capture enough seats.
Many suggest the only way out for Pakistanis is to come out in the streets and launch a people’s movement to Islamabad to topple the masquerading plunderers of this hapless country. Imran has the ability and charisma to start this movement for restoration of true democracy in Pakistan. He need not worry about the establishment. This time around there is little chance of telephone call from General Kayani to call off the march to Islamabad as he did during the long march (for restoration of the superior judiciary).
3. Pakistani Newspapers Banned in Afghanistan by ISAF and at India’s Insistence
Afghanistan has issued a nationwide ban against Pakistani newspapers to stop what security officials consider anti-government propaganda aimed at Kabul.
Ihsanuddin Taheri, a government spokesman, told the Reuters news agency on Saturday that Pakistani newspapers are often “misleading” in their reporting of the Afghan administration and wrongly accuses NATO-led forces of “occupying” the country, rather than offering security support.
He added that some papers have also published speeches by Taliban leaders, hampering the government’s effort to bring the Taliban into peace talks aimed at ending the country’s 11-year conflict.
“We totally reject these statements and the ban is to show them this,” Taheri said.
Afghan border police have been ordered to sweep shops in the eastern provinces of Nuristan, Kunar and Nangarhar near the Pakistan border to seize copies of Pakistani papers, he said.
The east of the country has been the focus for foreign and Afghan security operations against fighters over the summer months ahead of a NATO pullout of most combat troops by 2014.
Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been strained by months of cross-border shelling which officials in Kabul have blamed on Pakistan’s military.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to stop anti-government fighters operating from mountain havens on Kabul’s side of the border.
On Thursday, the Afghan foreign minister told the UN Security Council in New York that diplomatic ties with Pakistan were under threat.
The newspaper ban, which is likely to worsen already tense cross-border ties, could only be reversed by a ministerial decree.
4.How Propaganda is used as a Tool to Influence nations like Pakistan. Fortunately for Pakistanis with less than 58 percent literacy rate, these cutting edge propaganda tools fail miserably. You cannot win hearts and minds of people by sophisticated marketing deception or propaganda.
References
http://www.lisauk.com/view.php?i=86&em=1
http://tribune.com.pk/story/442395/education-endowment-pakistans-literacy-rate-needs-to-improve/
http://www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/propaganda
Posted by admin in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, India, Makaar Dushman on April 19th, 2013
Iran, with its Islamic regime, seems a strange ally of India, a predominantly Hindu democracy. But the two nations have been overcoming past antagonisms and developing closer ties that will affect not just Southwest Asia and the Middle East but also the United States. Their new relationship could powerfully influence such important matters as the flow of energy resources, regional and worldwide efforts to combat terrorism, and political developments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other states in Central Asia. The consequences will not always suit U.S. interests.
Before the Islamic revolution, in 1979, Iran’s ties with the West greatly vexed India, which had championed the non-aligned movement. Those concerns disappeared after the revolution, of course, but were soon replaced by concerns about Iran’s support of Kashmiri aspirations and its efforts to spread Islamic revolution to other Persian Gulf states. Nevertheless, after the Cold War ended, Iran and India discovered that they shared a stake in checking U.S. global power, opposing the Taliban in Afghanistan, fighting narcotics trafficking in Asia, and developing mutually beneficial energy options.
More recently New Delhi and Tehran have found common ground in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and in the preservation of Pakistan as a functioning state (because its collapse would pose even more of a threat to India than its survival). The two have also recognized that closer ties would help each nation meet important needs of its own: for Iran, India could be a source of technical expertise, industrial goods, and foreign investment; for India, Iran could be a much needed additional source of energy and could serve as a gateway to Central Asia (which India seeks in order to develop new markets) and as a new military flank against Pakistan. In the realm of domestic politics, too, India has strong reasons for wanting improved relations with Iran. As India witnesses a surge in Hindu nationalist politics and sentiment, it needs to signal to its increasingly marginalized and disaffected Muslim population (the second largest in the world) that it has Muslim interests in mind.
The most important milestone in the development of Indo-Iranian ties came this past January, when Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami visited New Delhi as the chief guest for the Indian Republic Day parade—an honor reserved for the closest friends of India. During the visit Khatami and India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee signed an accord that focuses on economic, scientific, and technological ties between the two countries and that also provides a framework within which to explore a defense relationship. This new relationship began to take shape in March, in a small-scale naval exercise that Indian diplomats refer to as a “port call.” Meanwhile, Iran seeks to buy arms and spare parts from India, which is steadily acquiring the capacity to manufacture a wide array of Russian military hardware, and India sees Iran as a major buyer that could help to defray the costs of this manufacturing program.
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