Mumbai Serial Blasts: 20 years long wait but NO Justice for the Nation & for the Victims

Dr Pravin Togadia

New Delhi, March 21, 2013

Expressing his despair about the low punishment to the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts accused, while respecting the Hon’ble Supreme Court, VHP International Working President Dr Pravin Togadia said, “12 Serial blasts spanning across entire Mumbai, around 257 dead, over 700 permanently injured & many still missing with no bodies found. Just 1 accused gets death penalty & others get away with such a lenient limited Life imprisonment! March 12, 1993 was the worst ever day for Mumbai then. Despite such a gamut of the terror attack, despite over 100 accused, only 1 gets death penalty. Of 12 who got death punishment in Hon’ble High Court, 10 accused get away with Life imprisonment & many get free with lower punishments. Justification that they were poor, illiterate & mere pawns at the hands of the Pakistani master minds cannot be a justification for denying justice to the victims.

It is a sad day in the history of Bharat as far as victims of such mammoth terror attacks being denied justice. Common people died, common people injured & lost their livelihood, from Stock Exchange to Passport Office & from a Star Hotel to a simple common people’s building… 12 places got shattered. Convicts’ poverty or illiteracy – if any – cannot be the justification for such 12 serial blasts & also for not giving justice to the victims who had some hope in their eyes for past 20 years.”

Dr Togadia also demanded, “At least now the Govt should put pressure Pakistan to send Dawood Ibrahim to Bharat. The 1 convict Yaqub Memon who is absconding since long should also be brought to justice in Bharat. After 9/11 with a Jehadi attack on 1 building, America hunted down Osama Bin Laden. Bharat’s Govt has to follow the same if they have any respect to the nation & its common people who time & again have been becoming victims of Jehadi terror. Even the Hon’ble Supreme Court blames Pakistan & ISI. It is time that Bharat’s Govt shows the strength & diplomatic acumen severs ties with Pakistan until at least they hand over Dawood, Memon & all others in the list that the Govt has given them for various attacks.”

Dr Togadia further said, “My heart goes out to all those victims’ families. The kids who were 8 yrs then are now 28 yrs youth. They suffered not just the losses of their near & dear ones, but also had to struggle entire their life with such a trauma. I also urge media to help them express their feelings for a catharsis rather than media focusing on film personalities ignoring Aam Aadmi’s grief.”

_____________

Contact: drtogadia@gmail.com

300 Schools are destroyed By Maoists Terrorists Between 2006 to 2009- United Nations Report

SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
Weekly Assessments & Briefings
Volume 9, No. 17, November 1, 2010

Maoists: Sabotaging the Future Ajit Kumar Singh
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/sair/Archives/sair9/9_17.htm

Two students, aged 10 and 11 years, a woman employee and a villager were killed when a grenade landed in the classroom of a tribal school on the outskirts of Savargaon village on the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border on October 8, 2010. Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres lobbed the grenade into the school during the course of an encounter with Security Forces (SFs) close to the school building. Three SF personnel were also killed in the fighting.

Again, on October 28, one Police Constable was injured when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded while it was being defused near the Jordi School building under Madanpur Police Station in the Aurangabad District of Bihar. The bomb disposal squad had been called in after four bombs, planted by the Maoists, were found in the school. The remaining three other bombs were defused.

These are far from isolated incidents. According to a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report, nearly 300 schools were reportedly blown up by Maoists between 2006 and 2009.

According to the Police, the Maoists have destroyed over 150 schools in Bihar, and 20 in Aurangabad District alone. An affidavit filed by the Chhattisgarh State Government in the Apex Court on April 14, 2008, had noted: "They (Naxals) destroyed 55 primary school buildings in the last three years." H.R. Gourela, Deputy Commissioner of the Scheduled Tribe Welfare and Development Department of Narayanpur District in Chhattisgarh on October 19, 2009, had stated, "Under Narayanpur District, around 77 concrete buildings [schools] were either damaged or demolished. We are continuing schools in alternative buildings made of tin-sheds."

On November 7, 2009, Chhattisgarh Education Department officials claimed that the Maoists, over the preceding two years, had set ablaze 80 school buildings in just the Dantewada and Bijapur Districts. A November 6, 2009, had noted that the Maoists had blown up more than 30 school buildings in Jharkhand over the preceding five years.

Partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management documents at least 109 school buildings destroyed by the Maoists since 2006. Of these, three incidents were reported in 2006; 22 in 2007; seven in 2008; and 59 in 2009. The Maoists have, thus far, blown up 18 schools in the year 2010 (till October 31). The largest number of these incidents was recorded in Jharkhand, at 45 schools blown up over these years; followed by Chhattisgarh, at 26; Bihar, at 22; Orissa at 15; and one in Maharashtra.

These attacks were principally carried out with IEDs known locally as 'can bombs' – metal cans packed with explosives. Reports indicate that the Maoists primarily used gelignite, dynamite, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and emulsion explosives in their attacks on the schools.

More worryingly, at least 24 teachers have been killed by the Maoists in 34 attacks on teachers during this period. Three students and two school employees were also killed in three separate attacks.

Attacking schools and educational properties is an integral element of Maoist strategy, at once destroying what is the central structure in most villages, creating widespread fear, demonstrating Maoist capacities and the infirmity of the state’s agencies, and, crucially, expanding the rebels’ recruitment pool of frustrated and idle youngsters. Human Rights Watch, in its December 9, 2009, report quoted a Government official as stating, "If they want to attack any Government infrastructure then a school building is very handy, because they are all over now... This is one place were the Government gives no resistance. If you attack a Police station, you will get resistance. But in a remote area a building with no security is very easy [to target]."

The Maoists, however, claim that they attack schools because these have become ‘police camps’. A CPI-Maoist Information Bulletin editorial in November 2008 thus claimed: "No school was destroyed by the Maoists if it was not used by the Police as its camp. You cannot show a single instance where we had destroyed a school that was really meant for education purpose." Most attacks on schools have occurred in the night, to avoid innocent fatalities; nevertheless, a large proportion of Maoist attacks have destroyed schools in which there was no Police or Security Forces (SF) presence.

Worse, teacher absenteeism on the plea of Maoist violence has enormously compounded the direct disruption of the educational infrastructure with devastating consequences for the lives and prospects of thousands of school children. A December 20, 2009, report, for instance, said that hundreds of poor school children in Bihar’s Aurangabad District had appealed to CPI-Maoist cadres not to target or damage educational institutions. In an open letter to the Maoists, the school children urged the rebels not to deprive them of education by destroying their schools.

Meanwhile, the Government has taken some steps to undercut the Maoist justification for their attacks on the educational infrastructure. A May 22, 2010, report noted that the Jharkhand Police had vacated 28 of 43 schools previously occupied by SFs in Maoist-affected Districts of the State, and were in the process of vacating another 13. The Chhattisgarh Government, however, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on October 27, 2010, conceded that, due to administrative exigencies and lack of infrastructure, it was housing SF personnel involved in anti-Maoist operations in 31 schools, ashrams (residential schools) and hostels. The Government, nevertheless, claimed that it had made alternate arrangements to ensure that the presence of troopers in these premises did not affect the education of children

The Maoists also extort money meant for school education and infrastructure. According to a July 23, 2009, report, the Maoists in Jharkhand were demanding money from schools from the grants received by them from the Government. In Latehar, they demanded INR 50,000 as ‘levy' from a school and threatened dire consequences in case they were not paid the demanded amount. The school had been granted INR 6.3 million for construction and development of the school.

There are also allegations regarding the Maoists looting foodstuff meant for students of several State-run schools and hostels for tribal boys and girls located in remote areas. An August 29, 2009, report indicates that the Orissa Government asked Collectors of all the Maoist insurgency-affected Districts to verify such allegations. Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development Department Secretary Ashok Tripathy disclosed, "Letters have been sent to all the collectors to verify allegations that Maoists forcibly eat food meant for school children living in hostels."

