An open letter to Gen Kayani

View from the other side
Col (Retd.) Harish Puri
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dear Gen Kayani,

Sir, let me begin by recounting that old army quip that did the rounds in the immediate aftermath of World War - II: To guarantee victory, an army should ideally have German generals, British officers, Indian soldiers, American equipment and Italian enemies.

A Pakistani soldier that I met in Iraq in 2004 lamented the fact that the Pakistani soldier in Kargil had been badly let down firstly by Nawaz Sharif and then by the Pakistani officers' cadre. Pakistani soldiers led by Indian officers, he believed, would be the most fearsome combination possible. Pakistani officers, he went on to say, were more into real estate, defence housing colonies and the like.

As I look at two photographs of surrender that lie before me, I can't help recalling his words. The first is the celebrated event at Dhaka on Dec 16, 1971, which now adorns most Army messes in Delhi and Calcutta. The second, Sir, is the video of a teenage girl being flogged by the Taliban in Swat -- not far I am sure, from one of your Army check posts.

The surrender by any Army is always a sad and humiliating event. Gen Niazi surrendered in Dhaka to a professional army that had outnumbered and outfought him. No Pakistani has been able to get over that humiliation, and 16th December is remembered as a black day by the Pakistani Army and the Pakistani state. But battles are won and lost – armies know this, and having learnt their lessons, they move on.

But much more sadly, the video of the teenager being flogged represents an even more abject surrender by the Pakistani Army. The surrender in 1971, though humiliating, was not disgraceful. This time around, sir, what happened on your watch was something no Army commander should have to live through. The girl could have been your own daughter, or mine.

I have always maintained that the Pakistani Army, like its Indian counterpart, is a thoroughly professional outfit. It has fought valiantly in the three wars against India, and also accredited itself well in its UN missions abroad. It is, therefore, by no means a pushover. The instance of an Infantry unit, led by a lieutenant colonel, meekly laying down arms before 20-odd militants should have been an aberration. But this capitulation in Swat, that too so soon after your own visit to the area, is an assault on the sensibilities of any soldier. What did you tell your soldiers? What great inspirational speech did you make that made your troops back off without a murmur? Sir, I have fought insurgency in Kashmir as well as the North-East, but despite the occasional losses suffered (as is bound to be the case in counter-insurgency operations), such total surrender is unthinkable.

I have been a ‘Signaler’, and it beats me how my counterparts in your Signal Corps could not locate or even jam a normal FM radio station broadcasting on a fixed frequency at fixed timings. Is there more than meets the eye?

I am told that it is difficult for your troops to "fight their own people." But you never had that problem in East Pakistan in 1971, where the atrocities committed by your own troops are well documented in the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report. Or is it that the Bengalis were never considered "your own" people, influenced as they were by the Hindus across the border? Or is that your troops are terrified by the ruthless barbarians of the Taliban?

Sir, it is imperative that we recognise our enemy without any delay. I use the word "our" advisedly – for the Taliban threat is not far from India's borders. And the only force that can stop them from dragging Pakistan back into the Stone Age is the force that you command. In this historic moment, providence has placed a tremendous responsibility in your hands. Indeed, the fate of your nation, the future of humankind in the subcontinent rests with you. It doesn't matter if it is "my war" or "your war" – it is a war that has to be won. A desperate Swati citizen's desperate lament says it all – "Please drop an atom bomb on us and put us out of our misery!" Do not fail him, sir.

But in the gloom and the ignominy, the average Pakistani citizen has shown us that there is hope yet. The lawyers, the media, have all refused to buckle even under direct threats. It took the Taliban no less than 32 bullets to still the voice of a brave journalist. Yes, there is hope – but why don't we hear the same language from you? Look to these brave hearts, sir – and maybe we shall see the tide turn. Our prayers are with you, and the hapless people of Swat.

The New York Times predicts that Pakistan will collapse in six months. Do you want to go down in history as the man who allowed that to happen?

The writer is a retired colonel of the Indian army who lives in Pune.
Email: hbpuri@hotmail.com

Please find below the statistics of the Criminal background of the leaving Parliament Members.

