Month: August 2014

…..there wasn’t a single light…From the top of the mountain a light
blinked as if giving out a signal….Were there any
eyes focused upon us, wondering why we were standing so close to the
river so late at night?…any soldiers wondering whether they will be able to take us down in
one shot?…….
……

…. 
We have (mostly) unhappy feelings about the border wars on the Line of Control….the shootings, the torture, the be-headings. The (anti-Zionist, Jewish-American) Norman Finkelstein calls the mindset of liberal Jews who find themselves perched on the fence as: shooting…but crying. Well, we do not like being on the fence, and we do not want to shoot and we do not enjoy crying.

Thousands of civilians, militants and military people on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) have died , some who are true believers, some who are only too happy to do their job and leave in time (and not in a casket), and the rest who live here and have no place to go…and are being driven slowly insane by the prolonged conflict (see below). And not to forget the shadow of the Bomb….there is no other border in the world which is as dangerous and deadly…..and also none as beautiful.
…….

….
We visited Kashmir when we were very young, but we will never visit the place again. There is no doubt that India (and Indians) are an oppressive force in the valley (on the lines of Gaza, Chechnya, Xinjiang…). When you feel hurt hearing the slogan: “Bhooka Nanga Hindustan, Jan Se Pyara Pakistan”…please reflect on what YOU would do if you lived in an occupied zone.

Of course Kashmiris are guilty of some unforgivable sins as well. If you are a Arundhati Roy fan, you may know that the India actually facilitated the expulsion/exile of the Pandits, in order to darken the (righteous) cause of Kashmiris.
……..
Following this theory, the fatwa issued daily from the mosque-speakers in 1989-1990: Hindus leave your homes, leave your women behind”……was actually Congress propaganda!!! And yes, the Pandits are also rotting away in refugee camps and are being driven slowly insane by the prolonged conflict. And, no, they will never see their native land again.

The Yazidis (called devil worshippers by the Iraqi islamists) are facing the same situation right now (propaganda by Zionist lobby??) – history repeating itself as tragedy.
…..
Between 80 and 100 men are believed to have been killed. Scores of women and girls were taken away in trucks, possibly to be sold off as slave-wives to IS fighters. 
…….
Is there some sort of global karmic equation that permits people to be oppressed and carry out oppression in equal measure? Shall we all die for our promised land and promised causes (we will all die anyway)?

In the sub-continent it would be nice enough if the bellicosity (on both sides) was toned down a bit. But then we realize that are only 960 years of fighting left (see quotation below) and it will be (approx) thirty generations going forward for peace to take hold (hopefully).
…………..
…..”So please, Mr. President and members of the Security Council, realize
the implications. The Pakistani nation is a brave nation. One of the
greatest British generals said that the best infantry fighters in the
world are the Pakistanis……We will fight…… We will fight for a thousand
years, if it comes to that“……
………………………………


My wife and I stood under a starry night. We were here to celebrate our
first wedding anniversary. The breeze that the river brought with it
through the gorges was chilling. Beaten by the strong sun during the day
we couldn’t have imagined that the night would be so cold. The river
flew at our feet, its fast-paced torrents crashing against the rocks on
the riverbed.

The sound echoed through the valley. A dark
mountain stood in front of us. Earlier in the day, we had sat here
sitting under a tree, sipping our tea and marvelling at the beauty in
front of us. It was a gorgeous mountain, with flat notches cut into its
side to create fields for agriculture. A few wooden houses stood around
the plains and some villagers were working on the fields.

Then
there wasn’t a single light. From the top of the mountain a light
blinked every once in a while as if giving out a signal. Were there any
eyes focused upon us, wondering why we were standing so close to the
river so late in the night? Were there any soldiers eyeing us through
their scopes and wondering whether they will be able to take us down in
one shot?

For years, there has been peace here and no bullet has
crossed the river from either side but that does not mean that paranoia
doesn’t exist. They still look at us with suspicion and we do the same
to them. A few years ago we would have been shot for standing so close
to the Line of Control, we had been told.

The Mujahidin once used to cross from here.

I
tried imagining a trip into the Indian part of Kashmir. The first step
would be to cross this freezing water flowing with vengeance. The next
step would be to navigate through the jungles of Kashmir in the darkness
of the night, worried about the wild animals that live here and focused
on avoiding the Indian soldiers who patrolled these forests. Once
someone is caught, then start the tales of torture.

“Look at that
mountain,” said Awais, our host at a small guesthouse. It was a bright
day. Behind the mountain I could see the depth of a clear blue sky and a
few clouds. I tried following the direction of Awais’ finger carefully
and noticed the silhouette of a wire fence. Next to it there was a
wooden platform for the sentry.

“Is that India?” I asked my host.
“No. That’s Indian-occupied territory,” he replied. “That fence has
been raised by the Indian army in the past few years and a lot of hue
and cry was raised by the Pakistani government.”

“Is this where the Mujahidin used to cross over to Indian-occupied Kashmir?” I asked.

“Yes.
But they don’t any more. Ever since Musharraf made a deal with the
Indians, we have stopped sending Mujahidin from here. Earlier, they used
to cross the LoC from here and also Sharda, which is about two hours
north from here. This is why the Indian soldiers used to shoot here. You
and I would not have been able to sit here. 

Things were so bad that in
the night if someone as much as lit a cigarette he would be shot. This
road that brought you here from Muzaffarabad could not have been used.
In retaliation, of course, our Pakistani soldiers also used to fire.
This condition continued for a decade or so, from the early 1990s to
early 2000s. In those years about 3,000 people died from this region.
About 200 Mujahidin used to cross every night.”

“Did the Mujahidin also have their training camps here at Karen?”
“Yes.
But not any more. Now they only operate from Muzaffarabad and cross
over from Rawal Kot region [which is south of Muzaffarabad, while Karen
and Sharda are north of it]. Cross-LoC firing takes place in that region
only now. 

