The Indian Blogosphere is abuzz with speculation about the blocking of all blogs hosted on Blogspot. It first came to my notice when one of friend asked me if I could view his blog (hosted on blogspot). I could, but apparently his ISP was blocking it. On doing some research I found that ISP’s like Reliance Infocom, MTNL, and Tata Internet Services were blocking blogspot blogs. Over the last couple of days more and more ISP’s have implemented the ban on blogspot. Now my ISP Dataone has also blocked blogs hosted on Blogspot (however the main site is accesible). As far as I know, there hasn’t been any public explanation given by the government, however since this comes on the wake of Mumbai blasts, many people feel that they are interconnected. It may be possible that terrorist are using innocuous looking blogposts for communication; however, mass banning blogspot certainly wont solve the problem. After all, there are several blog-hosting services like wordpress.com, livejournal, rediff. Its also very easy to anonymously set up blogs using free hosting services. And why only blogs ? Social Networking sites and forums will probably be more convenient for terrorists. So this kind of a mass ban on blogspot serves no purpose, if indeed this has been done to thwart terrorists. However, it’s probably better to wait for an explanation from the government before blaming them. I remember that in 2003, the government had asked internet service providers to block certain unlawful yahoo groups, but the idiotic ISPs ended up blocking yahoo groups in it’s entirety! Its highly probable that a similar incident has happened in this case also. After all, the Indian ISPs aren’t the smartest around.

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As Mumbaikars try their best to move ahead, and put this cowardly act of terrorism behind them, the question that is in every Indian’s mind is “What’s next ?“. The question is not whether another attack will take place but how soon it will take place.
To understand the gravity of the situation, first lets have a look at the major terrorist attacks since 2001[ Source : Wikipedia ].

2001 , October 1 : Terrorist target the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly. 35 people lost their live.
2001, December 13 : Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament. No casualty due to alert security forces.
2002, May 13 : 12 people are killed in the Jaunpur train crash in India, caused when Islamic extremists cut the rails.
2002, September 25 : Terrorist attack the Akshardham temple in Ahmedabad. 30 people died in the incident.
2002, December 21 : 20 people are killed in Kurnool when Islamic Extremists derailed a train.
2003, August 25 : 50 people are killed due to 2 bomb blasts in Mumbai.
2005, June 5 : Terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba attacked the Ayodhya Ram Janmbhomi complex in India. No casualties. All the terrorists were gunned down.
2005, October 29 : Multiple bomb blasts hit markets in Delhi, India, killing at least 61 people.
2005, December 28 : Terrorists open fire at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, killing a retired professor of mathematics.
2006, Match 7 : Bombings in the city of Varanasi leave at least 15 people dead.
2006, July 11 : Explosions in local trains in Mumbai.

This list doesn’t include the terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. There are terrorist attacks there almost every alternate week. On the morning of 7/11 itself 8 tourists were killed in 5 grenade attacks.

The length of this list proves the sheer magnitude of threat India is currently facing from terrorists. Lashkar-e-Toiba’s clout is increasing alarmingly. According to preliminary investigation reports this attack may have been carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba with the help of SIMI ( Students Islamic Movement of India ). Lashkar is now teaming with local and smaller terrorist organizations in several parts of India to carry out their action. This is a very worrying trend, as it increases their effectiveness by manifolds. However, the involvement of Pakistan in this is almost certain.
Yet, the most shocking thing is the reaction of the Government of India. In fact they have hardly reacted. All they do is to release a statement denouncing the act of terror and stating that we will stand united against Terrorists. Then as the days pass everyone forgets about it, till another attack takes place.
The only way of dealing with this crisis is by hitting back. By striking at the source of the problem. Doesn’t matter how much we strengthen our intelligence service, these kind of attacks will continue happening. The terrorists are bound to succeed at least one out of every 10 times. India is a vast and densely populated country with a lot of soft spots which can be easily targeted. To make matters worse it is surrounded by countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh where ISI as well as Terrorist groups have considerable influence. The security agencies has managed to thwart several attacks in the past. In May, this year 43kg of RDX along with large number of Grenades and AK-47 was seized in Maharashtra. However, it will fail , and when it fails the concequences will be disastrous.
It is no secret that terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, are based in Pakistan and is supported in various ways by the Government of Pakistan. In spite of several requests from India the Government of Pakistan has refused to take any solid action against these groups. India has been assaulted repeatedly, and every time it chose to ignore it and extend a hand of friendship to Pakistan only to be rewarded by another vicious attack. In this perspective let me quote what Pakistan’s foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri’ said after the blasts :