Party Total MPs Criminals % Grade in %
1 Jharkand Mukti Morcha 5 5 100%1
2
Shiv Sena
12
7
58.3%
2
3
NCP
9
5
55.6%
3
4
Akali Dal
8
4
50.0%
4
5
Rashtriya JD
24
11
45.8%
5
6
BSP
19
8
42.1%
6
7
Janath Dal United
8
3
37.5%
7
8
Forward Block
3
1
33.3%
8
9
Samajwadi Party
36
11
30.6%
9
10
CPI
10
3
30.0%
10
11
BJP
136
39
28.7%
11
12
DMK
16
4
25.0%
12
13
AIADMK
4
1
25.0%
12
14
Lokjan Sakthi
4
1
25.0%
12
15
Congress
145
26
17.9%
13
16
CPM
43
7
16.3%
14
17
Biju JD
11
1
9.1%
15
This is the picture of our Parliament. We are going to face another election now. Election, yes, it is the only chance we can Think and Decide about our beloved Country's future. In a Democratic Legislature the decision is in our hands and we have another chance only after 5 years. Therefore we should not loose our change due to the mesmerization of this type of 'Leaders'.
Looking into the table above, we may be in the point of thinking that "Thank God the significant big parties are in the last corner of criminalism with 30 to 16%". No, the so called Local and Small Parties make big influence to make the decisions towards their interests. The criminalization among the total population is still merely 1 to 2% (please see the attached).
Yes, here we should decide that whichever our Party is; our candidate should be a Well Behaving Gentleman who value principles in his personal and social life.

Appeal to the Islamic Religious Institutions and Leaders by Dharma Raksha Manch

From:

Guru Ramrai Udasin Ashram
Aaram Bagh, Panchkuiyan Road, New Delhi- 110005
Mobiles: 09313635825, 09415139200

Appeal to the Islamic Religious Institutions and Leaders by Dharma Raksha Manch

It is the sacred duty of Islamic religious leaders to isolate the terrorists who claim the right to kill Kufirs as per the tenets of Islam. Dharma Raksha Manch, which consists of ancient and highly revered Hindu religious institutions, is extremely concerned about the relentless attacks on India by terrorists who openly claim to be inspired by the Islamic faith and the Islamic Holy Texts. The e-mails which were proved to have been sent at the instance of the terrorists clearly make it out that the terrorists are motivated by what they interpret to be their religious duty. Such emails came ahead of the blasts in Bangalore, Jaipur and Delhi and the media had carried them.

Some extracts from the email sent by the terrorists who described themselves as Indian Mujahideen [IM] before the terror attack on Gujarat in September brings out their reliance on their religious edicts for their act of 'Jihad' against the unbelievers [Kufirs].

"Wait only for five minutes from now! Wait for the Mujahideen and Fidayeen of Islam who will make you feel the terror of Jihad. And stop them if you can. Feel the havoc cast into your hearts by Allah, the Almighty, face His Dreadful Punishment, and suffer the results of fighting the Muslims and the Mujahideen. Await the anguish, agony, sorrow and pain. Await, only for 5 minutes, to feel the fear of death."

"O Hindus... Haven't you still realised that the falsehood' of your 33 crore mud idols and the blasphemy of your deaf, dumb, mute and naked idols of ram, krishna and hanuman are not going to save your necks, Insha-Alla, from being slaughtered by our hands? Nor is your fictitious faith in monkeys, pigs and nude statutes going to save you from the Wrath of Allah and His Humiliating Punishment. Know that it is only the true confession of the Oneness of Allah Alone, with no associates, that can save your blood from being spilled on the streets of your own cities. We call you, O Hindus, O enemies of Allah, to take an honest stance with yourselves lest another attack of Ibn-e-Qasim sends shivers down your spines, lest another Ghauri shakes your foundations, and lest another Ghaznawi massacres you, proving yourblood to be the cheapest of all mankind! Have you forgotten your history full of subjugation, humiliation, and insult? Or do you want us to repeat it again? Take heed before it is too late!"