A February 2010 UNHCR Report titled Education Under Attack 2010 – India, gives a snapshot of the sheer range and virulence of disruptive Maoist actions against the education system:

Over the whole of 2009 at least 50 schools were attacked in Jharkhand and Bihar. Maoists torched the house of a parateacher in Chowka, Jharkhand, and beat him up. In April 2009, a boy in Mandar, Jharkhand, was reported to have been tortured for refusing to join the Naxalites' children's brigade. In Bihar, four schools were blown up and a generator was seized from one of them. In Chhattisgarh State, a 15-year-old student was shot three times and stabbed by Maoist guerrillas in front of his teacher and classmates after finishing an examination in March 2009.

These circumstances have been exploited for significant recruitment of child soldiers by the Maoists. The UNHCR Report thus notes that, in 2008,

In Chhattisgarh, Maoists were reported to have used children under 12 "in droves". Children, aged 6 and above, were indoctrinated and trained as informers; then, from age 12, were recruited into the ranks and trained to use arms and explosives.

The report, however, also observes that, "Government-backed Salwa Judum vigilantes have used children to attack Naxalite-influenced villages, and state police have used child recruits for anti-Naxalite combing operations..."

The United Nations report on Children and Armed Conflict – 2010, moreover, expressed concern over the recruitment and use of minors by the Maoists in some Districts of Chhattisgarh, noting that there were credible reports that youngsters were being abducted and forcibly recruited from schools. The Report notes:

India’s National Human Rights Commission… stated in its submission to the Supreme Court in August 2008 that the Naxals forced many families to send at least one adolescent boy or girl to join their ranks. Other credible reports indicate that many children are abducted or forcibly recruited from schools. The Naxals have claimed that children were used only as messengers and informers, but have admitted that children were provided with training to use non-lethal and lethal weapons, including landmines.

Significantly, the West Bengal Police on August 6, 2010, intercepted seven van-loads of school children at Dahijuri who were on their way to Jhargram town to participate in a rally organised by the Maoists. The students from the Ranarani School at Andharia alleged that some unidentified persons forced them to attend the rally and had also arranged for the vehicles.

Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the Government has announced a ‘multi-pronged strategy’ that includes setting up of secondary schools, girl’s hostels and reconstruction of buildings damaged by extremists, to improve educational facilities in 35 Districts worst affected by Maoist activities. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has accorded ‘top priority’ to these districts under new schemes such as the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (National Secondary Education Campaign, RMSA), Model Schools and the Girls' Hostel Programme. Under RMSA, which aims at universalising secondary education in the country by 2020, as many as 384 schools have been approved for these affected Districts in 2009-10. Similarly, under the Model Schools Programme, 32 schools, out of a total of 327 sanctioned in 2009-10, are located in these Districts. Another 21 model schools are to be set up in seven Maoist-affected districts of Chhattisgarh. 44 girls' hostels have also been sanctioned for these 35 Districts. The Government categorised these as Special Focus Districts under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universal Education Campaign) and has allocated additional funds for the creation of new primary schools, maintenance of existing infrastructure and providing other facilities. The expenditure on construction activities under these programmes can account for up to 50 per cent of the total funds allocated under the SSA in these Districts.

Unfortunately, unless the security situation improves dramatically, additional allocations and schemes will have little – if any – impact on the grounds and would, indeed, tend to augment the pool of extractable resources for Maoist extortion.

The Maoists have established their disruptive dominance across vast areas, and these have been transformed into an amorphous frontline of conflict in which the education, the prospects and the lives of children are routinely placed at risk.

बंगलादेश और पाकिस्तान के उत्पीड़ित हिन्दुओं की समस्याओं का निराकरण करें

प्रस्ताव-1: बंगलादेश और पाकिस्तान के उत्पीड़ित हिन्दुओं की समस्याओं का निराकरण करें

अखिल भारतीय प्रतिनिधि सभा इस बात पर गंभीर चिंता व्यक्त करती है कि पाकिस्तान और बंगलादेश में हिन्दुओं पर हो रहे अन्तहीन अत्याचारों के परिणामस्वरूप वे लगातार बड़ी संख्या में शरणार्थी बनकर भारत में आ रहे हैं। यह बहुत ही लज्जा एवम् दुःख का विषय है कि इन असहाय हिन्दुओं को अपने अपने मूल स्थान और भारत दोनों में ही अत्यंत दयनीय जीवन बिताने को विवश होना पड़ रहा है।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा बंगलादेश के बौद्धों सहित समस्त हिन्दुओं एवं उनके पूजास्थलों पर वहाँ की हिंदु विरोधी तथा भारत विरोधी कुख्यात जमाते इस्लामी सहित विभिन्न कट्टरपंथी संगठनों द्वारा हाल ही में किये गए हमलों की तीव्र निंदा करती है। यह घटनाक्रम बंगलादेश में पिछले कई दशकों से लगातार जारी है। वहाँ के हिंदु और अन्य अल्पसंख्यक उनकी कुछ भी गलती न होते हुए भी इस्लामिक आक्रामकता की आग में झुलस रहे हैं। इस उत्पीडन से असहाय होकर हजारों लोग अपनी जान और इज्ज़त बचाने के लिए पलायन कर भारत में आने के लिए बाध्य हो रहे हैं। प. बंगाल और आसाम में ऐसे हजारों बंगलादेशी हिंदु तथा चकमा कई दशकों से शरणार्थी बनकर रह रहे हैं और जब भी बंगलादेश में हिंसाचार होता है तो इनमें और नए लोग आकर जुड़ते रहे हैं।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा पाकिस्तान के हिन्दुओं की दुर्दशा पर भी राष्ट्र का ध्यान आकर्षित करना चाहती है। सभी उपलब्ध सूचनाओं से यही प्रकट हो रहा है कि पाकिस्तान के हिंदु सुरक्षा, सम्मान और मानवाधिकारों से वंचित निम्न स्तर का जीवन बिता रहे हैं। सिक्खों सहित समस्त हिन्दुओं पर नित्य हमले एक आम बात है। बलपूर्वक मतान्तरण, अपहरण, बलात्कार, जबरन विवाह, हत्या और धर्मस्थलों को विनष्ट करना वहाँ के हिन्दुओं के प्रतिदिन के उत्पीड़ित जीवन का भाग हो गये हैं। पाकिस्तान की कोई भी संवैधानिक संस्था उनकी सहायता के लिए आगे नहीं आती है। परिणामस्वरूप पाकिस्तान के हिंदु भी पलायन कर भारत में शरण मांगने को विवश हो रहे हैं।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा भारत के राजनैतिक, बौद्धिक एवं सामाजिक नेतृत्व तथा केन्द्रीय सरकार को यह स्मरण दिलाना चाहती है कि ये असहाय हिंदु अपने स्वयं के किसी कृत्य के कारण इस इस्लामी उत्पीड़न का शिकार नहीं हुए हैं। १९४७ में हुए मातृभूमि के दुःखद और विवेकहीन विभाजन के परिणामस्वरूप ही वे इस स्थिति में आये हैं। पाकिस्तान और बंगलादेश के इन निरपराध हिन्दुओं पर राजनैतिक नेतृत्व द्वारा विभाजन थोपा गया था। एक ही रात्रि में अचानक उनके लिए उनकी अपनी ही मातृभूमि पराई हो गयी। वास्तव में यह एक विडम्बना ही है कि ये अभागे हिंदु अपने पूर्व के नेताओं की जोड़ तोड़ की राजनीति की गलतियों की कीमत अपने जीवन से चुका रहे हैं।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा भारत सरकार को आवाहन करती है कि पाकिस्तान और बंगलादेश के हिन्दुओं की स्थिति और वहाँ से आये हुए शरणार्थियों के पूरे विषय पर पुनर्विचार करे। सरकार यह कह कर बच नहीं सकती कि यह उन देशों का आन्तरिक विषय है। १९५० के नेहरु-लियाकत समझौते में यह स्पष्ट रूप से कहा गया है कि दोनों देशों में अल्पसंख्यकों को पूर्ण सुरक्षा और नागरिकता के अधिकार प्रदान किये जायेंगे। भारत में हर संवैधानिक प्रावधान का उपयोग तथाकथित अल्पसंख्यकों को न केवल सुरक्षा प्रदान करने के लिए किया गया अपितु उनको तुष्टिकरण की सीमा तक जानेवाले विशेष प्रावधान भी दिए गए। वे आज भारत में जनसांख्यिकी, आर्थिक, शैक्षिक, और सामाजिक सभी दृष्टि से सुस्थापित हैं।