But you know there is a much bigger war coming and you should
brace yourself for that. That would be a war over water. The Indians
have constructed Kishenganga on this river on their side and soon there
would be water shortage in Pakistan.” The Neelum River, which acts as the LoC in this part of the Neelum valley, is known as Kishenganga on the Indian side.

Later,
a mosque from across the river sounded the azaan, identifying the time
for prayer. No azaan followed from the Pakistani side but a few men and
women sitting around me decided to go and say their prayers. This was
once one village, Karen, now divided between two countries. Most of the
houses on the Indian side of the village are vacant.

The
inhabitants were made to leave during the time of insurgency, when
Mujahidin used to cross over from here. Most of these empty houses have
been taken over by Indian forces. The locals on the Pakistani side tell
me there are many Kashmiris from the Indian side of Karen who have now
come here too.

“Every Sunday, divided families gather on both
sides of the river and wave each other,” said Awais. I glanced at the
river and realise that given its width and noise, it would be impossible
to talk. Waving is all one could do. “During the winters, the river is
one-fourth of what it is right now. At that time, one can easily talk to
the person on the other side. There are many divided families here at
Karen. A mother would be here while the daughter would be there. So many
families.”

A poster next
to the army checkpoint depicted a picture of a young child with a leg
missing. There were pictures of an aircraft missile and a landmine next
to it. “Beware of the moves of the enemy,” it stated. The poster
cautioned children not to play with unidentified objects and to inform
army officials in case anyone comes across any.

The younger
officer at the army checkpoint returned my identity card. “Are there a
lot of unused missiles and landmines in this region?” I asked him. “Yes,
of course,” he said. “The enemy is right across.” The army checkpoint
was hidden by a concrete wall. A board here said that it was prohibited
to photograph the checkpoint. The cautionary poster was located on one
of the walls of the checkpoint. I wasn’t sure if the rule applied to the
poster as well. I did not want to find out.

Since our departure
from Muzaffarabad, this had been the fifth time that I had been stopped
by an army checkpoint. At every stop they entered my information into a
register, asked me where I was coming from and where I was heading. This
historical village of Karen, established some time in the tenth
century, has become a tourist destination since the ceasefire in this
region. It is about 80 km from Muzaffarabad, a journey that takes about
four hours on the treacherous mountainous road.

A few kilometres
north of the city of Muzaffarabad, the river Jhelum turned further west,
while the Neelum tok it place. The fast-moving river is a continuous
companion to a traveller on this road. As one heads further away from
the capital of Azad Kashmir, or Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the LoC
gets closer. Soon this narrow river remains the only thing that
separates the two arch-rivals, both armed with nuclear weapons and one
of the largest standing armies of the world.

Sometimes Indian
Kashmir recedes from the river and sometimes it touches the bank of the
river. While travelling on this road, my wife and I constantly tried to
figure out whether the mountain and the houses on the other side of the
river were still Pakistani or had become Indian.

About an hour
before Karen comes Athmuqam. After passing a checkpoint I slowed down
the car to catch a glimpse of the Indian town on the other side of the
river. There was a huge cricket ground with the Indian flag hoisted on
one side. A wooden bridge connected the two settlements flanking the
river. This is the point where Kashmiris are allowed to pass over to the
other country’s territory to see relatives who have been stranded by
the LoC. This is also the point where, it is rumoured, one can purchase
smuggled Indian whiskey by bribing the soldiers.
 
The
name of this part of the Neelum valley has been changed to Vigilant
valley. There are army boards and posters throughout the road stating
that. Here too there used to be regular firing between the two armies.

Standing
on the top of the mountain, it is hard to tell which peak is occupied
by India and which belongs to Pakistan. The river flows, unaware of the
raging battles above it. It snakes through the valley dividing
mountains, communities, villages and families on both sides of the LoC.

Standing
next to us was a young mentally challenged man. He had been following
us up this mountain. There are many here throughout the Neelum valley.
My wife, who was training to be a therapist, had reason to believe that
their condition is linked to the firing that ravaged this valley for
years.

We stopped at a tea shop and sat in a garden. From here,
we could see the village and the river below us. On both the sides the
army was camouflaged behind trees. Only the villagers were left
uncovered.

Mohsin, the shop vendor, was born in 1988, a year
before the escalation of insurgency in Kashmir valley on the Indian
side. “There were hardly any local Kashmir Mujahidin being trained in
the camps,” he told me as he made tea for us. “There used to be a few
from the Indian side. Then there were Pathans, Punjabis, Chechnyians,
etc.” Everyone knew where these camps were.

But that did not mean
that sympathy for Kashmir’s liberation did not exist in Pakistani
Kashmir. They supported the insurgents. Sometimes, if the Mujahidin were
traveling with too many bags, the locals would help them cross the LoC.
That’s what Mohsin told me.

“There used to be regular firing
here from both the sides but that did not affect life here at the
village,” claimed Mohsin. “They never used to fire at the village. They
would only fire at army posts. If they wanted to attack the village
would they have left us stay here? Look at us. We are completely
exposed. As children, the firing used to be a sport for us.

“We
would hide in corners and see the armies firing at each other from
across the mountains. It was very exciting for us. This road that you
came by was not open for business but there were other roads that
connected us with Muzaffarabad and Pakistan. That road could only be
travelled on jeeps but the villagers used to travel regularly on them.”

“Would our soldiers fire on Indian villages across the LoC?” I asked him.“They can never do that. That is Pakistan as well. There are Muslims living there.”

“I was told that about 3,000 people died here due to cross LoC firing?”“That’s not true. At most only four to five people have died due to the firing. Here they like to count as shaheed even those who died after falling off a mountain.”