"Yes! We - the terrorists of India - THE INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN, - the militia of Islam whose each and every Mujahid belongs to this very soil of India - have returned, to execute the compulsion of Allah:

'Fight them (the disbelievers), Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and give you victory over them and He will heal the hearts of those who believe.' (Qur'an 9: 14). It goes on to quote: 'Fight those disbelievers who are near you and let them find harshness in you'. (Qur'an 9: 123). 'Go forth light armed or heavy armed and fight with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah'. (Qu'ran 9: 41].

The terrorists' claim is this: one, the Hindus are Kufirs; the Holy Koran commands the faithful to kill them; whatever they do constitutes religious war, the Jihad. So they are only obeying the command of the Allah as proclaimed in their holy text.

The Dharma Raksha Manch is extremely concerned at the religious motivation for the terror. We are also concerned that the terrorists view of Islamic holy text has the potential to motivate many fellow Muslims not only to support their acts but also turn them into terrorists. Despite this explicit and brazen invocation of the Islamic text for violence, the Islamic religious institutions have kept total silence on the terrorists that their holy book commands them to kill non-believers [namely, Kufirs] in Islam. Instead there is an attempt by some to explain away the phenomenon of terror as due to illiteracy, unemployment and other socio-economic causes. The Dharma Raksha Manch is of the firm opinion that the Islamic theological institutions and their leaders owe it to their very faith and its adherents to comeforward and comprehensively deny, with appropriate Fatwas as per Islamic tradition, the claims of the terrorists. But regrettably there is no such thought or move by the Islamic religious leaders even though most of them have expressed themselves against terror andasserted that Islam is a religion of peace.

The Dharma Raksha Manch therefore appeals to the Islamic religious Institutions and scholars to come forward with an appropriate Fatwa to declare in unequivocal terms that: - The Hindus are not Kufirs, that the Hindus are not non-believers; - Therefore there can be no Jihad [or war] against the Hindus;

The Dharma Raksha Manch also appeals to the Islamic religious leaders to issue a proper Fatwa according to their tradition to further declare –


* that: India is not Dar-ul-Harab,
* that is, India is not a land against which Islamists have to wage a war; - India is a Dar-ul-Amen,
* that is, India is a land of peace as Muslims could practice Islam without any impediment.


Such an unequivocal declaration alone will deny the terrorists the legitimacy to use Islamic religion for their violence, and isolate them within the Islamic community. The Dharma Raksha Manch recalls that in the year 1992 the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, a respected Islamicschool did issue a Fatwa saying that Hindus were not Kufirs, India was not Dar-ul-Harab, but, Dar-ul-Amen. But, unfortunately, many other Islamic institutions had issued Fatwa against Dr. Abdul Raza Bedar, the then director of Kuda Bhaskh Library in Patna, who had said that Hindus were not Kufirs. But now even the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband has kept silent on this vital claim of the terrorists, even though it has held large conventions against terror and has declared that Islam is against terror.

The Dharma Raksha Manch therefore appeals to all Islamic religiousinstitutions and particularly, the following, namely -

1. All India Milli Council

2. All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat

3. All India Muslim Personal Law Board

4. All India Ofganisation of Imams of Mosques

5. Al Jamea Tus Saifiyah

6. Al Jamiatul Ashrafia

7. Darnl Uloom Deoband, India

8. Darul Uloom .Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow

9. Darul Uloom Manzar-e-Islam

10. Islamic Figh Academy (India)

11. Tabligh Jamaat (Known as a Markaz)

12. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind

13. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hindto

come forward to declare, as mentioned earlier,

* that Hindus are not Kufirs,

* that India is not Dar-ul-Harab,
* that it is Dar-ul-Amen, and
* that there can be no Jihad against India or Hindus.

The Dharma Raksha Manch also appeals to the Islamic religious leaders that anyone who violates their above Fatwa, is not a Muslim at all. The Dharma Raksha Manch is firmly believes that the Islamic religious leaders will not allow their faith to be misused by the terrorists and will positively respond to the appeal of the Dharma Raksha Manch. The Dharma Raksha Manch is firmly of the view that this is the only way to isolate the terrorists from the Islamic faith and mainstream Muslim society. This will only stop the faith-motivated recruitment and support for terror. All other efforts can never bear fruit unless this fundamental cause of the terror, namely the claim of the terrorists, is clearly and effectively repudiated by the Islamic religious and spiritual leaders.

