Chief Justice, Modi attend law convocation in Ahmedabad

NDTV Correspondent, Sunday March 28, 2010, Ahmedabad

Chief Justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attended a convocation function in Ahmedabad.

Families of victims of Godhra riots and other activists had written an open letter addressed to the Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and the Zimbabwean Embassy asking them not to share the dais with the Gujarat Chief Minister at the first convocation ceremony of Gujarat National Law University in Ahmedabad.

The letter said, "An association of the Chief Justice of India with a person who is being examined for his role in killing of innocent people, under the directives of the Supreme Court will send out wrong signals and undermine the process of justice in Gujarat." (Read full letter)

On Saturday, Modi was questioned for almost 10 hours by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) looking into the riots. (Read: Riots panel grills Modi for 10 hours)

The description of Modi as "a person who is being examined for his role in killing of innocent people" is misleading. The courts of law have not so far taken the view that Modi had any role whatsoever in the "killing of innocent people". Mere accusations by ill motivated people cannot be a basis for prejudice. The questioning of Modi was only part of the commission’s brief to unravel the complete picture of the riots. Modi's inputs would be useful for them to get a clearer picture of the unfolding of events. It might even be the conclusion of the commission that Modi had ably discharged his duties and prevented a greater catastrophe.

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/chief-justice-modi-attend-law-convocation-together-18581.php

Meat ban by Indian-origin billionaire stirs row

IANS
Published on Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 12:54, Updated on Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 13:55 in World section
Tags: Meat Ban, Perth , Perth
Read Comment Post Comment
MEAT-O-METER: A woman looks at meat through the window of a butcher's shop in Buenos Aires.
The Western Australian construction union criticised the ban on building workers eating ham sandwiches and meat pies at the building site.
The ban was "absolutely wrong", said Joe McDonald, who is Western Australian assistant secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
"She still wants them to build her $70 million mansion, but she's telling them what they're going to eat... it's wrong. I respect everybody's right to practise their religion, but I totally disagree with anyone forcing it on others.
"That has caused more wars and destruction throughout the world than anything else I know of. If people are working on the job and they want to have a ham sandwich or a bacon and egg sandwich, they should have one," he was quoted as saying.
Workers said there was one small shed in which they were allowed to eat meat.
Perth Now quoted a source close to the Oswals as saying that some workers had continued to eat meat on the site "just to spite them".
Pankaj, who is currently in New York to help Radhika prepare for the launch of her vegetarian fast-food chain, Otarian, defended the meat ban.
He said: "This is our home."
Radhika has earlier charged the meat industry with "raping the earth" and said: "Meat eating is creating bad karma and you are also creating a vicious cycle. It's destroying us environmentally, economically and socially. I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I've always been a vegetarian so I have always felt strongly about it."
"First, because of religious reasons, but then later because I realised the greater good associated with it."

I think the issue is about terms of employment. Were conditions of dietary habit part of the employment agreement? If the subject is not there at all in the agreement, it has to be understood that it would not matter. We can’t go beyond the terms of employment once the same has been agreed upon by both parties. While we would be within our rights to employ the type of person we want, the conditions have to be settled before the employment.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/meat-ban-by-indianorigin-billionaire-stirs-row/112248-2.html?from=tn

Islam, Christianity alien, so cannot get quota: BJP

New Delhi: "Islam and Christianity are alien" to India and, therefore, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) feels people from the minority groups, even if their socio-economic condition is low, should not be given the privilege of quota in jobs, legislative bodies and education, a party official said Friday.

At a press conference here, BJP's newly-appointed spokesperson Ramnath Kovind called for scrapping of the Ranganath Misra commission report that recommends 15 percent quota in government jobs for socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities in India.


The National Commission on Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by Justice Ranganath Misra, former chief justice of India, has in its report also recommended inclusion of Muslim and Christian converts as Scheduled Castes and given a quota to that category.

"No, that is not possible," said Kovind. "Including Muslims and Christians in the Scheduled Castes category will be unconstitutional."

Asked how Sikh Dalits were enjoying the quota privilege in the same category, Kovind said: "Islam and Christianity are alien to the nation."

He said that "it is very well known" that convert Dalit Christians and Muslims get better education in convent schools.

"The educational level of Scheduled Caste children remains much lower than that of convert Dalits and Muslims. The children of converts will grab major share of reservation in government jobs. They would become eligible to contest elections on seats reserved for Scheduled Castes. This would encourage conversion and fatally destroy the fabric of Indian society," he said.

"The Misra commission report should be scrapped because (its recommendations) will jeopardise the interests of Scheduled Castes," he said.

The Misra panel report, which was tabled in parliament Dec 18, 2009, has defined religious and linguistic minorities as backward classes and recommended 15 percent reservation for all minorities in jobs, education and welfare schemes.

Of India's 1.2 billion population, Muslims form the largest minority at close to 14 percent, followed by Christians at 2.3 percent, Sikhs at 1.9 percent, Buddhists at 0.8 percent, Jains at 0.4 percent and others including Parsis at 0.6 percent.

"Within the recommended 15 percent earmarked seats in institutions shall be 10 percent for the Muslims and the remaining 5 percent for the other minorities," the report had suggested.

