Affirmative action is dead

Even a liberal women’s block vote in the Supreme court could not block the inevitable.

Michigan is now free from the restraints of affirmative action in the Education arena. The 6-2 victory can be directly attributed to the Southern White backlash that helped elect Republican presidents with an objective to turn the Supreme Court red (among the new inductees were conservative icons such as Clarence Thomas who rose to prominence due to …affirmative action). The surprising YES vote was that of liberal Stephen Breyer. 

Now many more ballot initiatives are anticipated at the state level to roll back quotas in other areas as well.


But the majority decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, went well
beyond that. Without saying so explicitly, it appeared to give its
approval to ballot initiatives designed to roll back affirmative action
in other areas as well, such as hiring employees, awarding contracts—and
ending racial segregation.

…………
This is in effect good news for Asians (incl. Browns), until a time when Asians become too successful and the whites decide to vote for quotas (proportional to the population mix) as has been suggested in India.
.
The 6-2 ruling upheld the
constitutionality of a measure passed by referendum in Michigan that
disallowed so-called affirmative action in college admissions. Effectively favoring voter initiatives over the courts, the decision was
expected to have repercussions far beyond Michigan — governors of
Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and West Virginia had supported
Michigan’s appeal. 

On Tuesday, liberal justice
Stephen Breyer voted with the conservative majority, and the fourth member of
the court’s liberal wing, Justice Elena Kagan, had recused herself. Writing for
the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued that the case was “not about
how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved. It is about who may
resolve it.”
“There is no authority
in the constitution of the United States or in this court’s precedents for the
judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to
the voters,” he said.
In 2006, Michigan voters approved a measure prohibiting
the state’s public universities and schools from “discriminating against
or granting preferential treatment for any individual or group on the basis of
race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.” 
Known as Proposition 2,
the measure was struck down by an appeals court, and the case reached the
Supreme Court.  The Michigan case comes on the heels of a high court
decision last year concerning affirmative action at the University of Texas. In
that case, justices elected not to rule on the constitutionality of using race
and ethnicity in admissions, instructing a lower court to take another look at
the sensitive matter. 



In 2003, the court ruled that universities could
consider factors such as race and sex in admissions but ruled out as
unconstitutional a strict point system such as that used by the University of
Michigan Law School.




Justice Kennedy acknowledged
that debate on issues such as racial preferences “all too often may shade
into rancor.” “But that does not justify removing certain
court-determined issues from the voters’ reach,” he said. “Democracy
does not presume that some subjects are either too divisive or too profound for
public debate.”

…..
Link(1): http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/04/post_16.html
Link(2): http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2014/04/another-bad-day-for-affirmative-action.html
…..
regards

500 mil Speedsters on the (Whats App) Freeway

Amazing growth- 48 mil in India, 45 mil in Brazil for Whats App.
Still no clue as to how to monetize all this popularity (some teenager somewhere will figure that one out for sure).
……
The
numbers released by WhatsApp on Wednesday shows that the instant
messaging app continues to find users at an astounding pace. In a blog
post, WhatsApp announced that it now has over 500 million active users.
These users share 700 million photos and 100 million videos daily.

…..

“Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now
regular, active WhatsApp users,” WhatsApp noted in a post on the
official blog. “In the last few months, we’ve grown fastest in countries
like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing
more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day.
We
could go on, but for now, it’s more important that we get back to work –
because here at WhatsApp, we’re just getting started.





WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum told Recode, a website that covers technology
news, that of these 500 million users, around 48 million are based in
India. In Brazil, the service has 45 million users.

WhatsApp,
which started in 2009, was bought by Facebook in February in a deal
worth $19 billion. When seen together, Facebook and WhatsApp now have
nearly 1.5 billion active users, giving Facebook a huge reach, specially
on mobiles.

Earlier on April 1, WhatsApp had announced that
its users exchanged 64 billion messages in 24 hours, setting a new
record for the service.

However, despite the huge user base, it
is not yet clear how Facebook will monetise WhatsApp. The instant
messaging app doesn’t show advertisements and both Koum and Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg have said that this won’t change anytime soon.

Koum told Recode that despite the fast growth, WhatsApp was not yet
thinking about monetisation. He said the focus remained on providing
clean and usable instant messaging service.