The Dharma Raksha Manch is sending this appeal to the Islamic religious and spiritual institutions individually.

This appeal has been signed by the Acharyas who have constituted the Manch. The names and the signatures of the Acharyas.

This appeal will be sent by email and also by signed letters to the email addresses and postal addresses of the Islamic institutions.
Correspondence Address:

Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha,
Near Saurashtra
University,
Rajkot -360005

Source: Email from Secretary, Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha

Kerala’s biggest challenge – the fastest breeding Talibanization

C. I. Issac
9 March 2009

The State of Kerala came into being in 1956, and Hindus then comprised 61.5% of the population. In half a century, this has swiftly declined and reached barely 55%. Meanwhile, the two other minority religions, contrary to the general trend of population growth, have grown drastically. The negative growth of Hindu population is a continuing phenomenon, and cannot be treated as an inadvertent phenomenon. Several factors can be seen behind this fall, political, religious, economic, and so on.

Christians are taking advantage of the existing political situation through their stratagem of ‘mission of education and open-ended proselytism’ that marginalized Hindus economically and numerically. On the other hand, Muslims are spreading their net of annihilation of Hindu life in Kerala through ‘petro-dollar, hawala money, aggressive proselytism and Talibanization’ of the State. They are supported by the self-styled ‘cultural-cum-intellectual magnates’ functioning as the tails of CPI(M), who patronize all fundamentalist-cum-extremist activities in the State under the guise of human rights.

For instance, one Malayali, Javed [before conversion to Islam he was Pranesh Nair], a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba team of four who masterminded the plot to assassinate the Gujarat Chief Minister, was killed in a police encounter on 15 Nov. 2004 at Ahmedabad. The cultural magnates tried to portray this as a fake encounter and exalted Javed as a fallen hero. But the recent shooting of Malayali terrorists by security forces on the Kashmir border had them scuttling into deep burrows.

Kerala’s history of Talibanization goes back to the days of Moplah Riots of 1921, but Left historians and coalition politics connived to conceal its fanatic disposition and projected the incident as agrarian rebellion. Moreover, the state conference of the CPM (February 2005) at Malappuram officially declared the fanatic Wariamkunnathu Kunjahammed Haji, leader of the notorious Moplah Revolt who killed thousands of Hindus including innocent women and children in cold blood during 1921 Khilafat agitation of Malabar, as a martyr of the Communist Party! Even Muslim League is reluctant to make this bigot their Badar.

Islamic fundamentalism tightened its hold over the social, economic and political scenario of Kerala in the post-independence period; it was constantly appeased by the Communist Party. In 1946, one Unnian Saheb [1] and his family of Perinthalmanna, Malappuram district, Malabar, returned to the Hindu dharma. Enraged, a Moplah mob [2] brutally exterminated Ramasimhan [Unnian Saheb] and his family as an admonition to all wishing to return to purva dharma. At that time, all political parties, particularly the Communist ‘vanguard’ Party under self-styled revolutionary leader EMS Nambudiripad, attempted to misdirect the police investigation and save the culprits from the law [3]. Kerala political parties even today continue this minority appeasement...

The anti-Hindu approach of the Communists drove a sizable number of Hindus to desert the party fold during the 1960s, leaving the Communist Party free to adopt an open policy of minority appeasement. The immediate result was the birth of an exclusive Muslim district, Malappuram in 1968 – its layout conforms to the Muslim League demanded Mopilastan of 1946. Today it is the hatchery of all anti-national and terrorist activities in Kerala.