Once
again I took out my identity card and handed it over to an army sentry
standing at the entrance. “How far is the LoC from here?” “I don’t
know.” 
“In what direction is the LoC from here?”“I don’t know.”

We
climbed the ancient set of stairs to reach the ancient university of
Sharda. A board here stated that this was once an ancient Buddhist
university. It is a lonely structure standing in the midst of a
protective wall. There is an army unit deposited under the university. I
was forbidden from taking any photographs of the army unit.

“The
mountain behind this mountain belongs to the Indians,” said our waiter
as we sat down next to the river after visiting the temple. “Here too
there used to be firing. The Indian soldiers used to fire into our
territory including our villages. We had no other option but to
retaliate.”
“Did we attack their villages?” I asked him.
“How could we? Those are, after all, our own villages.”

(Haroon Khalid is the author of A White Trail: A Journey into the Heart of Pakistan’s Religious Minorities; Westland, 2013)

….

Link (1): A-journey-along-the-Line-of-Control-in-Pakistan

Link (2): kurds-abandoned-the-yazidis-when-isis-attacked

Link (3): Bhuttos_farewell_speech_to_the_Security_Council

….

regards

….
The “trade” between India and the United Kingdom in the colonial period was an euphemism for brutal exploitation. Indian manufacturing was destroyed by unfair tariffs in the UK. Thus “trade” consisted of India exporting raw materials (cotton, jute) at dirt prices and to buy English-Scottish finished goods (gunny bags, clothes) at high prices.

For thousands of years, India was known far and near as the promised land. First came the plundering armies, the missionaries followed, and not far behind were the “flood” of job-seeking immigrants. It was the promises of the Indian empire holdings (East India Company) that encouraged Scotland to forge and continue with a union pact with England (01 May 1707). Now that the charms of a captive foreign market is gone, Scotland finds the centuries old bonds to be an irritant (Scotland votes for partition-independence on September 18, 2014).
………

…..
The good face of colonialism we know: British gave us a sense of nationality (which was useful in the fight for freedom, many Scots played an important role), they taught us the first principles of democracy (which we are still learning to master) and all that.

….
The sad face of colonialism….it is now considered bad form to speak about it. The Victorian Holocausts which knocked off large percentages of the population is a good place to start. If there is any one event that stands out that would be the Bengal famine of 1943 when 4.3 million people perished. While Indian merchants certainly stocked grains and contributed to the problems in supply, it was a British administration  that was responsible in a direct (as well as indirect) manner.

Now the bowl has upturned and immigrants plan to leave India for the West…anyhow.  Their desperation is such that they do not care that they may end up losing their lives.
…….
The good picture of Indians migrating to the West and living out the American (or Canadian, Australian…) dream is well viewed. There is a sad picture as well which mostly stays underground unless there is a explosion and then we discover the mess.

Surprisingly it is not just Indians (and other poor people) who are desperate to leave. As many as 58 citizens of the newly minted superpower also died trying to cross over to the UK from Zeebrugge in June. How come the Chinese (both poor and the super affluent) are fleeing their country? This almost never happens, people do not just up and quit the lands of opportunity….unless the Chinese know something about their country that we outsiders do not know about (see below).
…..

They were discovered after a freighter arrived from Zeebrugge, Belgium at about 06:00 BST and was being unloaded. Essex Police have launched a homicide investigation and officers are being assisted by their Belgian counterparts.

Supt Trevor Roe said staff at the docks were alerted to the container by “screaming and banging” from inside. He said about 50 other containers on
the freighter, called the Norstream, had been searched and no other
people were discovered inside.

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Roe told journalists the
survivors were being held under immigration powers and would be taken to
an immigration reception centre near Tilbury. He said they would eventually be interviewed through interpreters.

Belgian police say they believe the lorry which delivered the
container in Zeebrugge has been identified through CCTV footage. They
do not, however, have information yet about where it originated from. Mr Roe said the police investigation would look into “the
gangs or whoever may be involved in this conspiracy to bring these
people in this way over to this country”.


It is not known where the container, one of 64 aboard the
P&O vessel, originated. Mr Roe also said he did not know where the
survivors had been going.

 
At Basildon hospital police vans were parked in between rows of ambulances in a clash of high-visibility stripes and chevrons. At the dropping-off zone in front of the entrance, patients
came and went, glancing up at the news helicopter circling overhead.

Most were aware of the high-security patients being treated
in a cordoned-off section of the accident and emergency unit; the
atmosphere became more relaxed when it became clear that their
conditions were primarily dehydration and hypothermia, and nothing more
serious or contagious.

Immigration and security minister James Brokenshire said the
incident was “a reminder of the often devastating human consequences of
illegal migration”. He said: “We know that criminal gangs are involved in what
amounts to a brutal trade in human lives. We also know that illegal
migration is a Europe-wide issue.

“That is why we work closely and collaboratively with law
enforcement and port authorities, in neighboring countries, to target
criminal networks and ensure that the organised gangs behind trafficking
and people smuggling can’t operate with impunity.”

The East of England Ambulance service, which was called to the
docks at 06:37 BST, sent seven ambulances, two rapid response cars, two
doctors and a hazardous area response team to the scene.

Assistant Chief Officer Daniel Gore from the ambulance
service said none of the people being treated in hospital was thought to
have life-threatening conditions.


Part of Basildon Hospital, where 18 people from the container were taken for treatment, was taped off earlier. On its website, the hospital said its accident and emergency department was “responding to a major incident”.

Seven patients were taken to Southend Hospital while nine were taken to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. South Basildon and East Thurrock MP Stephen Metcalfe described the incident as “tragic”. Mr Metcalfe told the BBC: “The fact that so many people
appear to have traveled so far and are so desperate to get into the UK –
either on their own or being trafficked is really very sad.”