“There’s not enough
money and not enough celebrities in the world to convince people to use
a shitty product. People are so savvy these days. People expect a good
user experience,” Koum told Recode.

He also said the free voice calls feature on WhatsApp would be available to users in the coming months.
…..
Link: http://mashable.com/2014/04/22/whatsapp-500-million/
…..
regards

TCS (soft)powers India to Premier League

Once upon a time what was good for General Motors was also automatically considered good for America.
We presume the same thing holds true for TCS and India at present.

The rankings are a bit confusing, but whichever way you look (revenues, profit margin, employee count, market cap, growth rate) TCS is doing very well, perhaps only next to IBM.
……
This is a landmark for Indian IT. The country’s largest IT services
provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has broken into the league of
top 10 global IT services companies (by revenue), moving from the 13th position in
2012 to the 10th spot in 2013.


“Talk to any incumbent western
service provider today, and the one making them all tremble from the
sub-continent is TCS,”
writes Jamie Snowdon, executive VP of research
operations at HfS Research, the consultancy firm that compiled the
ranking.

 

TCS is estimated to have IT services revenues of $10.1
billion (out of its total revenues of about $12.5 billion). IBM ($54.4
billion), Fujitsu ($32.1 billion), Hewlett-Packard ($29.2 billion) and
Accenture ($25.4 billion) lead the list.

 

India-based companies Cognizant,
Infosys, Wipro and HCL are at the 15th, 18th, 20th and 25th positions,
respectively, all of them rising by one to three spots compared to 2012.
HfS Research believes that Cognizant could be in the top 10 in the next
2-3 years, may be at the expense of US IT company CSC. CSC’s revenues
last year had dropped compared to the year before.

 

“The firm is increasingly being perceived by
many today as an alternative provider to the Western Tier 1s, that can
come in and fix messy contracts and implementations;
it has shown an
appetite and willingness pick up a lot of the low-margin, low-value work
that seemingly every Western Tier 1 wants out of and make the deals
profitable and leverageable across clients,” said Phil Fersht, CEO of
HfS. TCS also has an extraordinary profit margin, something that’s
normally difficult to achieve in conjunction with high revenue growth.

……..
Below is a September 2013 report from Forbes magazine. Time sure flies when you are in the (F1) driver’s seat.
…….
Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and made it the world’s second most-valuable IT services company after IBM. That puts it ahead of rivals like Accenture and Hewlett-Packard.

TCS’ market valuation recently crossed $60 billion, ahead of
Accenture’s $50 billion and HP’s $43 billion, but trailing way behind
IBM’s $202 billion.





TCS is currently amongst the fastest-growing IT services companies
worldwide. TCS’ stock commands a huge premium, trading at around 27 times its
profits of the past 12 months, a five-year high, whereas rival IBM
trades at 12 times and Accenture trades at 17 times its latest earnings
per share. Its share price has spiked over 40% in the past three months.




TCS is notable in terms of employee count and geographical spread. In
March this year, its headcount was 276,196 employees. Rival IBM had
430,000 workers at last count, a bulk of them in India. In geographical
reach, the North American market – a vital market for India’s
outsourcing companies – accounts for half of TCS’ revenues. But a fifth
of its revenues come from emerging markets.


TCS is expected to continue to show strong revenue growth. TCS’ CAGR
in the past three years leading to FY13 was 22% compared with 13% for
Infosys and 10% for Wipro. However, TCS substantially lags behind IBM in
revenues and trails Accenture,too.

……
Link (1): http://www.businessinsider.in/Tata-Consultancy-Services-Joins-Top-10-Global-IT-Services-Companies-Club/articleshow/34076733.cms
Link (2): http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2013/09/13/indias-tcs-is-second-most-valuable-it-services-firm-globally/
…..
regards

Rani of the Chopra-s

Best wishes to the couple!! Enjoy marital bliss for a long long time.

….
Popular Bollywood actor Rani Mukherjee has tied the knot with
Aditya Chopra, son of late iconic filmmaker Yash Chopra, according to
the Indian media.


The wedding — a private affair — took place in Italy on April 21.

