Well, its over and done with. Salman Bashir came to India, met Nirupama Rao, addressed a press conference and went back. No joint statement but just polite handshakes, some smiles and thats it. Well, the meeting achieved what it was supposed to achieve, nothing. Nothing new came out of the meeting. No fresh ideas, no change from respective pre-stated positions, in fact nothing at all to write home about. What we heard were the same old statements emanating from both sides with India harping that terror must stop and Pakistan saying Kashmir first. To be candid it was expected. No body expects anything anymore to come out of Indo-Pak talks, especially this one coming as it did after Mumbai was attacked fourteen months ago. Nonetheless, aim achieved. Yes, aim achieved.

Posted on February 27th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: attack, Hafiz Saeed, JuD, Manmohan, options, talks, Terror, terrorist. Comments: 3

After the blast in Pune Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said that once we had made an offer of talks it is quite possible that terrorists are trying to scuttle it away by creating more trouble between the two countries and this has to be factored in in any decision that we may take now. And that decision has indeed been taken- TALKS WILL GO ON AS PLANNED. What Manish Tiwari and the Congress is yet to factor in is that Pakistan continues to allow its territory to be used by terrorists to scuttle these talks away. All this talk of non state actors is nothing but hogwash which is not going down down well either with India or with international community as such. Also, while India says that terror will be the focal point of talks Pakistan says that no talks will be complete without discussing issues of Kashmir and water, water having been added as a major issue just recently. Also, P Chidambaram had recently made a statement that PoK is very much a part of India. As is obvious there is no meeting ground for these talks between the two countries.

Posted on February 17th, 2010 under India calling. Tags: blast, intelligence, LeT, Pak, peace, Pune, support, talks, Terror. Comments: 11

Though they keep saying that politics should not be mixed with sports but we all know better than that. On most occasions politics dictates sports in our country. And it is politics of 26/11 terror attacks that has forced the govt to direct the bosses of IPL not to pick Pakistani players. Had that not been the case and there was indeed an issue of security of Pakistani players, as brought out by franchisees, IPL should not have included their names in the list of players to be auctioned. In any case security of players was the problem of security forces and not the franchisees. By saying that there were problems on this score are these people implying that our security apparatus was not good enough for these players? Also, may I remind them that attack on international cricketers took place in Pakistan not in India. As you can see the reasons given by them can only be termed as flimsy at best.

Posted on January 23rd, 2010 under India calling. Tags: attack, Cricket, IPL, KKR, Pakistan, Priety Zinta, Shilpa Shetty, SRK, Terror. Comments: 13

The basic difference between India and Pakistan is not religion alone. The basic difference is the perception of identities of it’s citizens of these two countires by these very people. When Indians talk of Pakistanis they are actually referring to Pakistanis only and not Muslims whereas when Pakis talk of Indians they imply Hindus. That’s the basic difference between the people of the two countries. More often than not during debates on TV channels we see the Paki speakers invariably switch from talking about Indo-Pak relations to Hindu-Muslim relationship or lack thereof. By extension since Islam is so deeply ingrained in their psyche they see the problem as being a Hindus versus Pakistan issue whereas this is not the case. As a result there is no meeting ground for the two of us.

Posted on January 17th, 2010 under Best Articles, India calling. Tags: Bollywood, India, Movies, nuclear, Pakistan, Terror, terrorist, war. Comments: 10

At an ideological level, in recent times Christians don’t kill Christians, Hindus don’t kill Hindus, Sikhs don’t kill Sikhs and Jews don’t kill Jews. They may have many ideological differences amongst themselves but they generally do not launch a kind of war on others from their own faiths. Sadly, this is not the case with Islam wherein scores of Muslims are murdered by other Muslims on a daily basis. At the second level you find the Muslims also to be on a warpath with Christians, Jews and Hindus too. Both these struggles have rendered the religion not only weak but also evolutionary bankrupt. There was a time when Islamic civilizations of the Middle East were far ahead of the Western empires of the time. That was the time when the very best in scientific and philosophical works were produced by Muslim thinkers. More tolerance for different religious beliefs could be found in Muslim lands than just about anywhere else on this planet. Just look around now and you’ll see that exactly the opposite is true. No creative inventions, works or research can be found forthcoming from Muslim lands. Creativity is being stifled if not being killed.

Posted on December 29th, 2009 under Best Articles, Track the world. Tags: Al Qaeda, conflict, Islam, Osama bin Laden, Shia, Sunni, Taliban, Terror, Wahhabi. Comments: 13

“A section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so they chose to ignore the need of the hour. Yes there was a dearth of eagerness on the part of a handful of senior officers to be on the ground during those days.” These are the words from the horse’s mouth, Hassan Gafoor who was the Commissioner of Police during 26/11. Here’s some more.

“K.L. Prasad refused to come to the Trident and then decided against hitting the roads. Deven Bharti, K. Venkatesham and Parambir Singh did not appear keen on responding to the situation.” Here’s yet another disclosure.

“I attended a meeting with the DGP and home minister. I was told to withdraw the NSG and instead use the Mumbai Police for the ongoing operations.”

Posted on November 30th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: 26/11, attack, BJP, CNN IBN, Congress, dud, Kamte, Last Bullet, leak, Mumbai, panel, Pradhan, Rajdeep Sardesai, report, Terror, Vinita. Comments: 4

Fact is that there indeed seems to be a concerted effort from many western quarters to shape people’s opinion here in India as far as 26/11 is concerned. And Indian Express and Times of India seem to be working on their agenda. Remember the article by Pierre Lavalle published in Times of India on 22nd Nov 09 which I spoke of in the post titled Pardon 26/11? Is there some kind of a coordinated campaign going on by these people or is it because of a exchange of money and favors? I can’t say for now but if we keep seeing these kind of write ups you and I will know for sure.

Posted on November 27th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: 26/11, Amitabh, Attacks, Big B, joshi, Mumbai, poem, prasoon, Terror. Comments: 6

When 9/11 happened America converted this crisis into an opportunity. They ensured that another 9/11 does not happen again on their territory and they have succeeded. They did not let 9/11 just become history before they dealt with their present. Can we, as Indians let 26/11 just become history without dealing with our present? The question is for all Indians to answer for. And I’m not talking about candle light vigils or some such stuff here.

Posted on November 26th, 2009 under India calling. Tags: 26/11, 9/11, attack, holocaust, Mumbai, nuke, response, Terror, war. Comments: 14

If you go by a poll conducted in Pakistan, despite the kind of ‘investment’ Obama has done in Pakistan, America is still perceived as the number one enemy in that country. Let me tell you for a fact that this will not change for at least the next few generations. If that be the case is there any assurance that the govt in Pakistan will keep overlooking the general public opinion? Remember, how the strong public opinion forced even a president like Musharraf to quit? Actually Obama can thank the fundamentalist parties in Pakistan who have not yet whipped up this very strong emotion prevalent amongst the populace of that country. But things can change very fast in case they actually do.

Posted on November 23rd, 2009 under India calling, Track the world. Tags: India, obama, Pakistan, PM, Terror, US, visit, war. Comments: 8