The recommendations have triggered a row with Hindu parties severely opposing it. The government itself is doubtful about the implementation of the recommendations.

However, the Supreme Court in a ruling Thursday gave legitimacy to minority reservation by allowing four percent quota in jobs for backward Muslims in Andhra Pradesh. This could give a push to the Congress to go ahead with implementing the Ranganath Misra report recommendations.

IANS

Whether a man is rich or poor can be decided only on the basis of his financial position at any given period of time. Just because a person is a member of a certain community need not mean that he or she is necessarily poor. So the criteria of determining economic status on the basis of community is idiotic. As far as social backwardness is concerned, since laws already exist that prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, region, language or gender, the only requirement is to ensure that these laws are implemented to the letter and spirit. Where then is the necessity of reservations on the basis of social backwardness?

http://www.zeenews.com/news614379.html

Kerala ditches Big B; enraged Bachchan slams state

25/03/2010
Thiruvananthapuram: Enraged over the Kerala Government decision to abandon the idea to make him the state's tourism ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan has reacted sharply to the development.

The central leadership of the CPM had shot down the state government's plan to rope in Bachchan, citing that the thespian was already doing the same job for BJP-ruled Gujarat.
In his blog at bigb.bigaddad.com, Bachchan wrote, "You want to stop me from promoting tourism in a State, because you have reason to believe that there are political connotations to the event. This is such rubbish. All I shall be doing will be the working in a short film that shall highlight the various places of interest in the state (Gujarat), so that it encourages more tourists to visit the region.
"And that is what I would precisely do when I would be asked to similar acts in Kerala. It is a petty act of cheap convenience to prevent me from doing that, and by pitting me against political connotations and manoeuvres without paying any respect for the actual work that would be done.

"Fair enough! I shall abide by the judgment of the state Government. I did not ask them for it, they came forward with the invitation, I accepted, now they want to decline it, fine. Not the first time such incidents have happened. Invitation to be chief guest at the Goa International Film Festival and when I get there, they decline it."
Bachchan did not spare the media either. "It is a common Indian media trait --- finding fault at any cost to any act or event. Merit for the moment and the work, not interesting enough to sell and so. De-merit the moment. And in such matters if you could highlight a celebrity, preferably from the film world, into the matter, you would have discovered a way and means to keep the story rolling for a few weeks.
You take umbrage at my association with Gujarat, but never have the guts or courage to stop a Ratan Tata, or an Ambani from investing in the state and running successful factories and ventures there. Would you have the guts to tell them to not associate with the State, to pull out all their investment and manpower they build through years and years of their 'association' ?.

I guess not. You would happily bring politics into the matter just to dissuade. But what good does that do to a person that is non-political. Reason and common sense overrides all else in moments like this.
Such a shame really. You visit a foreign country and they decorate you with respect and dignity - Morrocco, UK, USA, France, Mid East, South Africa, China Hong Kong - and you come back to your own country and they have nothing but ugliness for the subject and your merit.
Reason enough to leave this excessive topic and move towards more pleasant times," he said.
Source: Indian Express

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K.Venugopal
#1
25 March 2010 17:08:13
The Marxist party of Kerala, who recently expelled a leader merely because he praised Modi's development initiatives, would hardly want to associate with anyone who is propagating Gujarat as they see it as propagating Modi by default! If the Big B is made Brand Ambassador of Pakistan, the Marxists of Kerala would be in the forefront to honour him. Or better still, if the Big B insults Hindus, he would become their icon like M.F. Hussain.

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3743939&page=0

Bihar distt issues circular on mentioning caste in exams

Updated on Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 21:54 IST

Muzaffarpur: The district administration here has issued a 'controversial' circular making it mandatory for students appearing in annual exams in state-run primary and high schools to mention their caste in answer sheets, otherwise their results would be withheld.

The circular, issued by Bihar Education Project (BEP) officials in Muzaffarpur district, said it would be useful to tabulate the percentage of students belonging to a particular caste appearing in annual examinations from class I to VIII for 'honest assessment'.

The circular was issued by BEP Programme Cordinator-cum-District Education Superintendent Arun Kumar and Primary Informal Education Coordinator Shankar Kumar through letter no. BEP/247 dated March 11, 2010.

PTI

It is likely that the Courts would strike down this circular, making it null and void. So it must be, for enough mischief has been done to our society in the name of caste. We need not carry the deadweight of history and stymie our growth into a healthy future.

http://www.zeenews.com/news613848.html

Karachi Project: A nefarious plan to destabilize India

By Raj Narayan , India Syndicate, 24/03/2010

The arrest of David Coleman Headley and his confessions to US intelligence authorities have pitch-forked Karachi Project to the fore.