Mukherjee established herself as a leading actress by doling out commercial hits like Hum Tum and Bunty aur Babli among others. She
earned universal critical acclaim when she enacted the role of a deaf
and blind girl in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2004 movie “Black”.

Chopra, who has maintained a relatively low profile, directed the 1995 blockbuster Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge starring the legendary Shahrukh-Kajol duo which is being played in Indian cinemas even now.

He
has written and directed several movies under the Chopra production
banner, establishing himself as one of India’s most bankable directors.

…..
 Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1101555/rani-mukherjee-and-aditya-chopra-tie-the-knot-in-italy
…..
regards

Saudis execute (1977) innocents

No not the Shias in the Eastern Provinces, not even the Alawaites of Syria, just a few protected (ha ha ha) birds in Balochistan. One commentator put the best spin forward when he suggested that the prince must have got confused between “endangered” and “abundant.”

Will the Riyal-khors ($1.5 Bil) now stand up against this flagrant violation of rules displayed by His Excellency? How about considering a blanket ban on “chidiya shikar?”
…..
A Saudi prince has poached over 2,100 internationally
protected houbara bustards in 21-day hunting safari in Chagai,
Balochistan, during which the royal also indulged in illegal hunting in
protected areas, says a report.


The
report titled ‘Visit of Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
regarding hunting of houbara bustard’ prepared by Jaffar Baloch,
divisional forest officer of the Balochistan forest and wildlife
department, Chagai at Dalbandin, says the prince hunted for 21 days –
from Jan 11, 2014 to Jan 31– and hunted 1,977 birds, while other members
of his party hunted an additional 123 birds, bringing the total bustard
toll to 2,100, sources said.

They said that
hunting of the internationally protected bird was banned in Pakistan
also, but the federal government issued special permits to Gulf states’
royals. Permits, which are person specific and
could not be used by anyone else, allow the holders to hunt up to100
houbara bustards in 10 days in the area allocated, excluding reserved
and protected areas.

The report dated Feb 4, 2014
(No: 216-219 HB/CHI) says that during the 21-day safari the prince
hunted the birds for 15 days in the reserved and protected areas,
poached birds in other areas for six days and took rest for two days.

Giving a breakup of date-wise as well as area-wise
details of the prince’s expedition, the report says that he hunted 112
houbara bustards in the Gut game sanctuary (Arbe pat) which is a
reserved and protected area on Jan 11, 2014.

The next two days on Jan 12 and 13th he hunted 116 and 93 birds in
the Gut game sanctuary (Sai Rek) which is also a reserved and protected
area. Then for the next two days Prince Fahd, who is also governor of
Tabuk, visited Sato Gut and hunted 82 and 80 houbaras on Jan 14 and 15,
respectively. On Jan 16, he visited Gut-i-Barooth and hunted 79
houbaras. Both these areas are not protected areas, says the report.

For the next six days the Saudi royal camped in the
Koh-i-Sultan state forest, which is a reserved and protected area, and
hunted 93, 82, 94, 97, 96 and 120 houbara bustards on Jan 17, 18, 19,
20, 21 and 22, respectively.

On Jan 23 and 24, he
continued his hunting spree in the Gut game sanctuary (Dam), which is a
reserved as well as protected area, and hunted 116 and 197 houbara
bustards, respectively.

The prince carried out
hunting of the protected bird in Thalo Station and hunted 89 houbara
bustards on Jan 25 and spent the next two days hunting the birds in Pul
Choto, killing 34 and 89 birds on Jan 26 and 27, respectively. Both of
these areas are neither reserved nor protected, says the report.

The remaining four days, Prince Fahd spent in the Gut
game sanctuary, a reserved as well as protected area, and hunted 92, 94,
119 and 97 birds on Jan 28, 29, 30, and 31, respectively. The royal
guest took rest on Feb 1 and 2 at the Bar Tagzai base camp after
bringing the grand total of his trophies to 1,977.

The report
says: “123 birds were hunted by local representatives and other
labourers of the hunting party. The total bustards hunted by Prince Fahd
bin Abdul Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud are 1,977 and total bustards
hunted by local representatives and other labourers are 123 bringing the
grand total to 2100”.