इसके विपरीत, पाकिस्तान और बंगलादेश के हिंदु लगातार उत्पीडन के परिणामस्वरूप घटती जनसंख्या, असीम गरीबी, मानवाधिकारों के हनन और विस्थापन की समस्याओं से ग्रस्त है। पूर्व और पश्चिम पाकिस्तान में विभाजन के समय हिन्दुओं की जनसंख्या क्रमश: २८% और ११% थी तथा खंडित भारत में ८% मुस्लिम थे। आज जब भारत की मुस्लिम आबादी १४% तक बढ़ गयी है वहीं बंगलादेश में हिंदु घटकर १०% से कम रह गए है और पाकिस्तान में वे २% प्रतिशत से भी कम है।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा का यह सुनिश्चित मत है कि नेहरू-लियाकत समझौते के उल्लंघन के लिए पाकिस्तान और बंगलादेश की सरकारों को चुनौती देना भारत सरकार का दायित्व है। लाखों हिन्दुओं के विलुप्त होने को केवल उन देशों की संप्रभुता का विषय मानकर उपेक्षित नहीं किया जा सकता। इन दोनों देशों को, भारत में लगातार आ रहे हिंदु शरणार्थियों के बारे में कटघरे में खड़ा करना चाहिए। भारत के तथाकथित अल्पसंख्यक समुदाय से एक भी व्यक्ति इन देशों में शरणार्थी बन कर नहीं गया है जबकि लाखों लोग वहाँ से यहाँ आए हैं और आ रहे हैं।

इस हृदयविदारक दृश्य को देखते हुए अ. भा. प्र. सभा भारत सरकार से यह अनुरोध करती है कि इन दोनों देशों में रहनेवाले हिन्दुओं के प्रश्न पर नए दृष्टिकोण से देखे, क्योंकि उनकी स्थिति अन्य देशों में रहनेवाले हिन्दुओं से पूर्णतया अलग है।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा भारत सरकार से आग्रह करती है कि:

बंगलादेश और पाकिस्तान की सरकारों पर वहाँ के हिन्दुओं की सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित करने के लिए दबाव बनाए।

राष्ट्रीय शरणार्थी एवं पुनर्वास नीति बनाकर इन दोनों देशों से आनेवाले हिन्दुओं के सम्मानजनक जीवन यापन की व्यवस्था भारत में तब तक करें जब तक कि उनकी सुरक्षित और सम्मानजनक वापसी की स्थिति नहीं बनती।

बंगलादेश और पाकिस्तान से विस्थापित होनेवाले हिन्दुओं के लिए दोनों देशों से उचित क्षतिपूर्ति की मांग करे।

संयुक्त राष्ट्र संघ के शरणार्थी तथा मानवाधिकार से सम्बंधित संस्थाओं [UNHCR, UNHRC] से यह मांग करे कि हिन्दुओं व अन्य अल्पसंख्यकों की सुरक्षा व सम्मान की रक्षा के लिए वे अपनी भूमिका का निर्वाह करे।

अ. भा. प्र. सभा यह कहने को बाध्य है कि हमारी सरकार का इन लोगों के प्रति उदासीन रवैया केवल इसलिए ही है क्योंकि वे हिंदु हैं। सभी देशवासियों को सरकार के इस संवेदनहीन और गैरजिम्मेदार व्यवहार के विरुद्ध खुलकर आगे आना चाहिए। पाकिस्तान और बंगलादेश के वहाँ रहनेवाले तथा शरणार्थी बनकर भारत में आए हुए हिन्दुओं की सुरक्षा एवं जीवन यापन के अधिकार की रक्षा के लिए समूचे देश को उनके साथ खड़े रहने की आवश्यकता है।

Indian Govt Must Force Bangla Desh & Pak Implement 1950 Nehru-Liyaquat Treaty or get Indian Army in Action Demands Dr Pravin Togadia

Golaghat / Gauhatty – Assam, March 19, 2013

          After visiting Jorhat, Golpada & surrounding areas of Assam trying to see for himself the situation of Hindus there, VHP  International Working President Dr Pravin Togadia observed that in a rare gesture of solidarity with the fellow Hindus in the neighbouring countries, the Hinds in Assam are worried about the safety of Hindus in Bangla Desh. Hindus in Assam have been suffering continued infiltration of Muslims from Bangla Desh. Once in Assam, they get Govt protection for votes & Hindus face massacre at their hands. Hindus are in minority in Bangla Desh & Pakistan and suffer genocidal attacks by Muslim majority there. Hindus are in majority in Assam & all states of Bharat but even in Bharat they face the same type of attacks at the hands of the so called minority who gets governmental protection.

If the Govts cannot protect Hindus anywhere – either in Bharat or abroad – then they better leave the rule to the public. During ^ after partition in 1947 the then West Pakistan & East Pakistan both saw unprecedented genocides of Hindus. Properties were looted, women raped, men killed & villages were forcibly converted. The spate continued even till 1950. Ultimately, the then Bharat – Pakistan Prime Ministers – Jawaharlal Nehru & Liyaquat Ali met in Delhi from April 2, 1950 & after much debate & drafts, a Minority Rights Guarantee Treaty was signed on April 8, 1950 which is more known as Nehru-Liyaquat Pact 1950. It guaranteed safety & protection of all rights of minorities in both countries in any situation including war.

But after targeting Hindus in West Pakistan up until 1950-51 & bringing the Hindu population to the miniscule level, Pakistan focused on the then East Pakistan where Hindu Bangla population was targeted despite the Nehru-Liyaquat Pact 1950. It continued & between 1961 & 71 the East Pakistan’s Hindu population was forcibly brought down to 1.6% by massacres, rapes, hoarding out Hindus & forcible conversion. By 1971 the situation was so worse that the then PM Indira Gandhi had to send army. Pakistan Army armed by Jamat-E-Islami’s ferocious terrorists, attacked minorities once again in a planned manner. The global data shows that in 1971 war around 2.5 Lakh women were raped in the then East Pakistan. Some even delivered babies whose known number crossed 20,000! During Jamat’s attacks & before, Hindu Bangla Deshis who survived crossed over to Bharat but their number was low as not many survived there. Bangla Desh today is on streets asking for hanging of Jamat’s men who did the genocide & the same way again Jamat’s men have been past 1 year in a planned way burning houses, looting Hindu / Buddhist temples & raping women.

The Nehru-Liyaquat Pact 1950 must be implemented in Bangla Desh & Pakistan both protecting Hindu / Buddhist minorities there. Muslims in Bangla Desh have already invaded North East of Bharat through planned infiltration & vote-greedy politicians have made them voters in Bharat. Jamat’s Assamese man Ajmal Badruddin, who started with a meager perfume business, now holds more than 11 constituencies in Assam alone through Muslim infiltrators.

          As a President of Jamat & the follower of the same ideology that did genocide in Pakistan & then in 1971 in Bangla Desh, with the help of such infiltrators but now voters in Assam, he got the Assam CM bent. CM Tarun Gogoi not long back had bragged in the media that he had been a follower of the great Lachit Borphukan & now has announce support to Jamat’s Ajmal Badruddin who has clear & open links with Deoband.