A court room sketch of David Coleman Headley
Now, Indian intelligence agencies have been able to get a rough map of how major terror attacks, including the 26/11 attack on Mumbai, were planned and executed by an anti-India group comprising the ISI, retired and serving Pakistan armymen, non-state players like the Lashkar-e-Toiba, JuD and HuJi, the Indian Mujahideens and Pakistan-based anti-India underworld dons.
In a way, it is a regrouping of the various anti-India modules comprising both State and non-State players operating from within Pakistan.
Earlier, it was the ISI which that conducting a clandestine war against India by facilitating infiltration of jehadis and Lashkar operatives who waged an open war. The Karachi Project gives a new dimension to the move to destabilize India through various means including triggering bomb blasts, cultivating sleeper cells in India, funding Indian Mujahideen groups operating in India and by setting up facilities to print fake currency notes to derail the Indian economy.
With the Karachi Project, Pakistan now has two faces - a government that puts up a clean image and its intention to fight home-bred terrorists and hardbargain for arms and ammunition with the US and the other that tries to destabilize India. The common players in both the groups are the Pakistan army and the ISI.
What is Karachi Project? Who are the players and whom are they targeting? What are their motives? Where are they based and Why are they trying to do whatever they are trying to do?
Karachi Project is probably the best planned offensive against India by the ISI and its Jehadi operatives - an operation that has resulted in the death of more than 500 people in ten bombb explosions since 2005.
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K.Venugopal
#1
24 March 2010 17:59:32
We will no doubt unearth more Karachi Projects. But we have been lulled into forgetting the mother of all projects to destroy India - the creation of Pakistan. Pakistan is a pernicious idea propounded by Jinnah (?) that Muslims form a separate religion and therefore are a separate nation. This idea of de-linking from the Indian nation has other adherents too - like the separatists of the North East and the Naxalites. The only way to ensure fissiparous tendencies do not gain sustenance is to strengthen Indian nationalism. However, the secular parties of India are shy of going deep into Indian nationalism because the Hindu roots of Indian nationalism is anathema to their minority politics. The RSS is today the strongest adherent of Indian nationalism and this organization, among other proponents of Indian nationalism, must be encouraged to ensure that projects like the Karachi Project are doomed.

http://news.in.msn.com/internalsecurity/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3739896&pgnew=true&_p=2502ee2a-0c9e-40b7-ba17-4f86745acb7c&_nwpt=1#uc2Lst2502ee2a-0c9e-40b7-ba17-4f86745acb7c

'Pepsi bomber' used SRK's My Name is Khan to hire fresh hands

19/03/2010
Ahmedabad: No matter if an Asperger’s Syndrome-afflicted Rizwan Khan goes on to actually help nab a terror mastermind during his self-vindication journey through the reels of My Name is Khan, the movie has found endorsement from an unlikely quarter: the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
At least, this is what the Gujarat Anti Terror Squad (ATS) has stumbled on, while interrogating the HM's alleged terror agent Bashir Ahmed Baba, suspected to have been scouting in Gujarat for impressionable recruits for terror training in HM facilities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The 32-year-old Bashir, known in his home state Kashmir as the Pepsi Bomber (for his alleged expertise in turning empty cans of soft drinks into explosive devices), had been asked by his HM handler in PoK , Bilal Shera, to use the movie as an indoctrination tool.
ATS sources say Bashir was specifically told to use the movie to propagate the idea that Muslim youth across the world were perennially facing humiliation and derision, and they need to come together for jihad.
Baba was nabbed on March 13 from Anand, while using the alleged cover of a medical camp trainer as he went about getting a network together to recruit young men for the HM. Sources said the ATS recovered from Bashir a ticket for the Shah Rukh Khan movie at the Fun Republic Theatre in Ahmedabad and grilled him on it.
Bashir, the sources said, confessed that he had gone to see the movie as instructed by his boss in PoK, Bilal Shera. After watching the movie, he made a call to Bilal who asked him to describe its content and what he thought of it.
According to ATS sources, Bashir told Bilal that it was a "nice movie, Shahrukh Khan acted well." Bilal snubbed him and told him that he was sent to watch the movie to realise how it conveyed that Muslims were being subjected to atrocities and discrimination all over the world. The handler asked Bashir to get as many young Muslims as possible to watch the movie and drive home the point.
ATS sources added that following his handler's instructions, Bashir focussed on at least three specific areas in Ahmedabad - Law Gardern, Lal Darwaza and Kankaria - to take groups of young men to watch the movie. Sources also added that Bashir even had got pirated CDs of the movie made and handed them to some of them for distribution.
Gujarat ATS chief Ajay Tomar declined to discuss the issue, insisting it would hamper the ATS probe into Bashir's links. "I would not like to say anything on this, it will harm our investigation. We will let you know about this at an appropriate time," he added.
Tomar, however, added that the ATS had not found if the movie's CDs were actually distributed.
Indian Express

K.Venugopal
#1
19 March 2010 10:27:21
To convey the impression that Muslims are being treated shabbily is exactly what Shah Rukh Khan, self-proclaimed ambassador of Islam, and director-in-cahoots with him, Karan Johar, wanted to convey. But is it actually true that Muslims are shabbily treated? At least not in India, where they have more rights than Hindus. America, whatever faults it may have, is a democratic country and Muslims, from all accounts, are not arbitrarily treated shabbily there - never mind what MNIK says. Our secular media failed to consider MNIK as Islamic propaganda movie - true to their secular credentials.

http://news.in.msn.com/internalsecurity/news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3723010&page=0