…..
Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1101272/arab-royal-hunts-down-2100-houbara-bustards-in-three-week-safari
……
regards

Animist Army vs. Christian Crusaders

The Church had sinned by engaging in a spot of idolatry (blasphemy??) by portraying Mother Mary as a tribal lady with Baby Jesus in a sling. The Animists are not prepared to take this outrage lying down and now a (century old) fight is reaching its Waterloo phase. With the fading of the Catholic-Parsi-Brahmin First Family of India from the scene the Christians will have a tough time (post elections) in keeping their ranks united and their flanks protected.

…..

Two months before polling began in Jharkhand, Ajay Tirkey began dividing
his day between campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Ranchi
and attending to his real estate business. Mr. Tirkey, who heads the
Central Sarna Committee(CSC), with lakhs of animistic Sarna tribals as members in urban parts of Ranchi, Gumla and Hazaribagh,
believes that the BJP’s Narendra Modi will get the community what it
has been demanding for decades: the distinction of being a minority
religion with all attendant benefits.
“We submitted a memorandum to Modi
in December to introduce a Sarna code in the census, and [the] BJP’s
State leaders agreed,” he says.



Mr. Tirkey owns the commercial
complex we are sitting in. “This is a century-old fight. I have not let
the Christians get away with conversions since I became the head in
2000,” he says. “We broke the walls of a church in Tape in Ormanjhi
while it was being constructed. There was a case of conversion of five
families in Ghagrajala village in Ranchi; we re-converted three. Then a
few families in Gaitalsud, Angada, of whom only one member escaped
because he worked somewhere else. He has not come back since; he fears
us,” he recounts, beaming.



Mr. Tirkey, the BJP’s mayoral candidate from Ranchi in 2013, describes the “re-conversion” ceremonies as being similar to the ghar-waapsi (homecoming)
ceremonies conducted by BJP leader Dilip Singh Judeo in Chhattisgarh,
in the mid-2000s. Mr. Judeo used to wash the feet of the converted
person with holy water and declare the person Hindu again. Sarnas, Mr.
Tirkey says, besides washing feet, made the converted person taste a
drop of blood of a freshly sacrificed rooster and sprinkled water on
them. A member of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s Vanvasi Kalyan
Ashram (VKA) or Dharam Jagran usually accompanied CSC members for this
ceremony, he says. Sitting by Mr. Tirkey’s side, Manoj Kumar, a member
of the BJP’s Jharkhand Kisan Morcha Pradesh Samiti, nods in agreement.



In the last century, religious conversions in the Chotanagpur region
have led to tensions. The first missionaries to arrive were the German
Protestants in 1845, followed by the Catholics. The rift between
Christian and non-Christian tribals was visible in 1947-48. Concerned
with the growing influence of Christians, Sarna leaders formed a ‘Sudhar
Sabha,’ notes academic Dr. Alex Ekka in an essay on the Jharkhand
movement.



The former captain of the Indian hockey team, Jaipal Singh Munda, is
credited with getting equal rights including reservations for Christian
tribals, as a member of the Constituent Assembly. A few Sarna leaders
opposed this move then. Congress MP Kartik Oraon introduced a bill in
Parliament in 1968 to de-schedule Christian tribals, albeit
unsuccessfully.



The Jan Sangh and the RSS began making inroads in the Chotanagpur region
in the 1960s, initiating developmental activities in forest villages to
counter the growing reach of Christian missionaries. While the VKA
already has a strong presence in the Gumla and Latehar districts of West
Jharkhand, more recently it has focused on increasing its influence in
Sahebganj and Pakur along the State’s border with West Bengal, close to
Bangladesh. Both districts feature in a map of areas from Uttar Pradesh
to the north-east as “Areas of high Muslim and Christian influence” in a
publication by Sankat Mochan Ashram, New Delhi.



“The church was trying to proselytize in Pakur but slowed down after we increased our presence. We recently performed ghar-waapsi
for 50 families there. Sarna groups are doing re-conversions themselves
now; we prefer it this way. We explain to them that 2000 years ago, we
worshipped trees. Sarnas are Hindu too,” says Prakash Kamat, the
Bihar-Jharkhand zonal secretary of the VKA.