So, inside Bharat & in neighbouring countries, Govts have taken anti-Hindu meaning anti majority stands because they know that they did not need majority’s support to win & they can win even with the 18-25% votes of the once a miniscule minority but now a vote bank.

To protect Hindus in Pakistan & Bangla Desh, the Union Govt must implement the Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950 and to protect Bharat’s Hindus from attacks by the types of Jamat & Deobandis, Govts must ban these organizations. Instead, most state & the Union Govt are seen sharing public stage with these organizations putting majority’s lives at risk the same way as it happened in Pakistan & Bangla Desh. 

_____________

Contact: drtogadia@gmail.com

Foreign hand in anti-nuke stir exposed

In a development which could have ramifications on the campaign against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, police in Tirunelveli has come across a “major suspicious transfer” ofRs.29,98,782 from London to Koodankulam.

The money was transferred from London by one Anand to the Canara Bank’s Koodankulam branch account of Ambika Thavasi, wife of Thavasi Kumar, an activist of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), campaigning for the closure of the 2X1000 MW nuclear plant being built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) with Russian assistance.

“The International Division of the Canara Bank in Mumbai alerted us about the transfer of such a big amount from London to its Koodankulam branch. On investigation we found thatprior to the transfer of this money, Ambika’s account had a balance of just Rs 505. Our major concern is that the transaction comes just before the PMANE’s proposed sea siege on Monday,” Sumit Sharan, the young DIG of Tirunelveli police, told The Pioneer.

He said Thavasi Kumar has recently been booked under the Goonda’s Act.

The PMANE has called for a sea siege in boats on Monday to commemorate the second anniversary of the accident at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told an international science magazine that the Koodankulam agitators were getting financial aid from foreign countries.

Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Narayanasamy too had alleged many times that the PMANE activists were getting funds from abroad to sustain the agitation.

According to Sharan, what raised suspicion in the minds of the police was that Ambika or Thavasi Kumar had no business or major sources of income. “She told us that she does not know Anand, the person who sent the money. We found that there was no business link between Anand, Ambika or Thavasi,” he said.

Work in Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant came to a grinding halt in September 2011 following the agitation by the PMANE. Work was resumed after six months following enquiries by two different expert committees who found that the plant was safe. But the PMANE is still in the hope that they would be able to make the Government shut down the plant, which is expected to go critical by April 2013.

“What baffles us is how the PMANE activists are sustaining the agitation. The menfolk do not go for fishing while the women in Koodankulam are on a sit in at Idinthakarai, agitating against the plant. We have reports that they are getting all kind of support from various organisations and an enquiry is on,” said Sharan.

However, V Pushparayan, co-convener of the PMANE alleged that the police and Intelligence agencies were out to subvert their agitation by foisting false cases.

“The money sent to Ambika was meant for buying property for Thavasi Kumar’s friend in London. Authorities can very easily verify the antecedents of this transaction as they know the remitter and the receiver,” said Pushparayan.

“It is pertinent to note that the Congress Government and its notorious Finance Minister exempted any financial probe against Robert Vadra when he was accused of amassing wealth worth over Rs 300 crores in Delhi. Is Rs 300 crore a smaller amount than Rs 30 lakhs? Why does Sonia Gandhi refuse to disclose her family assets and income details under the Right to Information Act? Why don’t the Indian Intelligence agencies probe the various scandals and corrupt deals of the Congress ministers and politicians?” the PMANE asked in a release on Sunday.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/132526-foreign-hand-in-anti-nuke-stir-exposed.html?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=

Caste off: The plight of Catholic Dalits in India

By Megan Sweas

Catholic Dalits (untouchables) in India are divided over how to improve their lot.

Franklin Caesar Thomas and R. L. Francis both attend Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi. Though the two lay activists with similar backgrounds may be polite on Sundays, they don’t like each other.

Like 70 percent of Catholics in India, Thomas and Francis are Dalits—untouchables. For thousands of years, Indian society has been structured by caste, divided into four main groups and thousands of sub-groups. A family’s caste still largely determines one’s social standing and opportunities, and Dalits fall at the bottom.

Untouchability—the idea that coming into contact with a Dalit would make an upper-caste individual impure—was made illegal in India’s 1959 Constitution. However, discrimination and segregation continue in many parts of India, and efforts to correct the inequalities continue to spark debate, including within the church. Caste is so embedded in Indian culture that it has seeped into every religion in the country.

Today Thomas and Francis may sit next to upper-caste Christians in Delhi’s cathedral, but only decades ago a Southern Indian church built a wall down its middle so that castes could worship at the same time without seeing each other. Many churches had separate vessels for communion.

Caste also affects educational and economic opportunities. As a fourth-generation Catholic and son of a teacher, Thomas was relatively well off. Still, his family didn’t have electricity until 1995. “If this is the life of the son of a teacher, what about our neighbors?” he asks.

His neighbors are more like Francis, who didn’t have access to the church’s excellent schools. Francis attended a government school through the seventh grade. “Like Jesus, never got any study,” he says with a laugh in halting English. As the language of business, English is essential to get ahead in India, but Dalit children still rarely have access to an English education.

Both Thomas and Francis want to give Dalits greater opportunities to succeed. A pending case in India’s Supreme Court, however, divides the two Catholics. Thomas, working with the church, brought a lawsuit to help Christian Dalits gain access to government benefits. Francis, on the other hand, wants the church to take care of its own.

A government commission in 2007 reported that denying to Christian and Muslim Dalits benefits that Dalits of other faiths receive violated the Constitution, although the Supreme Court has deferred a ruling several times. Last August supportive bishops, priests, and nuns joined a protest march in New Delhi, urging the court to finally issue its ruling.

The case, however, is about more than the classic debate between government and private charity. It also represents the struggle of the church to address social structures: Should Christians deal with caste, class, and racial divides practically or prophetically?

“One encounters that anywhere when one works in the developing world,” says Michael La Civita, vice president of communications for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA). “One has to be respectful of social structures but one can’t compromise the gospel, either.”

Government solutions

Thomas, a large man in a country where poverty is visible in the stringy arms and legs of bicycle rickshaw drivers, didn’t need government benefits. He was educated as an engineer and got a job in recruiting at Indian Railways despite being a Dalit.

But at work he noticed that he was luckier than most Dalit Christians. “With my own eyes I saw how Dalit Christian applications were rejected,” he says.

Hindu Dalits, meanwhile, got coveted government jobs through the “reservation” system. Like affirmative action, the system aims to correct past discrimination by giving previously excluded groups access to greater opportunities. As outlined in the Constitution, India holds spots for Dalits in government posts, schools, and political bodies.

Only Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs have access to these spots. Christianity and Islam—“foreign religions”—preach equality and therefore do not have caste. The ideals of Christianity, though, do not match the experiences of Christian Dalits.

Missionaries historically conformed to caste rules, says Father G. Cosmon Arokiaraj, who until last June served as executive secretary of the Office of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “They didn’t see it as diametrically opposed to the Christian faith,” he says. Winning souls was more important than opposing caste.

Thanks to the tradition of missionary schools, Dalit Christians are slightly better educated than other Dalits, but sociological research shows their economic status to be similarly dismal. Most importantly for the church, economic disparities between Dalits and the upper caste are higher among Christians than in any other religious community.

In the northeastern countryside of the state of Uttar Pradesh, the Dalit Catholics of St. Francis Parish in Swar continue to struggle. In one of India’s poorest areas, 33-year-old Savriti is one of the estimated 1.3 million Dalits who are still forced to work as “manual scavengers,” removing human excrement. Every day Savriti cleans out the dry latrines of 60 families in several different villages. Although illegal since 1993, the practice continues throughout India.