The Conservative MP said it was important “to get to the root
causes of what is motivating people to go to such extreme lengths to
travel from other parts of the world to get into the UK” as well as
tackle people trafficking.

The container was loaded on to the P&O freighter at about 21:30 BST on Friday at Zeebrugge.


A P&O spokeswoman said the Norstream, which had been
scheduled to leave Zeebrugge at 22:00 BST on Friday, was also carrying
72 trailers and five lorries and their drivers.

Public Health England said it was not currently involved and had not been notified of there being any Ebola risk. Essex Ambulance said decontamination units had been set up at
the docks as a precaution, not because of any specific concerns it had. A spokeswoman for the port declined to comment on the incident as it “was a matter for the police and Border Force”.


The ship was sailing on a new service linking Tilbury and Zeebrugge which has only been operational since earlier this month, according to parent company Forth Ports.  

According to the UK Border Force, the number of “clandestine
illegal entry attempts” by people to enter the country via ports in
Belgium and France increased last year to 18,000 from about 11,000 in
the previous 12 months.

The Freight Transport Association said it was “quite unusual”
for stowaways to be found in containers, with most cases involving
people attempting to enter the UK on lorries.


In June 2000, the bodies of 58 Chinese people were found in
the back of a lorry smuggling them into Dover on a ferry from Zeebrugge.
They had died of suffocation.

…..
  
India’s special place in Scottish history is partly a legacy from the
union of Scotland with England in 1707 to create the United Kingdom.
Under the deal, Scotland’s landed families gained access to the East
India Company, and gradually become its dominant force.

Scots
flooded into India as “writers” , traders, engineers, missionaries, tea
and indigo planters, jute traders and teachers. According to Professor
Tom Devine, author of The Scottish Empire, by 1771 almost half of the
East India Company’s writers were Scots, and by 1813, some 19 of
Calcutta’s private merchant houses were dominated by Scots.

Remittances
from India played a key role in making Scotland the most industrialized
country in the world by the mid-19th century, and cities like Dundee
and Paisley were transformed by their trade in jute and textiles with
India.

……

……

Link (1): bbc.com/uk-england-28817688

Link (2): Indias-Scottish-heritage-remembered-in-renovation-of-Calcutta

Link (3): online.wsj.com/articles/the-great-chinese-exodus-1408120906

…..

regards

.….“We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir..Kashmir de do,
kuchh bhi de do, hamare logon ko ghar wapas lao”…..Jaswant Singh made bold to suggest ….nation’s interest….we could not
be seen to be giving in to the hijackers…..That fetched him abuse and rebuke…“Bhaand me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and national interest)”……
…..
For people who believe in true equality for women, it must be accepted that the laws will also equally apply. There is no reason why women will be any less intelligent or resourceful than men, it follows that they may be just as ruthless and cruel. And yes, women can be serial killers, nothing surprising about that. While we do not believe in the death penalty, the Indian people AND the leadership both believe in this form of retributive justice (and path for closure for the victims).
……..

Once if it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that you have harmed children, we have no sympathy to spare. Put these people behind bars and throw away the keys….for life. We oppose death penalty since there is a chance that the convicted person has been falsely implicated.
…..

….
One exception that troubles our conscience is how we should deal with terrorists. If we jail them, there may be attempts to free  them by taking innocent people hostages (see below). In a democracy you really do not have a choice…as the Head of the Nation, you cannot look scores of families in the eye and tell them that their loved sons, daughters, brothers, sisters will not be coming home in order to preserve some abstract national interest.  

That memorable slogan from 1999…..to hell with the country and the national interest…there is no arguing with that sentiment in good faith…what if it was YOUR daughter who was kidnapped by the terrorists? By the same token, who cares if a terrorist is killed…to hell with your principles...or would YOU rather be the one talking to the widow of Squadron Leader Ahuja?
……

Two
Kolhapur women, who were sentenced to death in 2001 for kidnapping 13
children and killing nine of them, may become the first women ever to be
hanged in India.
……..



President Pranab Mukherjee late last month
rejected Renuka Kiran Shinde and her sister Seema Mohan Gavit’s mercy
petitions. The buffer period before their hanging – time taken by the
state home department to inform all concerned after receiving the note
from Rashtrapati Bhavan – ends on Saturday.
…
The number of
people executed in India since Independence is a matter of dispute.
Government statistics claim that only 52 people have been executed since
independence. However, research by the People’s Union for Civil
Liberties indicates that the actual number of executions is in fact much
higher, as they have located records of 1,422 executions in the decade
from 1953 to 1963 alone. However, there is no record of any woman’s
execution.

Renuka and Seema, who partnered their mother
Anjanabai Gavit to kidnap the kids and push them into begging and killed
some of them after they stopped being productive, are currently lodged
at the Yerwada jail in Pune. Anjanabai passed away during the trial, and
the sisters’ father Kiran Shinde turned approver and was acquitted.

Desk officer Deepak Jadiye of the home department
said no objections have been received yet on the Kolapur sisters’
hanging. “We have informed the two convicts, their relatives, the legal
remedial cells of the Supreme Court and also the district court about
the rejection (of their mercy plea),” he said.

While awarding
the death sentence to the sisters in 2001, Judge G L Yedke in Kolhapur
had described the nine kids’ murders as ‘the most heinous’, and observed
that the two sisters seemed to have enjoyed killing the children.
……

The Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi, designated IC
814, with 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board, was hijacked on
Christmas eve, 1999, a short while after it took-off from Tribhuvan
International Airport; by then, the aircraft had entered Indian
airspace. Nine years later to the day, with an entire generation coming
of age, it would be in order to recall some facts and place others on
record.