Tribals constitute 26.3 per cent of Jharkhand’s population. According to
the 2001 Census, of the State’s population of 3.29 crore, 68.5 per cent
are Hindus and 13.8 per cent are Muslims. Only four per cent follow
Christianity. Though Sarnas, who worship their ancestors and nature, are
not counted separately, they make up most of the ‘Other’ category,
estimated at 11 to 13 per cent of the population. Sarna groups claim
that the actual numbers may be higher, given the absence of a separate
category for them. A common perception is that despite their small
numbers, Christian tribals have better access to higher education and
jobs. Whether due to economic disparities or the stoking of enmities by
different religious groups, the chasm between Sarna and Christian
tribals has widened.



The most stark instance of this was in 2013 when a spate of protests
erupted in Ranchi soon after the Cardinal Telesphore Toppo unveiled the
statue of a “tribal” Mary — a dark-skinned Mother Mary wearing a white
and red saree and bangles, holding an infant Jesus in a sling, as is
common among tribal women. Sarna dharamguru Bandhan Tigga,
considered more moderate than Ajay Tirkey’s group, gave the Church three
months to remove the statue, describing it as a conversion tactic. In
August, over 3,000 Sarna tribals marched to the site, a small Catholic
church in Singpur on Ranchi’s outskirts, threatening to bring it down.
 

The police imposed Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code in the area to
stop the protesters. Three days later, a FIR was registered against
members of Sarna groups after they threatened families in Ormanjhi, 50
km from Singpur, who had converted to Protestantism several years ago,
to re-convert to Sarna religion within a week, even breaking the gate of
the house of one of the families.



Sources close to the Cardinal claim he had not known that the statue was
that of a “tribal” Mary before he reached the parish for the
inauguration, but have chosen to stay silent, fearing that a step back
now may only weaken the church’s position. Before this, in 2008, the
church was on the back foot when Sarna groups questioned the ‘Nemha
Bible’ published by a Lutheran church in the tribal language, Kuduk,
which they said contained portions offensive to animistic worship.



In Singpur, the residents still recount last year’s protests cautiously.
“Thousands marched from Dhurva to the parish. While the march had been
called by Sarna groups, several Bajrang Dal members wearing saffron
bands marched with them. Even tribals from neighbouring Odisha,
Chhattisgarh districts reached here,” recalled a member of the
community. It was done by evoking Sarnas’ pride, say Dharam Jagran
members.

…..
Link: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/tribals-torn-apart-by-religion/article5934381.ece
…..
regards

Hindu-Jewish-Amrika axis exposed!!!

The one true Leader, despised by secularists (liberals), full of fighting spirit against Pakistan (Russia), the maestro preparing to unleash the magic of the free market on impoverished peasants, this is indeed the second coming of Ronald Wilson Reagan.

BTW Cohen is a Jewish title and he was an associate of GW Bush. By definition this makes him a neo-con who must be engaged in stitching up a Hindu-Jew-Amrika pact. Arundhati Roy will be responding shortly with an in-depth accounting of the anticipated treacheries by this axis of evil. Reihan Salam will be pleased (but what about Bangladeshis…in Bangladesh??).
……

Both Mr. Modi and Mr. Reagan rose from humble origins. Both were popular
and successful State leaders: Reagan was “chief minister” (governor, as
we say) of my home state of California. Mr. Modi, like Mr. Reagan, is
an unabashed proponent of free market economics: the term “Modinomics”
is of course a nod to “Reaganomics.”



A major common denominator between the two men is the nature of their
detractors.
Like the U.S., India has cultural elitists who seem to
desperately crave the approval of their former colonial masters in
Europe. The Indian cultural elite despises Mr. Modi every bit as much as
the American cultural elite despised Mr. Reagan.
They look down their
noses at Mr. Modi, cringing at the thought of being led by a common chai wallah (“tea
seller,” as I translated it for my U.S. readers) who can barely speak
English.
(I could never imagine Chinese or Russian citizens, proud of
their own heritage, being ashamed that their leaders don’t speak
English.)