The State Government acquired 24 acres of land for the Aligarh Muslim University Centre at Malappuram district, which was later decided to be enhanced to 1000 acres. Sources suggest that the proposed land will comprise the Elemkulam Mana, the household of veteran Marxist leader and first Communist Chief Minister EMS Nambudiripad. It is a shortcut for the CPM to secure the benevolence of the Jamaat-e-Islami in the forthcoming general elections. The district already hosts Calicut University; hence the attempt to open a centre of Aligarh Muslim University is not logical. Kerala is today a haven for terrorists operations. Its 580-km unchecked coastline is a major attraction for terrorist outfits.

Subsequently, a Christian district carved out, a political decision that legitimized the communal divide of Kerala. The Communist Party’s history of minority appeasement goes back to the days of its inception in Kerala. First, it glorified communal riots masterminded by Muslims as revolutions; then it shared political power with Muslim and Christian communal outfits; now the bigot Abdul Nassar Madani is dear to it. This is a ‘suicidal compromise’ as far as the national mind of Kerala is concerned.

In the 1980s, several cinema halls were set ablaze by fundamentalists in Malappuram district; police remained inactive due to political pressure. To this day it remains lukewarm towards terrorists; more than a dozen bomb blasts have taken place in the northern districts during the past decade. No one was booked for the blast at Bepoor Port, thanks to the blessings of the ruling party.

The Talibanism of Malappuram is now a serious threat to the nation and Hindu values. Bangalore city witnessed a series of bomb blasts on 25 July 2008. Recently, the Karnataka police booked the culprits of this incident - all nine were Malayalis from Malappuram. The brains behind most of the recent blasts in our metro cities hail from Kerala; besides Malappuram, most Malabar districts face fundamentalist threats. Hence the police failed or was ‘forced to fail’ to book the culprits of the Thrissur train blast on 6 December 1997.

The Thrissur blasts were followed by Coimbatore blasts on 14 February 1998, which took the lives of 50 persons and injured over 150. The target was L.K. Advani who escaped miraculously, and the prime accused Abdul Nasser Madani, presently a respectable icon to Marxist and Congress coalitions of Kerala. His henchmen hijacked and set fire to a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus from NH 47 near Cochin demanding his release. The police have registered a case, but its destiny is still mysterious.

A strategy of ethnical cleansing is now in operation on the Kerala coastline, to make the 580-km coastline safe for ISI-sponsored activities. Currently, from Ponnani to Beypore, a length of 65-km coastline, no Hindu fishermen hamlet can be seen; all were cleansed by conversion or by threat. A few Hindu fishermen hamlets survive north of Beypore, such as Marad.

On 2 May 2003, ISI-sponsored terrorists [NDF] conducted an ethnic cleansing operation here. Eight Hindu fishermen were brutally killed by terrorists. They reputedly prepared for a communal riot aimed at total annihilation of Hindu fishermen community from the coastal regions, but the alertness and restraint of Hindu leaders foiled their plans. Recently, the special trial court awarded life terms to 65 accused in the case.

On 10 March 2005, NDF assassinated Aswini, RSS district leader; police were helpless to nab the actual culprits because of political pressure. It is a convention among Muslims of northern Kerala to insist Hindus to keep business establishments closed on Fridays, not go for fishing on Fridays, shut down of hotels during Ramzan; those who disobey pay the price. Police under political pressure are becoming inactive on every instance of Talibanization of Kerala. Santhosh of Mathilakom police station area of Thrissur district violated the above fatwa and opened his shop on Fridays. On 9 August 1996 he was brutally killed by terrorists, and money power and political power became victorious in this case, as usual [4].

Another Taliban experiment is the extension of Islamic wedlock to non-Muslim girls; a one-way traffic. In 2001, one Balakrishnan of Kasargod fell in love with a girl named Raziabanu and got married. Some time later, he was brutally slaughtered; the police and political parties together depicted this homicide as a political murder. They fabricated a story that the murdered Balakrishnan was a Congress worker of Kasargod and the police, Congress and CPM unanimously found that the culprits behind the murder were Marxist workers! The story doesn’t end here. With the meaningful silence of the authorities, the chief accused in the case absconded to a foreign country, as in the case of the abduction and butchering of progressive Islamic theologian Chekannoor Maulavi.