….
In 1999 I was serving as an aide to Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee in the PMO, and I still have vivid memories of the tumultuous
week between Christmas eve and New Year’s eve. Mr Vajpayee had gone out
of Delhi on an official tour; I had accompanied him along with other
officials of the PMO. …
The hijacking of IC 814 occurred while we were
returning to Delhi in one of the two Indian Air Force Boeings which, in
those days, were used by the Prime Minister for travel within the
country.

….
Curiously, the initial information about IC 814 being hijacked, of
which the IAF was believed to have been aware, was not communicated to
the pilot of the Prime Minister’s aircraft. As a result, Mr Vajpayee and
his aides remained unaware of the hijacking till reaching Delhi. This
caused some amount of controversy later.

…
It was not possible for anybody else to have contacted us while we
were in midair. It’s strange but true that the Prime Minister of India
would be incommunicado while on a flight because neither the ageing IAF
Boeings nor the Air India Jumbos, used for official travel abroad, had
satellite phone facilities.

….
By the time our aircraft landed in Delhi, it was around 7:00 pm, a
full hour and 40 minutes since the hijacking of IC 814. After
disembarking from the aircraft in the VIP bay of Palam Technical Area,
we were surprised to find National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra
waiting at the foot of the ladder. He led Mr Vajpayee aside and gave him
the news. They got into the Prime Minister’s car and it sped out of the
Technical Area. Some of us followed Mr. Vajpayee to Race Course Road,
as was the normal routine.

….
On our way to the Prime Minister’s residence, colleagues in the PMO
provided us with the basic details. The Kathmandu-Delhi flight had been
commandeered by five hijackers (later identified as Ibrahim Athar,
resident of Bahawalpur, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Gulshan Iqbal, resident of
Karachi, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, resident of Defence Area, Karachi, Mistri
Zahoor Ibrahim, resident of Akhtar Colony, Karachi, and Shakir, resident
of Sukkur City) at 5:20 pm; there were 189 passengers and crew members
on board; and that the aircraft was heading towards Lahore.

….
At the Prime Minister’s residence, senior Ministers and Secretaries
had already been summoned for an emergency meeting. Mr Mishra left for
the crisis control room that had been set up at Rajiv Bhavan. In between
meetings, Mr Vajpayee instructed his personal staff to cancel all
celebrations planned for December 25, his birthday. The Cabinet
Committee on Security met late into the night as our long vigil began.

….
Meanwhile, we were informed that the pilot of IC 814 had been denied
permission to land at Lahore airport. With fuel running low, he was
heading for Amritsar. Officials at Raja Sansi Airport were immediately
alerted and told to prevent the plane from taking off after it had
landed there. 

The hijacked plane landed at Amritsar and remained parked on the
tarmac for nearly 45 minutes. The hijackers demanded that the aircraft
be refuelled. The airport officials ran around like so many headless
chickens, totally clueless about what was to be done in a crisis
situation.

…..
Desperate calls were made to the officials at Raja Sansi Airport to
somehow stall the refueling and prevent the plane from taking off. The
officials just failed to respond with alacrity. At one point, an
exasperated Jaswant Singh, if memory serves me right, grabbed the phone
and pleaded with an official, “Just drive a heavy vehicle, a fuel truck
or a road roller or whatever you have, onto the runway and park it
there.” But all this was to no avail.

…..
The National Security Guards, whose job it is to deal with hostage
situations, were alerted immediately after news first came in of IC 814
being hijacked; they were reportedly asked to stand by for any
emergency. The Home Ministry was again alerted when it became obvious
that after being denied permission to land at Lahore, the pilot was
heading towards Amritsar.

….
Yet, despite IC 814 remaining parked at Amritsar for three-quarters
of an hour, the NSG commandos failed to reach the aircraft. There are
two versions as to why the NSG didn’t show up: First, they were waiting
for an aircraft to ferry them from Delhi to Amritsar; second, they were
caught in a traffic jam between Manesar and Delhi airport. The real
story was never known!

…..
The hijackers, anticipating commando action, first stabbed a
passenger, Rupin Katyal (he had gone to Kathmandu with his newly wedded
wife for their honeymoon; had they not extended their stay by a couple
of days, they wouldn’t have been on the ill-fated flight) to show that
they meant business, and then forced the pilot to take off from
Amritsar. With almost empty fuel tanks, the pilot had no other option
but to make another attempt to land at Lahore airport. Once again he was
denied permission and all the lights, including those on the runway,
were switched off. He nonetheless went ahead and landed at Lahore
airport, showing remarkable skill and courage.

…..
Mr Jaswant Singh spoke to the Pakistani Foreign Minister and pleaded
with him to prevent the aircraft from taking off again. But the
Pakistanis would have nothing of it (they wanted to distance themselves
from the hijacking so that they could claim later that there was no
Pakistan connection) and wanted IC 814 off their soil and out of their
airspace as soon as possible. So, they refuelled the aircraft after
which the hijackers forced the pilot to head for Dubai.

….
At Dubai, too, officials were reluctant to allow the aircraft to
land. It required all the persuasive skills of Mr Jaswant Singh and our
then Ambassador to UAE, Mr KC Singh, to secure landing permission. There
was some negotiation with the hijackers through UAE officials and they
allowed 13 women and 11 children to disembark. Rupin Katyal had by then
bled to death. His body was offloaded. His widow remained a hostage till
the end.

….
On the morning of December 25, the aircraft left Dubai and headed
towards Afghanistan. It landed at Kandahar Airport, which had one
serviceable runway, a sort of ATC and a couple of shanties. The rest of
the airport was in a shambles, without power and water supply, a trophy
commemorating the Taliban’s rule.

….
On Christmas eve, after news of the hijacking broke, there was
stunned all-round silence. But by noon on December 25, orchestrated
protests outside the Prime Minister’s residence began, with women
beating their chests and tearing their clothes. The crowd swelled by the
hour as the day progressed.