The cultural elites labelled Mr. Reagan as a racist…..Mr. Modi, of course, is also labelled by his critics as a “communalist.”
I would call that roughly equivalent to the “racist” epithet that
Americans hurl at one another.
I must admit that as an outside observer, I often find the terms of
debate in India’s mainstream media to be confusing. As I understand it,
if you favor allowing citizens to be treated differently on the basis
of their religious beliefs, then you are an open-minded “secularist.”
If, on the other hand, you favour treating all citizens equally under
the law, without regard to their religion, then you are a “religious
extremist.”
It is comforting to learn that my country is not the only
one with a mainstream media that uses Orwellian doublespeak to support
its left-leaning agenda. (And I say that with all apologies and due
respect to this great newspaper, which has kindly offered me a forum!)




Mr. Modi, of course, promises to take a tough stand against
Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. In this regard, I reminded my American
readers that Islamic extremists are not fighting against the “West.”
Islamist extremists are fighting against all non-Islamic societies,
including Buddhists in Thailand; Christians in Nigeria, the Philippines,
Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan and
Timor-Leste; Jews in Israel; minority communities throughout the Muslim
world — and, quite prominently, Hindus in India.
India is very much on
the front lines of what we Americans used to call the War on Terror,
before our leaders lost the nerve to name it. Mr. Modi — his assertive
posture against Pakistan reminiscent of Mr. Reagan’s stance against the
Soviet Union — should be a valuable natural ally for the U.S.



As one who lived through Reaganomics, I believe that Modinomics can be
the perfect antidote to the kleptocratic crony socialism that has kept
India from realising her vast economic potential.
If India’s natural
entrepreneurial dynamism is ever fully unleashed, the sky will be the
limit. I am persuaded by the evidence (hotly debated in an election
season, of course) that shows that economic growth in Gujarat under Mr.
Modi has been a boon to all segments of society, especially the poor. I
am just sharing my view as an observer, and of course respect that it is
for the people of India to decide what is best for them.




 
(David B. Cohen served in the administration of President George W.
Bush as U.S. Representative to the Pacific Community, as Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and as a member of the President’s
Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.)

…..
Link: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-india-about-to-elect-its-reagan/article5931362.ece
….
regards

We murder our brothers (because we hate others)

This is the essential logic of Hizbul Mujahidin and the other freedom fighters (in Kashmir and elsewhere). Power flows out of the barrel of a gun etc.

Thing is, this can (will) go on forever. We do not envisage the Valley people ever reconciling with Indians in Jammu and elsewhere. Too much blood has already been spilled.

If we include Kashmir in the MENA sphere it seems to be the fate of the Ummah to face down this daily ugliness in their lives with no end in sight. The health problems (physical as well as mental) of staying in a war zone are well documented. It seems the best place for a muslim (except for a few city states) is to be as far away as possible from the muslim heartlands.
…….
Militants killed two local officials and another man in Indian Kashmir before issuing a warning to Kashmiris against voting this week in the country’s election, according to police and residents.
The
militants targeted two village council chiefs in separate attacks late
on Monday in Pulwana district, south of the main city of Srinagar, a
senior police officer said.


“Three people including two village
heads were killed by local militants active in the area and the attack
is aimed to keep the voters away from polling,” AG Mir, the inspector
general of police, said.

“The attackers belong to the local
militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, they were two in number and we
have identified them,” Mir said.

Police were hunting for the
attackers, who entered the home of one village head and shot him dead in
the Tral area of Pulwana district. They killed another senior village
official and his 24-year-old son about an hour later in the same area.

Separatists
have called for a boycott of the general election, which ends next
month. Hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi and his party are
expected to take power after a decade of Congress party rule.

Posters
warning residents of punishment if they went to the polls appeared
early on Tuesday morning in the Tral area where the attacks happened,
according to residents.

Voting in India’s
only Muslim-majority state of Kashmir and Jammu is being staggered
because of tight security. The Kashmir constituency, which includes
Pulwana district, votes on Thursday.

The warnings, which say they
are from the region’s biggest rebel group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, were
posted outside mosques and in the main bazaar of Tral town. “Be warned,
voting for tyrants will entail punishment,” the posters say.



The
rebels say in the posters that they have been compelled to change their
“freedom movement” strategy from “defensive” to “offensive” mode.

A
local resident, who did not want to give his name, told AFP that “about
four armed rebels appeared on Sunday in the main bazaar of Tral
threatening people to dissociate themselves from those fighting (in) the
elections”.