“Anything can go wrong anywhere in India or Pakistan. There are bomb blasts in India, there are bomb blasts in Pakistan. If you have these disputes, it enables negative forces in both countries to blame the other country and exploit the sentiment…I think we should try and take advantage of this improved atmosphere and resolve outstanding disputes, particularly the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Its worth nothing how he brought in the dispute over Kashmir while giving his reaction.

On July 12, the terrorist organization, Hezbollah launched an attack on Israel. Israel wasted absolutely no time in taking action on them, and opened fire on Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. When the World Trade Center was attacked 2,749 people died. America fought back by waging a war against terrorism. India has lost thousands of more people due to persistent terrorism. And we will continue to loose thousands of more citizens, till our Government stands up and takes aggressive action.

WAKE UP INDIA. WAKE UP.

Election is the greatest exercise in democracy.And the communist party in west bengal is adamant to make sure that they carry out this exercise in a way like no other government(they do have some competition from the neighbour though)

Here is picture from a local newspaper revealing as to how extraordinary this local governing bodies election was!

Surprised?Yes you probably would be.What is more surprising is that they have been doing it year after year and yet outside West Bengal very few people know about it.And this is exactly how even after dismal performences Communist parties have managed to stay in power for more than 25 years.They have ruled,and countless people have shed thier bloods.

Anyway,considering the track record of Communist parties in Russia,China and elsewhere this is not surprising.Democracy and Communism aren’t the best of friends.Are they?

Below i am quoting an Article from The Statesman
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Advani’s recent comment that “Jinnah was secular” has created a huge political storm in India.In the face of barrage of attacks from RSS and internal grudgings Advani has decided to resign.
But the question is was Jinnah secular?

Jinnah was an well educated Muslim who didnt belive in the supersitions and rituals of the religion.Initially he was an open minded individual.Infact he played an important role in the Lukhnow Pact.This Pact brought the Muslim League and the Congress closer together.During this period he was a secular man who wanted Hindu Muslim unity.

But things began to change after 1925.Gandhiji’s influence began to rise.The congress left constitutional means of agitation and switched to more effected and drastic means like Non cooperation.This pushed the League and the Congress apart.Due to clever British policy of divide and rule and his own jealousy and ambition Jinnah started to belive that no good could be done to the Muslims as long as Congress was at large.In later stages of his carrier he definitely wasnt secular.

Click here to read an interesting article published by The Telegraph on this topic.

Here are the excerpts

Even as late as 1925, Jinnah retained the political attributes that harked back to the early Congress. He remained committed to secular reform and national independence. When the young Raja of Mahmudabad spoke of himself as a ?Muslim first??, Jinnah chided him: ?My boy, no, you are an Indian first and then a Muslim.?? Jinnah began on the fringes of Muslim politics but he marked out for himself a space in Indian politics by becoming the sole spokesman of Muslims in India and also by making himself the champion of the two-nation theory……
…..He was a Westernized and secular man who contributed to the making of communal politics in India.

Click here to see excerpts from Jinnah’s address on Aug11,1947

Another interesting piece was in a Bengaly newspaper.It says that there was a rumour that when Advani was 20 he was among the group of people that had tried to kill Jinnah.Was Advani trying to compensate for the mistake he commited in his youth?

A couple of days ago I mentioned in this article that there are romours that Advani may have been among the group of People that had attempted to assassinate Jinnah in 1947.
But Pakistan has squashed those rumours saying that L.K. Advani?s name does not figure in the FIR filed in 1947 in connection with a conspiracy to assassinate Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

?The file was not in good shape but after looking at it, we have found that the name of Advani does not appear either in the statements of prosecution witnesses or in the list of accused who had absconded,? the official said.