….
Ms Brinda Karat came to
commiserate with the relatives of the hostages who were camping outside
the main gate of 7, Race Course Road. In fact, she became a regular
visitor over the next few days. There was a steady
clamour that the Government should pay any price to bring the hostages
back home, safe and sound. This continued till December 30.

…..
One evening, the Prime Minister asked his staff to let the families
come in so that they could be told about the Government’s efforts to
secure the hostages’ release. By then negotiations had begun and Mullah
Omar had got into the act through his ‘Foreign Minister’, Muttavakil.
The hijackers wanted 36 terrorists, held in various Indian jails, to be
freed or else they would blow up the aircraft with the hostages.

…..
No senior Minister in the CCS was willing to meet the families. Mr
Jaswant Singh volunteered to do so. He asked me to accompany him to the
canopy under which the families had gathered. Once there, we were
literally mobbed. He tried to explain the situation but was shouted
down.

……
“We want our relatives back. What
difference does it make to us what you have to give the hijackers?” a
man shouted. “We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir,” a
woman screamed and others took up the refrain, chanting: “Kashmir de do,
kuchh bhi de do, hamare logon ko ghar wapas lao.” Another woman sobbed,
“Mera beta… hai mera beta…” and made a great show of fainting of grief.

…..
To his credit, Mr Jaswant Singh made bold to suggest that the
Government had to keep the nation’s interest in mind, that we could not
be seen to be giving in to the hijackers, or words to that effect, in
chaste Hindi. That fetched him abuse and rebuke. “Bhaand me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and national interest),” many
in the crowd shouted back. Stumped by the response, Mr Jaswant Singh
could merely promise that the Government would do everything possible.

…..
I do not remember the exact date, but sometime during the crisis, Mr
Jaswant Singh was asked to hold a Press conference to brief the media.
While the briefing was on at the Press Information Bureau hall in
Shastri Bhavan, some families of the hostages barged in and started
shouting slogans. They were led by one Sanjiv Chibber, who, I was later
told, was a ‘noted surgeon’: He claimed six of his relatives were among
the hostages.

…..
Dr Chibber wanted all 36 terrorists named by the hijackers to be
released immediately. He reminded everybody in the hall that in the past
terrorists had been released from prison to secure the freedom of Ms
Rubayya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, while he was Home
Minister in VP Singh’s Government. “Why
can’t you release the terrorists now when our relatives are being held
hostage?” he demanded. And then we heard the familiar refrain: “Give
away Kashmir, give them anything they want, we don’t give a damn.”

…..
On another evening, there was a surprise visitor at the PMO: The
widow of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, whose plane was shot down during
the Kargil war. She insisted that she should be taken to meet the
relatives of the hostages. At Race Course Road, she spoke to
mediapersons and the hostages’ relatives, explaining why India must not
be seen giving in to the hijackers, that it was a question of national
honour, and gave her own example of fortitude in the face of adversity.

……
“She has become a widow, now she wants others to become widows. Who
is she to lecture us? Yeh kahan se aayi?” someone shouted from the
crowd. Others heckled her. The young widow stood her ground, displaying
great dignity and courage. As the mood turned increasingly ugly, she had
to be led away. Similar appeals were made by others who had lost their
sons, husbands and fathers in the Kargil war that summer. Col Virendra
Thapar, whose son Lt Vijayant Thapar was martyred in the war, made a
fervent appeal for people to stand united against the hijackers. It fell
on deaf ears.

…..
The media made out that the overwhelming majority of Indians were
with the relatives of the hostages and shared their view that no price
was too big to secure the hostages’ freedom. The Congress kept on slyly
insisting, “We are with the Government and will support whatever it does
for a resolution of the crisis and to ensure the safety of the
hostages. But the Government must explain its failure.” Harkishen Singh
Surjeet and other Opposition politicians issued similar ambiguous
statements.

……
By December 28, the Government’s negotiators had struck a deal with
the hijackers: They would free the hostages in exchange of three dreaded
terrorists — Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar
Sheikh — facing various charges of terrorism.

…..
The CCS met frequently, several times a day, and discussed the entire
process threadbare. The Home Minister, the Defence Minister and the
Foreign Minister, apart from the National Security Adviser and the Prime
Minister, were present at every meeting. The deal was further
fine-tuned, the Home Ministry completed the necessary paper work, and
two Indian Airlines aircraft were placed on standby to ferry the
terrorists to Kandahar and fetch the hostages.

…….
On December 31, the two aircraft left Delhi airport early in the
morning. Mr Jaswant Singh was on board one of them. Did his ministerial
colleagues know that he would travel to Kandahar? More important, was
the Prime Minister aware of it? The answer is both yes and no.

…..
Mr Jaswant Singh had mentioned his decision to go to Kandahar to
personally oversee the release of hostages and to ensure there was no
last-minute problem. He was honour-bound to do so, he is believed to
have said, since he had promised the relatives of the hostages that no
harm would come their way. It is possible that nobody thought he was
serious about his plan. It is equally possible that others turned on him
when the ‘popular mood’ and the Congress turned against the Government
for its ‘abject surrender’.

……
On New Year’s eve, the hostages were flown back to Delhi. By New
Year’s day, the Government was under attack for giving in to the
hijackers’ demand! Since then, this ‘shameful surrender’ is held against
the NDA and Mr Jaswant Singh is painted as the villain of the piece.

……
Could the Kandahar episode have ended any other way? Were an Indian
aircraft to be hijacked again, would we respond any differently? Not
really. As a nation we do not have the guts to stand up to terrorism. We
cannot take hits and suffer casualties. We start counting our dead even
before a battle has been won or lost. We make a great show of honouring
those who die on the battlefield and lionise brave hearts of history,
but we do not want our children to follow in their footsteps.