“I started this work when I got married,” Savriti told the international Catholic mission magazine Kontinente. “There is no other way for us to make a living. … When we take a break, we are not allowed to sit on a stool, only on the floor. We’re not allowed to touch the water pump. When we ask for water, they pour it into our hands.”

She works all day without eating, but the worst part, she says, is the shame. “When someone sees me working, I am very ashamed. I don’t really like to talk about these things. I pray that I will find a different kind of work.”

Savriti is a member of St. Francis Parish, and a group of sisters of the Clarist Franciscan Missionaries of the Most Blessed Sacrament have helped her build a solid house, provided medicine for her husband’s heart ailments, and enrolled her children in a Catholic school.

Though the separate cemeteries, chalices, and pews may be history in India’s Catholic parishes today, an invisible form of discrimination continues, says Arokiaraj, who as a Dalit priest has had to struggle to gain the acceptance of upper-caste parishioners.

Even though Dalits make up 70 percent of the church, only 600 of India’s 17,000 priests and six of the 160 bishops come from the Dalit community.

When Thomas saw the discrimination at Indian Railways, therefore, he didn’t think to go to the church. “The church will not … fulfill our needs. They don’t have the mindset,” he says. “We are not in the power structure.”

Instead, Thomas challenged the government, arguing that restricting scheduled caste benefits to Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs was unconstitutional. With the help of a prominent public interest litigator, he brought a lawsuit to the Supreme Court in 2004 in hopes of getting rid of the religious qualification for the reservation system.

Despite Thomas’ doubts about the church, when he told the Catholic bishops’ conference and the Protestant organizational body about the lawsuit, both lent their support and helped Thomas form the National Council of Dalit Christians.

The case is clearly religious discrimination, says lawyer Prashant Bhusan, but public interest litigation often takes years. Thomas and his allies are confident the case will be decided in their favor—and soon. Politics have delayed a decision, Thomas says.

Don’t call me Dalit

Though also a Catholic Dalit, R. L. Francis is among the opponents trying to derail Thomas’ case. The problem with Thomas’ approach, Francis says, is evident in the name of his organization. “We converted to Christianity in the hopes that we would get self-respect, dignity, and equality. Why are they calling us Dalit, Dalit, Dalit? We are Christian only,” he says.
Francis’ organization, the Poor Christian Liberation Movement, intentionally avoids the term “Dalit Christian” because caste is not a part of Christianity.

If Christians gained government benefits, they would have to register with the government as Dalits. “They want to fix the stigma of Dalit on our forehead,” Francis says.

The reservation system has solidified Dalit identity among Hindus. Dalit political parties are strong, but this isn’t always good, says Rajiv Malhotra, the U.S.-based author of Breaking India (Amaryllis), a critical analysis of the Dalit identity. Identity politics create tensions between communities as groups fight for limited resources.

“Once affirmative action is based on caste, then caste becomes a tool,” Malhotra says. Extending the reservation system to non-Hindus “will perpetuate the caste system against them even worse.”

With access to reservations, Francis might have been able to continue his education past seventh grade. But he would rather see his daughter earn a spot in a Catholic school than in a government school.

For that, the church needs an internal reservation system, he says. It could direct financial resources, jobs, and seats in its top-ranked schools to the poor.

The Bible “says everybody is equal in the name of Jesus Christ,” Francis says, but the church doesn’t live up to this standard of equality. Worse, Francis thinks Indian churches have joined Thomas’ cause so they can gain access to government resources instead of directing their own resources to the poor. It’s about money, he says.

Conversion politics

Millions of dollars flow from the United States and Europe into Dalit ministries—particularly from evangelical churches. “It’s a total money-making program of the church from U.S., European countries,” Francis says.

The more people the church converts, the more money it can raise overseas. There are doubts about whether those funds make it to the poor, but the promise of financial support can lure converts. Hindu nationalists, who work for an India united by Hindu culture, feel threatened by conversion. Access to government reservations would give Hindus more incentive to convert, they worry.

While he lauds the Christian message of equality, Francis worries that Hindu Dalits are converting for the wrong reason. The church should take better care of its own before reaching out to non-Christians, he says.

Thomas, on the other hand, thinks the church loses people because of the religious discrimination in the reservation system. Some Christian Dalits have “reconverted” to Hinduism, at least officially, to regain the government benefits.

Even if Hindus convert for material support, it’s a good thing, Thomas says. “I’m very particular: One religion calls all these people as illegitimate children; the other religion calls these people as sons and daughters of God.”

The debate is not unique to India. The church always struggles with the question of whether people convert for material or spiritual sustenance, La Civita of CNEWA says.

Whether it be caste, class, race, tribe, or gender, the church encounters social injustices all around the world. Interracial marriages were once as unthinkable in the United States as intercaste marriages are today in India. The challenge for the church is to walk the fine line between working within and challenging such structures.

“One can say that the reason that these churches even exist is because of the social outreach,” La Civita says. On the other hand, the Catholic way of dealing with inequality and poverty is not “handing people a bowl of rice and baptizing them.”

Instead, sisters, priests, and laypeople build the church over time by demonstrating the message of Christianity through their work. “These are relationships that are being developed and nurtured for years,” La Civita says.

Even after the Supreme Court makes its decision, it will take years to determine whether the case will result in greater conversions or simply in corruption; in the uplifting of Christian Dalits or in the codifying of their status as Dalits.

There may be no perfect solution, but Arokiaraj, the Dalit priest who worked for the bishops, says that to create a society in which there is no caste, both the church and government need to do more than just say Dalits are equal. “Mere preaching won’t do,” he says.

Preaching, however, is all he can do while waiting for a Supreme Court decision. On Dalit Liberation Sunday, held in December each year, Arokiaraj says Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Thomas, Francis, and Catholics of all castes listen from the pews to prayers that push them to acknowledge the sinfulness of caste and do something to change it.

“As followers of your beloved son Jesus, we have failed to challenge attitudes, practices, and structures that are contrary to the values of equality, justice, and freedom that are integral to the gospel of Christ our Savior,” one prayer reads. “Through your abiding presence, give us the courage to persevere in our struggles for equal rights.”

This article appeared in the March 2013 issue of  U.S. Catholic (Vol. 78, No. 3, pages 23-27).
Photo by Friedrich Stark

Megan Sweas is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. See more posts by Megan Sweas [1]

हैदराबाद विस्फोट : तब सब खबर थी अब कुछ पता नहीं

हैदराबाद के दिलसुख नगर में हुए बम विस्फोटों के मामले में जांच एजेंसियों को अब तक कोई ठोस सुराग नहीं मिला है। विस्फोट के तुरंत बाद गृहमंत्री सुशील कुमार शिंदे ने कहा था कि खुफिया विभाग को आतंकी हमले की जानकारी थी, हमने संबंधित राज्यों को अलर्ट भी कर दिया था। अगर जानकारी थी तो कुछ किया क्यों नहीं और विस्फोट हो ही गया तो जानकारी के बावजूद उनकी एनआईए और उनके ही राज्य की पुलिस अब तक खाली हाथ क्यों है? हां, इतना जरूर हुआ है कि शक के आधार पर कुछ लोगों से पूछताछ हुई है। कहा जा रहा है कि घटनास्थल पर लगे एक सीसीटीवी कैमरे की धुंधली तस्वीरों की पहचान के लिए नेशनल इन्वेस्टिगेशन एजेंसी (एनआईए) अमरीकी जांच एजेंसी फेडरल ब्यूरो आफ इन्वेस्टिगेशन (एफबीआई) की मदद ले रही है। यह कितनी बड़ी विडम्बना है कि जो देश पिछले तीन दशक से आतंकवाद से पीड़ित है उसके पास आतंकी घटनाओं की जांच की भी अच्छी व्यवस्था नहीं है।