Before Advani’s trip the Pakistani media had prominently featured these rumours.

According to reports, the FIR in question was filed at Jamshed Quarters police station in Karachi on September 10, 1947, and named 19 Hindus for conspiring to kill Jinnah.

According to the FIR, the RSS had sent Rs 52,585 to the accused persons to help them execute the plan. Cheques of Rs 1,500, Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 were also deposited in banks in the names of the accused. The file revealed that weapons and explosives were purchased with the money sent by the then RSS president, the weekly said.

The plan came to the notice of the police following a bomb explosion in Shikarpuri Haveli on August 10, 1947, in which one person was killed and several injured.

A tribunal had found the accused guilty of conspiring to murder Jinnah, the file said. However, its last two pages were missing.

Offcourse this issue had been relegated to the back seat after the controvery about Jinnah’s secularism sparked off.But now I have reservations about that allegation too.
This article by Deep opened my eyes.He says that Advani had never made any such comment.You can read Advani’s full speech here.

He said

Swami Ranganathananda passed away in April this year. The last time I met him was in Kolkata last year. He was 96 but still very agile in mind and radiant in spirit. Our talk, among other things, turned to his years and my years in Karachi. He asked me, ‘Have you read Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s speech in Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947? It is a classic exposition of a Secular State, one which guarantees every citizen’s freedom to practice his or her religion but the State shall not discriminate between one citizen and another on the basis of religion.‘

He says that he belives that this is the ideal that India, Pakistan as well as Bangladesh — the three present-day sovereign and separate constituents of the undivided India of the past, sharing a common civilisational heritage — should follow.

But no where in his speech he mentinoed that Jinnah was secular or that Pakistan is a secular state.And undoubtedly Jinnah’s speech on Aug11,1947 was secular.It is another fact that it never materialised.You can see some excerpts from the speech here

It seems like it is the media which should be blamed for this contreoversy.Any comments?

Stare at the underbelly of Asia and behold the Indian behemoth: 100 crore people?one-sixth of the world’s population?who live in a country one-third the size of the U.S., who speak more than a thousand languages and dialects, and who support more than 20 political parties in the world’s biggest and perhaps boldest experiment in democracy.
National Geographic Presents India?Fifty Years of Independence :Faces of India
Click here to visit the Gallery (5 pict)

The Taj Mahal a mausoleum in Agra, India,is one of the seven wonders of the world.It is considered as a symbol of the eternal love.The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built in memory of his wife, Arjumand Banu Bagam, known as Mumtaz Mahal (Persian for ?Elect of the Palace?), who died in 1631.

Recently there has been a lot of controversy over the ownership of the Taj.Recently it was declared Sunni Wakf property on the ground that it is the grave of a woman whose emperor husband was a Sunni.Untill now The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had been looking after it.

Hoever there are people who are raising an entirely different questions.
Was the Taj Mahal a Vedic Temple?

This is what the site has to say:

We have all heard how the Taj Mahal, which is considered one of the great wonders of the world, was built as the preeminent expression of a man’s love for a wife. That it was built by emperor Shah Jahan in commemoration of his wife Mumtaz. However, in our continuous effort to get to the truth, we have recently acquired some very important documents and information. There is evidence that the Taj Mahal was never built by Shah Jahan. Some say the Taj Mahal pre-dates Shah Jahan by several centuries and was originally built as a Hindu or Vedic temple/palace complex. Shah Jahan merely acquired it from its previous owner, the Hindu King Jai Singh.

This controversy is something I have explained more thoroughly in my book, “Proof of Vedic Culture’s Global Existence.” So, for those who want to know the details of this issue, you can find it there. And here is the photographic evidence that will provide greater insights into this. The point to consider is how much more of India’s history has been distorted if the background of such a grand building is so inaccurate.

Not only that the site also contains photographs and references to proove it’s point.

So,is this true?Or is the author of the page a budding Dan Brown?

Don’t forget to read the full article here