…..
We are, if truth be told, a nation of cowards who don’t have the
courage to admit their weakness but are happy to blame a well-meaning
politician who, perhaps, takes his regimental motto of ‘Izzat aur Iqbal’
rather too seriously.


…..
  
Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday that there is no set formula for dealing with terrorists.

……..
When asked if India should have a policy not to negotiate with
terrorists, he said that while this worked in principle, in reality,
when the human element came into play, he was unsure of how he would
deal with the crisis.

….
“I do not know how I would have reacted if 150 families came to my
door and pleaded that their loved ones in that aircraft must be saved.
It is easy to criticise but if one is in that position, it is a very
difficult decision,” he said at the NDTV’s Indian of the Year Awards
function in New Delhi on Wednesday night.

….
The NDA government’s decision to release dreaded terrorists in
exchange for hostages in the Kandahar hijack 10 years ago had come under
attack from several quarters but Home Minister P Chidambaram is “not
sure” saying it is a “very difficult” decision.

….
The decision of the Vajpayee government to release three dreaded
terrorists including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar in
December, 1999 received a lot of flak from various political parties
including the Congress, more so because the then external affairs
minister Jaswant Singh accompanied them (terrorists) to Kandahar.

…..
Azhar’s name has subsequently figured in the December 2001 terror
attack on Parliament and the attack outside Jammu and Kashmir Assembly
in Srinagar in the same month. 
 
….

Link (1): http://Two-sisters-from-Maharashtras-Kolhapur-may-become-the-first-women-to-be-hanged-in-India

Link (2): http://kanchangupta.blogspot.in/2009/03/when-indians-let-down-india.html

Link (3): http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/the-hijacking-of-indian-airlines-flight-ic-814-7755

…..

regards

….The fare wasn’t set by
distance or time, but by zones, which encouraged the drivers to drive
fast…….the not-unpleasant sensation
of feeling your cheeks ripple with G-forces as he shot down the Dupont
Circle tunnel like someone testing a rocket car on the Salt Flats of
Utah…..the occasional moments of weightlessness when you hit a bump….you were doing 50 mph in a car whose shock absorbers
didn’t, and whose brakes probably wouldn’t…..
…
When we were younger, we would just rent a car at the airport…one way if necessary. We remember driving from Boise, Idaho to Portland, Oregon in a Hertzmobile (after having missed a flight…long story) and getting stuck in the Columbia River Gorge near Multonomah Falls at mid-night, in the middle of torrential winter rains- we did not realize that there are no gas stations in the Gorge!!! Our friend had to execute a dramatic mid-night rescue plan using an old-fashioned funnel and bucket.

….
Of course Uber does not allow you to travel from Boise to Portland (not yet), though we are sure some freckle-faced teenager is writing an app for that as we speak. In the mean-time, as James Lileks explains –  there is a new sense of freedom in Los Angeles and New York….but unfortunately, not in Berlin (North Korea)… erm German Democratic Republic….The mobile taxi app Uber has been banned in Berlin by the city’s State Department of Civil and Regulatory Affairs.….the authority said it had banned the app on passenger safety grounds
and threatened the firm with a 25,000 euro (£20,000) fine for ignoring
the order. Uber….Zindaaaaaaaaabad.
…..

………..

This confuses people
who regard conservatives as dumb apes who poke Shiny New Things with a
stick and screech in alarm. How can they support Uber? It’s a Cool
Thing, and they’re all middle-aged dorks in polyester plaid shorts and
black socks with sandals who like to “get down” to bands that sing about
pickup trucks, or they’re pale evil men who wear three-piece suits to
bed and drift off to sleep fantasizing that they’re slapping the
birth-control pills out of the hands of poor women. 

Uber is good, Uber
is an app, for heaven’s sake — how can these cretins possibly be on its
side? It’s like finding that all the kale in the country is fertilized
by Koch products.

Jalopnik, a popular site about cars, explains the reason with a willfully stupid Internet coinage: Uber Is the New GOP Darling Because Freedom.

…
It helps if you imagine Stephen Colbert saying it, I suppose.
Freedom: the word is supposed to make you roll your eyes, just like
“liberty” — one of those things we’re supposedly losing Because
Liberals. What we’re usually protesting is our inability to be racist,
homophobic trolls who think the country started going downhill when the
Statue of Liberty wasn’t a white male holding up a rifle instead of a
torch.

….
The article says: “A recent (pro-Uber) petition launched on the GOP
site hits all the Republican talking points — ‘unions’, ‘strangling
regulations’ and of course ‘liberal government bureaucrats’ — as a way
to illustrate how big government and a unionized workforce are killing
our freedoms.”

….
Someone else’s convictions are always talking points.

…..
As for Uber itself, well, let’s take a look at the wonderful world of
cars-for-hire. When I lived in D.C. in the 90s, I took a lot of cabs.
Now and then you’d get a spotless ride with a courteous older driver who
knew every street and alley. When I say “now and then” it was in the
sense of “now and then, there’s a presidential election.”

…..
For the most part, the cabs had seats that felt like the thin
battered beds of a hot-sheet motel and a sweat-and-barf perma-funk that
made you roll down the windows in January. The fare wasn’t set by
distance or time, but by zones, which encouraged the drivers to drive
fast. 
….
While this made for speedy trips, and the not-unpleasant sensation
of feeling your cheeks ripple with G-forces as he shot down the Dupont
Circle tunnel like someone testing a rocket car on the Salt Flats of
Utah, the occasional moments of weightlessness when you hit a bump
reminded you that you were doing 50 mph in a car whose shock absorbers
didn’t, and whose brakes probably wouldn’t.