पिछले दिनों बम विस्फोटों से घायल लोगों का हालचाल जानने के लिए प्रधानमंत्री मनमोहन सिंह हैदराबाद आए। उनसे पहले गृहमंत्री सुशील कुमार शिंदे भी हैदराबाद आए थे। इन नेताओं ने लोगों को आश्वासन दिया कि दोषी जल्द पकड़े जाएंगे, पीड़ितों को न्याय मिलेगा। किंतु अस्पताल में भर्ती पीड़ितों, उनके परिजनों और अन्य लोगों ने इन नेताओं से पूछा कि आखिर कब तक दहशतगर्द बम विस्फोट करते रहेंगे? निर्दोष कब तक मारे जाएंगे? किंतु इन सवालों का जवाब लोगों को नहीं मिला। जो सरकार आतंकवाद को खत्म करने के लिए कोई ठोस रणनीति नहीं बनाएगी, वह ऐसे प्रश्नों का उत्तर दे भी नहीं सकती है।

एक बार फिर हैदराबाद लौटते हैं और उस होटल की बात करते हैं जिसमें फर्जी पते पर पांच लोग ठहरे थे। सूत्रों का कहना है कि धमाकों के बाद ये लोग होटल नहीं लौटे। सीसीटीवी कैमरे से पता चलता है कि ये लोग एक साथ होटल से निकलते थे और एक साथ लौटते थे। धमाके के समय इनमें से तीन लोग बाहर थे और दो अंदर। किंतु विस्फोट के बाद ये सभी होटल के कर्मचारियों को बताए बिना भाग गए। पुलिस इनकी पड़ताल कर रही है।

उधर दिल्ली में तिहाड़ जेल में बंद आईएम आतंकवादी मकबूल ने विशेष शाखा के सामने खुलासा किया है कि आईएम के 30-40 आतंकी अभी भी हैदराबाद, चेन्नै, कोलकाता, मुम्बई और दिल्ली में छिपे हैं। इन सबके तार आजमगढ़, दरभंगा, नांदेड़ और कोयम्बटूर से जुड़े हैं। इन्हें दुबई स्थित अलबशीर कैंप से हवाला के जरिए पैसा मिलता है। मकबूल आंध्र प्रदेश के निजामाबाद जिले के धर्माबाद का रहने वाला है और उस पर कई गंभीर आरोप हैं। आंध्र प्रदेश की सीआईडी ने भी सिमी ओर आईएम से जुड़े कुछ संदिग्धों से पूछताछ की है। आशंका जताई जा रही है कि इन विस्फोटों में स्थानीय लोगों की भी भागीदारी रही है। लोगों का कहना है कि इन धमाकों की जांच ईमानदारी से होनी चाहिए, नहीं तो फिर वही होगा जो अब तक होता रहा है।

Ashok singhal on Bangaladesh Issue

विश्व हिन्दू परिषद के संरक्षक
माननीय श्री अशोक जी सिंहल का प्रेस वक्तव्य
06 मार्च, 2013। 
बंगलादेश में वहाँ के पूर्व राष्ट्रपति शेख मुजिबुर्रहमान के हत्यारे को अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय न्यायालय द्वारा फाँसी की सजा सुनाए जाने के बाद जमाते इस्लामी संगठन द्वारा पूरे बंगलादेश में प्रतिक्रिया स्वरूप वहाँ रहने वाले हिन्दुओं के विरुद्ध अत्यन्त क्रूर अत्याचार किए जा रहे हैं। अनेकों जिलों में भारी मात्रा में आगजनी, बलात्कार, हत्या, लूटपाट का जो दौर शुरू हुआ है, वह पूरे भारत के लिए चिन्ता का विषय है। ये घटनाएं पूरे बंगलादेश में घट रही हैं। सर्वाधिक आक्रमण चटगाँव, नोआखाली, बेगरहाट, गाजीपुर, मीरपुर, ढाका में हुए हैं। अभी तक सैंकड़ों की हत्या हो चुकी है। सही समाचार भी नहीं प्राप्त हो पा रहे हैं। हजारों हिन्दू परिवार घर-बार छोड़ने के लिए बाध्य हुए हैं और सीमा पार कर भारत में अपनी सुरक्षा चाहते हैं। भारत सरकार द्वारा बड़ी मात्रा में सीमा सुरक्षा बल तैनात किया जा रहा है। मेरा भारत सरकार से अनुरोध है कि भारत में ही कैम्प लगाकर शरणार्थियों को सब प्रकार की सुरक्षा प्रदान की जाए। उन्हें बंगलादेश से भारत आने पर न रोका जाए। सरकार अगर उन्हें रोकती है तो वह उनको कातिलों के हाथ में सौंप देना माना जाएगा। बंगलादेश में हो रही घटनाओं को उनका आन्तरिक मामला नहीं माना जा सकता। भारत सरकार को इस सम्बन्ध में कड़े कदम उठाने की आवश्यकता है। भारत सरकार को बंगलादेश सरकार पर कड़ा दबाव बनाकर हिन्दू समाज पर होने वाले अत्याचारों को रोकने के लिए पहल करनी चाहिए। इस सम्बन्ध में कड़ाई से बात करनी चाहिए। 
    इसी प्रकार भारत में पश्चिमी बंगाल के दक्षिण 24 परगना के कैनिंग क्षेत्र में जिस योजनाबद्ध तरीके से आगजनी, बलात्कार, तोड़फोड़ व हत्याओं का दौर चला है, सैंकड़ों मकानों को आग के हवाले कर ध्वस्त कर दिया गया, यह चिन्ता का विषय है। इससे यह स्पष्ट होता है कि जेहादी तत्व भारत में शान्ति व्यवस्था भंग करने पर तुले हुए हैं। हैदराबाद जैसी घटनाएं भी यही इंगित कर रही हैं। जेहादी तत्वों को जो प्रोत्साहन मिल रहा है, वह भारत में गृहयुद्ध की परिस्थिति खड़ी कर देगा। भारत के प्रसिद्ध उद्योगपति श्री मुकेश अंबानी को जेहादियों के द्वारा जो धमकी दी गई है, उसी से जेहादियों के इरादे का पता लग रहा है। मुस्लिम वोट बैंक की राजनीति के कारण ही इस प्रकार के जेहादी तत्वों का दमन नहीं किया जा रहा है। हिन्दू समाज को अपनी आत्मरक्षा के लिए सचेत और स्वयं तैयार रहना होगा और संगठित रूप से जेहादी तत्वों एवं तुष्टिकरण की राजनीति का मुकाबला करना होगा तथा हिन्दुत्व की रक्षा के लिए सम्पूर्ण भारतवर्ष में वर्तमान हिन्दू विरोधी शासन के विरुद्ध जनमत तैयार करना पड़ेगा क्योंकि लोकतंत्र में सरकारें जनमत से ही डरती हैं। हिन्दू समाज अब चुप नहीं बैठेगा।
    प्रयागराज में पूर्णकुम्भ, 2013 के अवसर पर पूज्य सन्तों ने जिस उग्रता और एकता का परिचय दिया है और स्पष्ट कर दिया है कि वे हिन्दू समाज पर होने वाले दमन को अब किसी भी दशा में सहन करने को तैयार नहीं हैं। अब पूरे भारत में हिन्दू जनमत के आधार पर इन जेहादियों के बल पर खड़ी सेक्युलर सरकारों को उखाड़ फैकेंगे, तभी हिन्दू स्वाभिमान के साथ रह सकेगा। उनके इस अभियान में पूरा हिन्दू समाज उनके साथ एकजुट होकर खड़ा हो।
जारीकर्ता
प्रकाश शर्मा
प्रवक्ता, विश्व हिन्दू परिषद

Santha clear their stand on Ramamandir.