In a similar attack on 17 April, a village council
head was shot dead elsewhere in the Himalayan region, which is disputed
between India and Pakistan.

At least a dozen council members have been killed by suspected rebels since elections were held in 2010 for the region’s panchayat or village councils.

Village
heads have demanded the government provide security for the more than
30,000 local council members in the wake of Monday night’s attacks.

……
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/22/indian-election-kashmir-violence-three-dead
…..
regards

Nirvana-stan welcomes you (arrive, inspect, deport)

The scriptures famously refer to the soul-awakening impact of sickness, old age, and death on the young, impressionable prince Siddhartha Gautama. There is no command that we know of which forbids graven images of the Lord. The tattoo (below) does not look disrespectful, but we defer to the faithful on that account.

This event should be viewed as part and parcel of the learning process for faith-led communities around the world  as they scramble to secure their own pure (infidel-free) fiefdoms. The initial spark (usually lit by Islam envy) eventually becomes a raging fire that consumes the believer, non-believer and the dis-believer alike. Blasphemy and apostasy are used by opportunists to terrorize the innocent. The road to Hell is indeed paved with good sentiments (hurting others’ religious feelings).

…….
A British tourist is to be deported from Sri Lanka because of a tattoo of Buddha on her arm.


Sri
Lankan police said Naomi Coleman, 37, was arrested at Bandaranaike
international airport in the capital, Colombo, after she arrived from
India.

A police spokesman said she was arrested for “hurting
others’ religious feelings” after the tattoo of Buddha seated on a lotus
flower was spotted on her right arm.

Buddhism is the religion of the country’s majority ethnic Sinhalese, and Buddhist tattoos are seen as culturally insensitive.

Coleman
appeared before a magistrate who ordered her deportation. The spokesman
said she was being held at an immigration detention centre and would be
removed “very soon – it could be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow”.

In March last year another Briton, Antony Ratcliffe, was reportedly deported for sporting a Buddha tattoo on his arm.
…….
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/22/sri-lanka-deports-british-tourist-buddha-tattoo
……
regards

“Muslims ought to be more communal”

This is the true face of secularism as practiced in India. If the majority community gets its constituent groups working together for a common purpose (the spirit of Hindutva so to speak) it is ipso facto bad. If the minorities do the same thing, this is an unqualified good.  

There is no sense of striving for a common bond of citizenship which rises above these petty differences for fighting against the evils of poverty, corruption, malnutrition,….

The most disappointing thing about this is the Aam Aadmi Party was supposed to be a party with a difference (also Shazia Ilmi is a highly qualified woman who should know better than to spout nonsense). If you tarnish your brand in this manner, why should the common citizen vote for you?

Days before the crucial fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) leader Shazia Ilmi has landed into a controversy because of
her alleged “Muslims ought to be communal this time” remark.

The party distanced itself from her remark and said she should not have said it.

“Muslims are very secular. Muslims ought to be more communal. (They) do not vote for their own. (AAP leader) Arvind Kejriwal
is your own. I say, it is enough of secularism,” Ilmi, who contested
the Lok Sabha polls from Ghaziabad earlier in the month, is seen saying
in the video.

“Here helping the Congress win, there someone
else. Please do not be so secular. Muslims are secular. They will
continue to vote for others. Other parties don’t do such things?” she
said.

It is a short 1.19 minute video clip, apparently a sting
operation, where Ilmi is seen talking to Muslims. The video, believed to
be shot in Mumbai, where she had gone for campaigning for AAP’s South
Mumbai candidate Mira Sanyal, shows Ilmi talking with her head covered
with a dupatta. Mumbai goes to polls on April 24.

Ilmi, a member
of AAP’s national executive, is seen further saying “agree, this is
controversial, but this is important” in reaction to a person sitting
next to her who said “we are afraid, we have to vote”.  

The clip ends with Ilmi saying, “Kaam badal dijiye … lado aur jito (change the work. Fight and win).”
……
Link: http://www.hindustantimes.com/elections2014/state-of-the-states/shazia-ilmi-muslims-too-secular-be-communal-this-time/article1-1211024.aspx
……
regards

Brown Pundits