….
When I moved back to Minneapolis I had no occasion to take the cab,
except for trips back from the airport. The cars weren’t exactly new;
when you looked at the fleet idling in the bays, it made you think,
“this is what Havana would look like if Castro took over in 1982.” The
drivers were usually unfamiliar with the city, which seems to violate
the Law of Cabbies, somehow. You sit in the back like a human Tom-Tom
unit, giving turn-by-turn directions. When you’re finally home, and it’s
time to settle, you get out a credit card — which causes the driver to
sigh, because he has to get out an imprint machine and rack up the card
like it’s the Four Seasons in 1962 and you’re paying with a Diner’s
Club.

…..
On a trip to L.A. earlier this year I called a cab to get me to the
Minneapolis airport. I stood outside the house with a suitcase. I
watched the cab drive past; I ran after it waving my arms as if it was
the last helicopter out of Erbil. Once inside, I looked around for
anything long and sharp that might help squeegee off the cooties. The
driver took a route that always backs up at rush hour, and the meter
ticked away the escalating price. When we got to the airport I was
delighted to find the car had a credit-card reader, but it didn’t work.

….
From the L.A. hotel to the airport, I finally tried Uber. The dot on
my screen showed where the car was. When it arrived, the driver popped
the trunk and offered me water. What? Water? The most I ever expected
from a cab was a vinegar-soaked rag on a stick. The interior of the car
was pristine; I was offered my choice of music selection; I was stunned
to find there wasn’t a motorized shoe-shine unit under the seats and a
tanning lamp. With hesitation I engaged in conversation with the driver —
 the Cabbie Convo is the worst form of parachute journalism, and if
this guy was actually useful or fascinating I could never use it.

…..
But I will, because it was. He had run a few franchise sandwich
shops, and they’d gone under. One died because the real-estate market
crashed and emptied out the neighborhood; the other suffered from the
marketing incompetence of the parent company, which soured the brand and
drove the franchise owners to penury and despair. Now he was doing
this. Did he want to do this? Eh, it’s a living.

…..
At the end no money was exchanged. The app did that. No receipt was
required. The app did that. I was asked to rate the driver, and gave him
the best possible rating. Most excellent cab ride of my life — probably
because it wasn’t a cab at all. 

…..
So that’s why conservatives like Uber! We can pretend it didn’t cost
anything, and can judge those who have failed in the marketplace and
been driven down the economic ladder. It has nothing to do with breaking
up a monopoly with a new idea, or getting around the burdensome rules
that prevent an entrepreneur from entering a locked-up market, or
letting a superior service force the old model to improve its game. (The
local cab company did come up with an app, and while it let you make a
reservation, it warned you that this wasn’t a guarantee a cab would
actually show up. Other than that, a straight-up Uber-killer.)

…..
No, it can’t be about any of that. If the Right wants to free public
schools from their century-old model, it’s just about hating unions.
(Because Freedom.) If they object to the impact of the minimum wage,
it’s just about hating workers. (Because Freedom.) If they object to the
unsustainable drain of Social Security, it’s because they hate the old;
if they object to socialized medicine it’s because they hate the sick;
if they object to making nuns pay for late-term abortion it’s because
they hate women.

…
If they hate taxis and want an alternative, well, because Freedom.

Whoa! At least they got that one right.

…….

Link (1): http://www.nationalreview.com

Link (2): http://www.bbc.com
…..

regards

…..Surya Narayana Sastri was born in a Brahmin family. He graduated in Tamil..Head of Department for Tamil at the Madras Christian
College….He was one of the early pure Tamil activists…..changed Surya Narayana Sastri to its pure Tamil form….Parithi Maal Kalaignyar: Surya – Parithi (sun), Narayanan – Maal (God Vishnu), Sastri –
Kalaignyar (artist or scholar)…..
….

….
By now we are familiar with the concept of Brahmin leadership of the extreme left. Even the Maoist Central Politburo – the high command charting the revolutionary waves-  is populated by super-castes (only one tribal member).

It is the usually the sons of the privileged who are (as Omar would say) at the vanguard of the revolution (Bong version: Jomidar-er chele Naxal – the son of the Zamindar is a Naxalite). You need to be a top dog to recognize that your own skin has just the right texture for making shoes for the poor. …… 

Remember, Osama Bin Laden, the other revolutionary hero? He was from an affluent background as well (middle son of a middle wife…hence deprived of father’s love…and it shows).

We were most surprised to find out
that the man who pioneered the Tamizh as a classical language movement
(higher, better, wider than Sanskrit) was actually a Brahmin. Dravida Sastri (as he was known) was such a
fanatic (used in a positive sense) that he changed his Sanskrit-derived
name  to a pure Tamizh one. In present day terminology he would be called a self-hating Brahmin…just like Dr Norman Gary Finkelstein is considered a self-hating Jew.

Since then many a famous Dravida leader have followed in the foot-steps of Dravid Sastri. Thus Dakhsina Murthy became Karuna-Nidhi. And now the Dravida movement is being ably led by the one and only ‘Puratchi Thalaivi’ (‘Revolutionary Leader’) ….an Iyengar (highest possible caste) named Jaya-Lalithaa (extra “A” at the end due to “sanskrit-hindu” astrological reasons, similar to why all Ekta Kapoor productions are initialled “K”). 

Sastri also pioneered/popularized the concept of Kumari Nadu, the cradle of (Tamizh) civilization – referred to by others as Lemuria (see below) – which is now sunk into the great depths of the Indian Ocean and has left no trace behind (just like that Malaysian plane).
  
……
We have an age-old (unsolved) puzzle for you, which will help you to discover your inner Dravida-man (or for the Tam-Brahms- your self-hating persona). 
Is Ginger Sanskrit-origin or …..is it Dravidian?

From the Online Etymology Dictionary: