28 February, 2013

Asaduddin Owaisi's role in Hyderabad blasts


Asaduddin Owaisi ‘prophesied’ Hyderabad blasts?

Post Noon, 25th February, 2013

MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi’s acerbic speech on December 2, warning about the game that was to start in the City after January, is being poured over by intelligence.

Did the MIM president and MP, Asaduddin Owaisi, forewarn the City about the blasts on Thursday that killed 18 and injured 117? Now, the City intelligence and NIA are reportedly examining his 15- minute speech at his party headquarters (Darussalam) on December 2, in which he had warned of a ‘khel’ (game) to begin after January.

After the twin blasts in Dilsukhnagar, whose links are extended to Indian Mujahideen, his speech exhorting his community to avenge the “perceived injustice” to them rings ominous, said a senior police officer in the City. He told Postnoon that the CD of his speech was being screened for deeper meaning.

“January ke baad dekho kya khel tamashe hote hain… Abhi tho warm up ho raha hain. Aap humse pahle khel liye achcha kiye… (Wait and see what happens after January. Now is just a warm up. Good you started the game before us).

Police sources said his 15- minute speech was full of hatred toward another community. The vile words used against another community leader and lampooning the police intelligence and the chief minister did not behove a person who claims to lead a political party, which is the ruling partner at the GHMC.

It is known that the Owaisi brothers broke the bonhomie with the Congress after the chief minister asked the police to play neutral in the temple-Charminar issue. Ever since, the two have used calculated, harsh words to defame the chief minister. They have since branded him communal.

Owaisi’s speech was on the occasion of the meeting called to observe the Babri Masjid Day. In his speech, which went on air and on the internet soon after, clearly instigates communities to take up arms against the other. On the other hand, the same leader put up a straight face after the blasts to express “his solidarity” with the government “in times of crisis” and advocated strict action against the perpetrators of crime.

Which of the two is the true Owaisi is the question many political observers are asking.

It is relevant to mention that BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said at the Rajya Sabha after the blasts that the Delhi Police had placed on record the terror getting “local helps” in Hyderabad, and specifically mentioned a local political party extending patronage to the terror modules.

Meanwhile, the police have interrogated five youths, including four MIM workers on Sunday in connection with the blasts. They are: Abdul Raheem, Abdul Kareem, Shaik Azmath, Mohd Rayeesuddin and another one. Of them, police have interrogated Rayeesuddin today for his alleged complicity in the blasts.

Source: Post Noon

24 February, 2013

Hindus and Sikhs paid for their 'sins' during 1984 riots - Salman Khurshid


Above: Screenshot from Salman Khurshid's book "At Home In India: A restatement of Indian Muslims"

Salman Khurshid states, "there was also a terrible satisfaction amongst Muslims, who had not completely forgotten the Partition’s unpleasant aftermath. Hindus and Sikhs were alike paying for their ‘sins’. They were paying for the blood they had drawn in 1947." (page 114)

22 February, 2013

Congress funded us - Teesta Setalvad




Above: Congress, CPI, CPM and about ten prominent individuals funded Teesta Setalvad - Humanscape interview, November, 1999

20 February, 2013

Muslim members of Gulbarga Society do not want NGO's entering society, write to Police Commissioner



Above: Muslim members of Gulbarga Co-operative Housing Society Limited have written a letter to the Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, requesting prohibition of NGO's and outsiders entering their society

08 February, 2013

Sonia Gandhi's father was a fascist, loved Mussolini


Above: Mussolini with Hitler, 1937

Meeting Mr Maino

Jawid Laiq, Outlook, 23rd February, 1998

THE sparkling white colonnades of 10, Janpath are a long way in distance, time and the trappings of power from 14, Via Bellini, a nondescript house in a slushy lane of Orbassano, a grey industrial town on the outskirts of Turin, the city which exports Fiat cars and machines. That house was proudly built by the rough-hewn hands of Stefano Maino, a building worker who after years of effort had established a small construction business by the 1960s.

He took special pride in his work-worn hands and in the dignity of labour which had motivated him to build a bungalow for his wife and three daughters, Sonia, Nadia and Anoushka. He waved those hands before me some 20 years ago in Orbassano to illustrate that he was a self-made man who had created all that he owned with his own labour. He wished to disprove the allegations made even then that the Maino family had grown rich due to its Gandhi connection.

At that time, in the autumn of 1977, shortly after the Emergency, Maino was not too happy about his daughter Sonia's Indian connections. He resignedly noted: "After Sonia's marriage everyone thinks we have got rich and made free trips to India. But we have paid for everything ourselves. Sonia's marriage has been an expensive thing for us." He also mentioned that Sonia, her husband and children and their ayah, too, used to descend on Orbassano during the summer holidays, causing considerable expense. On the other hand, he claimed he had helped India's foreign exchange position by encouraging several of his friends to visit India as tourists.

Maino had absolute faith in the integrity of his son-in-law Rajiv. He was confident "that Rajiv has no connections in the Boeing or any other deal. Rajiv is not in the least interested in such matters". As for the corruption charges then being made against Sanjay Gandhi, "he is just a boy and businessmen and politicians may have used him.... Sanjay is a young politician and not very experienced. That is why he has not been successful."

Indira Gandhi's arrest in 1977 on the orders of the then home minister, Charan Singh, had worried Maino, but not much. He was mainly worried about the future of his grandchildren, Priyanka and Rahul. He glanced at the silver-framed portrait of Indira Gandhi with Priyanka and Rahul and declared: "Mrs Gandhi is the only person in India who can do good things for India."

Apart from the portrait, the other prominent feature of the dimly-lit front room of Maino's house was the collection of leather-bound speeches and writings of Benito Mussolini. I looked pointedly at them. Without batting an eyelid, Maino declared his unwavering loyalty to Mussolini and Italy's 'admirable' fascist past. The words streamed forth. The current Italian government was composed of a bunch of traitors who had betrayed Mussolini and the Fatherland. All the modern Italian political parties were hopeless, except the neo-fascist front. What Italians needed was compulsory sterilisation. Indira Gandhi smiled benignly out of the silver-frame. Nadia, Sonia's petite and pretty younger sister, sitting beside her father, looked decidedly embarrassed.

That did not stop Stefano Maino's frank and forthright expression of his views on life and politics. After all, he had proudly fought against the Russian Reds alongside Hitler's Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in World War II. The bold and direct manner of the soldier remained with him. I felt a tinge of sadness when this blunt and straightforward man died a few years ago. Perhaps, he is up there somewhere, directing his daughter to shed her self-imposed solitude and sophistry, and to launch a bold electoral blitzkrieg on the Indian people.

Sri Sri gets 4 times Anna's crowd at Ramlila Maidan



Above: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar launches Volunteer for a Better India (VBI) initiative, 3rd February, 2013, Ramlila Maidan, Delhi. Photos: Courtesy Art of Living

07 February, 2013

Historicity of Mahabharata - Evidence of Literature, Arts & Archaeology



Above: Historicity of Mahabharata - Evidence of Literature, Arts & Archaeology by Prof. B.B. Lal, Former Director General, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)