According to Kerala Marxist’s conceptual framework, for a person to be recognized as a progressive or revolutionary, he has to be fundamentally anti-Hindu and pro-Muslim/pro-Christian. Those who talk in a broader national perspective may be called ‘saffron’ or renegade. In short, Marxist, Missionary, Muslim-dominated Kerala is terrorist-friendly.

In the hilly districts of Kottayam and Ernakulum, the banned jihadi organization SIMI conducted all-India terrorist training camps. The public brought the matter to the attention of the authorities, so police rushed there and arrested all on petty charges and released them on bail! Political intervention forced the police to close the file without further investigation.

Recently, those who participated in the terrorist camps were arrested from different States of India. Kerala police and ‘cultural magnates’ were reluctant to accept that the jihadis shot by security personnel at the Kashmir border were Malayalis.

Converting non-Muslim criminals to Islam is a new technique in Kerala. Several such convert-criminals were killed in police encounters in different parts of the country. Further, terrorist organizations in Kerala frequently change their names to maintain the façade of a secular organization. Once SIMI was tainted, it changed its name to NDF. So now NDF has become a watchword for subversive activities in Kerala. Likewise, half a dozen organizations camouflaged as NGOs are at the forefront justifying talibanism (these include the Forum for Ideological Thought, Karuna Foundation, Islamic Youth Centre, Minority Rights Watch) [5].

Talibanism flourished in the economic front, under the euphemism of “Hawala”. In a decade, the economic disparity between Muslims and Hindus widened unbelievably. The weekly “Malayalam” in its editorial warned of the inherent danger of this imbalance between Hindus and minorities. “While examining the records of the registration [land] department, it is evident that in several districts 70% of the lands were purchased by the above said [Muslims] communities… In certain specific districts the purchase of land is the exclusive right of a particular community. The intermediaries in these land deals are also their religious institutions.” [6]

For generations, Hindus have been worshipping cows. Only one state in India legitimizes cow slaughter – Kerala, due to the impudence of minority religious groups. Government official data states 5,00,000 cows were slaughtered in the State during 2002 and 2,49,000 tonnes of beef sold [7]. The real statistics will be much higher. Medical science advises people to refrain from the consumption of beef, yet the minority religious leadership insists on continuing this cruelty to humiliate and hurt Hindu self-esteem.

Talibanization of Kerala’s cultural scenario began around the 1970s. In the State School Youth Festival, art forms like Moplah Song [Muslim] and Margamkali [Christian] were introduced as events of competition by Muslim education ministers [8]. A traditional Hindu art form, Kolkali, an event of competition in the youth festival, was transformed into an Islamic one through introduction of a new dress code - the Moplah dress like green colour lungi, belt and banyan [vest] – was made the event costume. Finally, all non-Muslim students were forbidden to take part in the State Arabic Youth Festival.

Muslim League Ministers holding the education portfolio call the ceremonial lighting of lamps as un-Islamic, though Muslim ministers of other secular parities light lamps without hesitation. People’s representatives who took their oath of allegiance contrary to the constitutional directive, i.e., in the name of Allah and Infant Jesus, continue as ministers, MLAs and MPs. If a Hindu took an oath of allegiance in the name of his personal deity, it would be termed a “gross violation of the stipulations enshrined in the Constitution of India.” The Kerala High Court’s decision of 3 March 2003 in the case against Umesh Challiyil [MLA 2001-06] is an example to this embargo.

The erection of the statue of Tunchathu Ezhuthachan, father of Malayalam language and literature, at his birthplace Tirur, now Muslim-dominated, proved problematic. It was resolved by erecting a symbolic representation of ‘an inkpot and brush,’ the official emblem of Jamaat-e-Islami. It is true Ezhuthachan used only stylus and Palmyra leaf for writing, never pen or ink, but the compromise was pure political appeasement.

Kerala Muslim society was more national until the 1960s, but has been steadily alienated from the mainstream, thanks to uninterrupted hawala money from the Gulf reaching fundamentalists. In dress code and social gatherings they are forced to keeping away from the mainstream. Only 10.3% of the older generation ladies used purdah; now 31.6% of the new generation have adopted purdah [9], which certainly suggests fundamentalist compulsions.