  सादर जय श्रीराम ! तीर्थराज प्रयाग में पूर्णकुम्भ के पावन अवसर पर 7 फरवरी, 2013 को धर्मसंसद एवं सन्त महासम्मेलन आयोजित किया गया था। दोनों कार्यक्रमों में सन्तों की संख्या तथा उत्साह अभूतपूर्व था। सम्मेलन अनवरत 5 घण्टे तक चलता रहा। सभी वक्ता-सन्तों ने श्रीराम जन्मभूमि पर शीघ्र भव्य मन्दिर निर्माण करने हेतु जहाँ हुंकार भरी वहाँ कपड़े के मन्दिर में विराजमान रामलला की वर्तमान स्थिति पर आक्रोश भी व्यक्त किया।
    पूज्य सन्तों ने श्रीराम जन्मभूमि पर शीघ्र भव्य मन्दिर-निर्माण का संकल्प लिया है। सन्तों ने विजय महामन्त्र (श्रीराम जय राम जय जय राम) के जपयज्ञ अनुष्ठान की घोषणा की है। सन्तों ने इच्छा व्यक्त की है कि हर हिन्दू परिवार 11 अप्रैल, 2013 ईस्वी (चैत्र शुक्ल प्रतिपदा, वर्ष प्रतिपदा, विक्रमी सम्वत्-2070) से 13 मई, 2013 (वैशाख शुक्ल तृतीया, अक्षय तृतीया) तक कुल 33 दिन का संकल्प कर इस जपयज्ञ में स्वयं सहभागी बनें और जन-जन को सहभागी बनायें।
    आपसे निवेदन है कि आप अपने टेलीविजन चैनल, दैनिक/साप्ताहिक/पाक्षिक पत्र-पत्रिकाओं/जागरण पत्रिकाओं में सन्तों के द्वारा घोषित कार्यक्रम का प्रकाशन कर जपयज्ञ-कार्यक्रम को जन-जन तक पहुँचाने की कृपा करें।
जपयज्ञ के पूर्व लिया जानेवाला संकल्प
 आज चैत्र शुक्ल प्रतिपदा गुरुवार विक्रमी संवत् 2070 को पुण्य क्षेत्र (अपने जिले/नगर का नाम उच्चारण करें) के मन्दिर/स्थान पर मैं/हम (सभी अपना-अपना नाम व गोत्र उच्चारण करें) भगवान् श्रीरामचन्द्र जी को साक्षी मानकर तथा पवित्र भगवा ध्वज की प्रतिष्ठा कर संकल्प करते हैं कि:-
क.    अयोध्या में आज जहाँ रामलला विराजमान हैं वह स्थान ही श्रीराम जन्मभूमि है, इस सत्य को हम साकार करेंगे।
ख.    श्रीराम जन्मभूमि परिसर सहित उसके चारों ओर की सम्पूर्ण 70 एकड़ अधिगृहीत भूमि को श्रीराम जन्मभूमि मन्दिर-निर्माण करने के लिए अब अविलम्ब संसद में निर्णय करवाकर हिन्दू समाज के सम्मान एवं भावना की रक्षा करेंगे।
ग.    हम अयोध्या की सांस्कृतिक सीमा में कोई नई मस्जिद या इस्लामिक केन्द्र नहीं बनने देंगे। 
घ    उपरोक्त लक्ष्य पूर्ण करने हेतु अजेय हिन्दू समाज की निर्मिति के लिए हम चैत्र शुक्ल प्रतिपदा से अक्षय तृतीया तक किए जाने वाले विजय महामंत्र ‘‘श्रीराम जय राम जय जय राम’’ की प्रतिदिन न्यूनतम 13 माला जप करके 13 कोटि निर्धारित जप यज्ञ में सहभागी बनेंगे।
श्रीराम जय राम जय जय राम इति विजयमंत्रस्य 13 मालाजपम् अहं करिष्ये/वयं करिष्यामहे।
जपयज्ञ सम्बन्धी अन्य सूचनाएँ
01.    11 अप्रैल वर्ष प्रतिपदा के दिन मन्दिरों में सामूहिक सपरिवार एकत्र आकर जपयज्ञ का संकल्प, 13 माला जप, सन्तों के प्रवचन से कार्यक्रम का प्रारम्भ कराया जा सकता है। 
02.    विश्व हिन्दू परिषद का प्रखण्डस्तर तक का दायित्ववान कार्यकर्ता न्यूनतम 5 ग्रामों में जपयज्ञ कार्यक्रम प्रारम्भ कराये। नगरों के कार्यकर्ता जिस मौहल्ले में निवास करते हैं उसके आसपास के 5 मौहल्लों में जपयज्ञ कार्यक्रम प्रारम्भ करायें।
03.    प्रत्येक जिले में न्यूनतम 10 हजार हिन्दू परिवार जप करें। एक परिवार में कितने भी व्यक्ति जप कर सकते हैं। पूज्य सन्तों की इच्छा यही है कि परिवार के सभी सदस्य जप करें। प्रतिदिन कम से कम 13 माला अवश्य जपें। 
04.    जप करनेवाला परिवार या व्यक्ति अपने घर के ऊपर एक भगवा पताका फहराए। जपकर्ता व्यक्ति अपने हाथ में संकल्प सूत्र बाँधें।
05.    जपकर्ता परिवार/मन्दिर/सत्संग/विद्यालय अपनी जपसंख्या का विवरण कापी या डायरी में नोट करें।
06.    15 वर्ष से 30 वर्ष तक के आयुवर्ग का प्रत्येक नवयुवक/नवयुवती जपयज्ञ के माध्यम से मन्दिर निर्माण कार्य में सहभागी बने। जपयज्ञ कार्यक्रम में मातृशक्ति की भूमिका अत्यन्त प्रभावी होगी। 
07.    एक जिले के 10,000 हिन्दू परिवारों में अर्थात् एक ग्रामीण जिले में 200 गाँव अर्थात् प्रत्येक एक लाख आबादी क्षेत्र में 20 गाँव, प्रत्येक गाँव में 50 परिवारों से सम्पर्क कराना। नगर-गाँव के हर मौहल्ले में जप हो। मन्दिर में एकत्र होकर सामूहिक जप कर सकते हैं। 
08.    विद्यालय, मन्दिर, धार्मिक, सामाजिक तथा व्यावसायिक संस्थाएं इस अनुष्ठान में प्रभावी भूमिका निर्वाह करें। मन्दिरों एवं विद्यालयों में बैनर टाँगे जा सकते हैं।
09.    विद्यालयों में छात्रों से आग्रह किया जाए कि वे अपने घरों में नित्य 13 माला जप स्वयं करें तथा माता-पिता को भी जप करने का निवेदन करें। 
10.    जपकर्ता अपने सम्पर्क के कम से कम 11 परिवारों तक कार्यक्रम को पहुँचाने का प्रयास करें। 
11.    बैनर, पत्रक-स्टीकर्स एवं पत्रकारवार्ताओं के माध्यम से कार्यक्रम को जन-जन तक पहुँचाएँ।
12.    ग्रामीण क्षेत्रों में नवयुवकों की टोलियों, साइकिल-मोटर साइकिल से जिले का भ्रमण करके दीवार लेखन द्वारा जपयज्ञ को जन-जन तक पहुँचाएँ। नगरों में प्रभातफेरियाँ निकालें। भजन मण्डलियों को प्रेरित करें।
13.    जपयज्ञ का उद्देश्य समाज को समझाने के लिए सन्तों के लिए क्षेत्र निर्धारित करें। सन्त अपने भक्तों को जपयज्ञ की प्रेरणा दें। सन्त तीर्थस्थानों पर जपयज्ञ के आयोजन/अनुष्ठान करें। तीर्थपुरोहितों का सहयोग प्राप्त करें। 
14.    अवकाश प्राप्त/वानप्रस्थी व्यक्ति पूर्णकालिक रूप में सक्रिय हों। 
15.    13 मई अक्षय तृतीया को जपयज्ञ की पूर्णाहुति नगर, कस्बे के एक कोने के मन्दिर से दूसरे कोने के मन्दिर तक सामूहिक ‘विजय मंत्र जप’ 

Free flow of Ganga, the best solution to pollution problem: Environmentalist

ByBinay Singh, TNN | Feb 22, 2013, 02.57 AM IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Free-flow-of-Ganga-the-best-solution-to-pollution-problem-Environmentalist/articleshow/18620315.cms





VARANASI: An expert member of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) and noted environmentalist at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) claims that the natural and uninterrupted flow of Ganga is the first and most important condition to make the river clean.

"If the natural flow of Ganga is maintained there would be no need of huge investments in creating series of sewage treatment plants," claimed the NGRBA member and BHU environmentalist Prof BD Tripathi. According to him, the running water in natural flow would do its job of pollution abatement to a great extent by diluting the pollution load of the river.

In support of his claim he gives the example of the status of Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) during Maha Kumbh bathing in Sangam, Allahabad. "The Maha Kumbh of Allahabad gave a clear message that the goal of pollution abatement in Ganga could be achieved by ensuring adequate flow in the river," said Tripathi adding that allowing free flow of Ganga would reduce the cost of big projects.

According to him, Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) gives an idea of quantity of biodegradable organic substances present in water, which is subjected to aerobic decomposition of microorganism. It provides a direct measurement of state of pollution in water. Normally the BOD level in Ganga water ranges from 3-5mg/l. After bathing by 10 crore pilgrims during Maha Kumbh in Allahabad the BOD level should increase up to 25-30mg/l, but a rise of only 7-9mg/l was noticed during this period. He said that no wastewater treatment facility was created exclusively for Maha Kumbh. "The only thing that prevented the BOD level from rising alarmingly was the release of additional water into Ganga during the Kumbh. It clearly suggests that the free flow of water is the best solution of the pollution problem of the Ganga", he said. Tripathi claimed that his observation was based on the examination of water samples taken from the Sangam during Kumbh.

However, the regional officer of the UP Pollution Control Board, Allahabad Mohammed Sikandar, when contacted over phone on Wednesday, informed that four new sewage treatment plants were constructed at different locations in Allahabad in view of Maha Kumbh mela. "Presently there are six STPs including two old ones with a total capacity of 211MLD in Allahabad while the total generation of sewage is 240MLD," informed Sikandar. According to him, the BOD levels recorded on February 15 ranged from 5mg/l to 5.5mg/l. "It is true that the release of water in Ganga reduced the BOD level in the water," he said.

"There is a need of strong political will to clean the Ganga, but unfortunately it seems that no political party is really interested in cleaning the river," Tripathi said. It may be mentioned here that the central government gave Ganga the status of a National River and constituted the NGRBA in February 2009. The NGRBA is a planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating body of the centre and the states. The objective of the NGRBA is to ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga by adopting a river basin approach for comprehensive planning and management. The authority has both regulatory and developmental functions.

It may also be mentioned here that chairing the third meeting of NGRBA on April 17, 2012, the prime minister Manmohan Singh had also spoken about action and attention to maintain the ecological flow of the Ganga, starting with the upper reaches of the river. The PM had also pointed out that every day about 2,900 million litres of sewage is discharged into the main stream of the river Ganga from municipal towns located along its banks. The existing infrastructure has a capacity to treat only 1,100 million litres per day, leaving a huge deficit. The another issue was with regard to industrial pollution. Though they are only 20% of the total volume of effluents, industrial effluents are a cause for major concern because they are toxic and non-biodegradable.

The PM asked the chief ministers to make an assessment of the situation with regard to both untreated sewage and industrial pollution and present a report to the NRGBA on the situation in their respective states. The concerned state governments were also asked to make full use of the resources that are available with the NGRBA. Projects with an outlay of more than Rs 2600 crore have been sanctioned so far under the NGRBA in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal for creating sewer networks, sewage treatment plants, sewage pumping stations, electric crematoria, community toilets and development of river fronts.

The Heavy Environmental Costs of beef

74 billion $ beef industry of USA is causing severe climate, land & water pollution. It takes about 1800 gallons of water to make single pound beef whereas making of 1 pound of wheat requires only 132 gallons of water.

 Methane gas has 21 times more climate changing than Carbon dioxide . American beef industry is producing  more Methane than 22 million cars would produce in an year. 
American beef industry is also producing Nitrous Oxide which has 300 times the global warming effect than Carbon dioxide.Beef industry is responsible for 2/3ed of all the Nitrous Oxide pollution the world. 
This Nitrous Oxide pollution is also forming huge dead zones in oceans. Slaughter houses are producing about 13 million pounds of contaminants per year. Mainly Nitrates and Ammonia.
 Trucking this beef around creates pollution too. American beef industry is producing 158,000,000 tons Green House gases per year. 
Red meat eating is also causing heart diseases, blood pressure and diabetes.
Each American consumes 3 burgers a weak. If this number is reduced from 3 to 2 it would be same as taking  7.6 million cars off the road for 1 year.   
 Watch this video. duration - 7 Min 52 Sec.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut3URdEzlKQ&feature=player_embedded

Nearly 25% of al-Qaeda operatives were converts to Islam

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=304667

New York seen as a terror group hub; majority of members under age 30, have US citizenship, well-educated, employed.

World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 Photo: REUTERS/Sara K. Schwittek

WASHINGTON – More than half of all al-Qaida operatives and their affiliates in the United States who have committed terrorist offenses are US citizens and a third were born in America, according to a new report profiling the groups’ American adherents.

The 720-page, telephone book-sized volume produced by the Henry Jackson Society and presented at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Tuesday, carefully examines the 171 cases of al- Qaida members or those inspired by the organization who have been convicted in US courts or participated in suicide attacks against the US homeland between 1997 and 2011.

The study found that 95 percent of the terrorist offenses were committed by men, 57% of whom were under the age of 30. New York was seen as a hub for their activity, with more – 14% – residing there than elsewhere and with large number of those living elsewhere trafficking through.

Nearly a quarter of the operatives were converts to Islam, with over half of those born in the US having converted.

And those who converted, all of whom did so from Christianity as far as could be ascertained, were far more likely to have carried out offenses (as opposed to having participated only in training or incitement) than others.

The group researched were fairly well-educated and employed. More than half had attended some form of college, and a quarter had done some higher study. In addition, more than half, or 57%, were in school or had a job at the time they were charged or committed their attacks.

Report co-author Robin Simcox described the operatives as “US citizens who are mostly educated, mostly employed, who haven’t been marginalized by the system. They’ve mostly passed through the system.”

However, he and Michael Hayden, the former Central Intelligence Agency director who wrote the report’s forward, suggested that more personal experiences of social dislocation could be a major factor in who ended up being radicalized.

“I’m willing to accept the possibility that this has a lot more to do with the Crips and the Bloods than it does with the Koran,” Hayden said. “Maybe this is just one expression in a post-industrial society of how young people... deal with alienation.”

He continued, “That doesn’t dismiss it. That doesn’t make it unimportant. In fact it’s a particular form of embrace that makes the alienated [person] even more dangerous.”

Simcox said that there was a tremendous spike in the numbers of al-Qaida adherents in the US after the September 11 attacks, as these individuals were apparently drawn to the group’s ideology.

He suggested that alienated individuals might have been attracted to radical Islam at that point, rather than other outlets, because of the widespread attention to and dissemination of al-Qaida’s message, particularly through YouTube and other Internet vehicles.

Those who were later arrested often expressed their outrage with various American policies in the Middle East, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Simcox noted, but he said there was little indication terror activities were carried out in direct reaction to events overseas.

He added that, “In a lot of them you see foreign grievances being brought up [but] from the US’s point of view there’s only so really much you can do about that.” He concluded, “You have to try to make your best and soundest policies, and after that it might cause some levels of radicalization.”