On 6 November 1999, Pope John Paul II in a sermon at Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi, stated, “Just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted on the soil of Europe, and in the second on that of the Americas and Africa, we can pray that in the Third Christian Millennium a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast and vital continent [Asia]”.

In the light of this ambition one should view Hindu antipathy to the minority approach of en masse dismemberment of a community and culture. This proselytism is suicidal so far as a civilization is concerned.

Under the guise of charitable service, a Kenyan national, Brother Bernard, on a tourist visa, and some nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, engaged in conversion through allurements in an economically backward Hindu settlement. They were opposed and blockaded at the entrance of the hamlet by some youths hailing from all non-communal political parties. This news is being vocally debated in mainstream Kerala newspapers. The police pressed charges against those who protested the conversion agenda of the Kenyan missionary, but recently the court acquitted all the accused in this case.

Three years ago, an American citizen, Rev. Joseph Cooper, on a tourist visa, publicly ridiculed Hindu gods and goddesses [10] at a Christian convention at Kilimannoor near Trivandrum. The public gave him a proper response, but the state government and opposition front provided him an escape route, even though he had violated visa norms and, like Brother Bernard, engaged in conversion of Hindus.

Hindu society faces multifaceted attacks from all anti-national forces. They must protect this nation from another division, and they must, above all, save the dying Hindu community of Kerala.

Notes
1] After his conversion to Hinduism he received the name Ramasimhan.
2] Muslims of this region is called so.
3] See EMS’s Selected Works, [Mal], Vol. VII, pp 356-57
4] Deepak Dharmadam, Keralam Feekararude Swantham Nadu, pp 59, 60.
5] Mangalam Daily, Kottayam,9th February 2009
6] Malayalam Varika, Editorial, Vol. VII, No. 12, 25th July 2003.
7] The New Indian Express, Kochi, 13 August 2003.
8] Not ignoring the fact that in the 53 years of Kerala’s history, for 49 years the portfolio of education is controlled by the minority religious parties or a person from a minority community who represents the secular parties.
9] Dr. K. P. Aravindan [ed], Kerala Padanam, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, Kozhikode, 2006, p135
10] He uttered that Lord Krishna was the first AIDS patient.
11] Malayala Manorama, daily, Kottayam, dtd. 19th March 2005
12] Keralam 2000, State Language Institute, Trivandrum, pp 908, 909

Dr. C.I. Issac is a retired Professor of History, and lives in Trivandrum. The article is based on the First P.A. Ramakrishnan Memorial Lecture delivered in Chennai on 8 March 2009
http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=428

Barbarians at the Gate!

Kanchan Gupta Sunday, February 22, 2009 (Pioneer)

There is sufficient reason to be worried about the gutless civilian Government in Pakistan abjectly capitulating to the Islamic fanatics of Swat Valley who have prohibited girls from attending school, ordered women to stay at home, instructed parents to give their daughters as 'wives' to the Taliban, begun flogging men in public squares, and will soon replace popular entertainment by way of films and music with stoning victims of rape to death in bazaars. With the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi — never mind that we are talking about the Pakistani variety of Mullah Omar's masked Afghan killers - virtually coming to power in Malakand division of North-West Frontier Province, reducing the secular ANP Government to no more than a nominal 'authority' forced to do Islamabad's bidding, it's only a matter of time before the geographic expanse of 'Jihadistan' increases to consume large chunks of what remains of Mohammed Ali Jinnah'smoth-eaten Pakistan.

It's really of little or no relevance that last week's 'peace deal' hinges on the imposition of 'Nizam-e-Adl', or shari'ah criminal law: Malakand won't be the only place in the world where limbs will be chopped off for petty offences or women done to death for the crimes of men. Nor should we be unduly impressed by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's description of the Taliban as "murderous thugs and militants" who "pose a danger to Pakistan, the US and India". Surely he hasn't forgotten that it was Benazir Bhutto who connived with the ISI to promote the Taliban, nor should he pretend to be ignorant of the fact that it was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who aggressively preached "Islam is the solution, the Islamic Bomb is the means". Having sent Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to the gallows, Gen Zia-ul-Haq could not but have aggressively pushed Islamism and its attendant evils. The poison fruit is now for the PPP and the people of Pakistan to relish.Mr Arun Jaitley of the BJP was not being facetious when he said that the Taliban are a mere five hours away from India. Parliament may have missed the point and the Prime Minister's flatterers may be upset that he should have compared the absentee head of Government as a 'night watchman', but it would be outright stupid to ignore the fact that the barbarians are at the gate. Let us also bear in mind that the Deobandi madarsas which produced the taliban who then went on to become the Taliban — in Pakistan and Afghanistan — are not entirely dissimilar to the madarsas which have mushroomed across the length and breadth of India, nurtured by both mullahs and their patrons in the 'secular'political parties, of which the Congress is just one example.

Let it also be said that the 'intolerance' of the Taliban which so alarms us is not specific to the 'murderous thugs' of Swat Valley and Kandahar. We have seen dissident Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen being hounded out of Kolkata by Islamic fanatics and forced to leave India by the 'secular' UPA Government which now wrings its hands and waxes eloquent on the dangers of the rise of Talibani fanaticism. If only such concern had been expressed over the editor and publisher of The Statesman being arrested for reproducing a scintillating articlefrom The Independent, written by Johann Hari, Mr Anand Sharma's vapidreaction to the fall of Swat Valley would have carried some conviction. If Pakistan is now paying a steep price for its duplicitous policy of using violent Islamism to further its strategic interests in Afghanistan and bleed India through a 'thousand cuts', we too shall pay a price for following a line of least resistance and legitimising appeasement by grafting what the Prime Minister described as "Muslims first" to the policies of an allegedly secular state.

There are other similarities which make India as vulnerable as Pakistan to the scourge of Taliban. For all its emphasis on subjugating the country to the supremacy of Islam, of being one with the ummah, and its repeated proclamation of the equality of Muslims, Pakistan has abysmally failed to deliver good governance. Elected Prime Ministers and military dictators have equally fleeced the country, pushed the masses deeper into poverty, made a mockery of the judicial system, and maintained a dissolute elite's hegemony over Pakistan's politics, economy and society. Islamism was once a useful means to distract the masses and silence critics. Islamism now has become a powerful tool to mobilise the masses against the elite. Real grievances and imagined victimhood have coalesced to create a fetid swamp that breeds the deadliest of germs, of which the Taliban is a particularly venomous species.

Cut to India. The vast Muslim underclass remains unaffected and untouched by the Prime Minister's "Muslims first" creed. While Mr. Manmohan Singh spends sleepless nights agonising over the plight of those suspected to be involved in jihadi terrorism, millions of Muslims spend sleepless nights — as do millions of Hindus — wondering where their next meal is going to come from. When the Government decides to reward the families of slain jihadis, it sends out a loudmessage to Muslims: Take up the gun, die in action, ensure a better life for your families. By casting aspersions on Delhi Police and accusing them of killing 'innocent' Muslims, the Prime Minister's Cabinet colleagues encourage moderates to turn extremists. When madarsas are euologised and Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools are relentlessly demonised, the ulema feel sufficiently emboldened to include hate in their teachings.

When the Government slyly allows the setting up of qazi courts, which dispense justice according to shari'ah, and lets them function without so much as a whimper of protest, it tells Muslims that India's secular justice system is incapable of protecting their interests. When a wholly illegitimate All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is allowed to dictate how Muslims should run their personal lives, the state abdicates its responsibility to its citizens. As in Pakistan, here too the Government has come to believe that Islam is a substitute for jobs, housing and health services. Azamgarh to Alappuzha, Dibrugarh to Dharwad, a fetid swamp similar to that of Pakistan's is spreading; the 'Indian Mujahideen' are the produce of this swamp.

The distance between Swat Valley and Islamabad is 160 km. Jamia Nagar is in Delhi!
(Mail to Author at : kanchangupta@rocketmail.com)

(Refer to site : http://sites.google.com/site/hindunew/challenges)

Krunvanto Vishvamaryam!